Windows 7

[chavvdarrr]

search, search, SEEEEEAAARRRRCHHHH
God, I swear I wanna get my hands on the neck of the man that decided how to "search" in 7.
Really, I can live with all the other "glitches", but this makes me mad
Of all tried software (including what was suggested in this thread), only IFNS (http://www.sowsoft.com/file-name-search.htm) satisfies me.

 

[Grall]

I've never really had successfully working windows search, it's been a crapshoot if it finds what I want ever since winxp. Typically, when I type the name for a file I *know* is there, I get zero results back, just because the windows indexing service hasn't indexed it, despite it reasonably should have because it's been present on the volume for months...

I have to do a 'manual' scan of volumes instead, which of course is vastly slower (especially these days since windows insists on looking inside zip archives and stuff also...)

It's just microsoft being incompetently stoopid, as usual. What else is new?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I've never really had successfully working windows search, it's been a crapshoot if it finds what I want ever since winxp. Typically, when I type the name for a file I *know* is there, I get zero results back, just because the windows indexing service hasn't indexed it, despite it reasonably should have because it's been present on the volume for months...

I have to do a 'manual' scan of volumes instead, which of course is vastly slower (especially these days since windows insists on looking inside zip archives and stuff also...)

It's just microsoft being incompetently stoopid, as usual. What else is new?

Windows by default only indexes certain standard locations. For anything else you have to explicitly tell Windows to index them. Once that's done, Windows will happily index it and searches for that location will be virtually instant.

I'm assuming this was deliberately done to prevent unnecessary bloat to the index database by not indexing locations a user never or rarely ever searches.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

I appreciate MS's wish not to bloat my databases, but then at least it could search its blasted index first and then automatically start scanning the non-indexed locations, instead of just telling me my file doesn't exist...

Kind of makes the index as a whole useless bloat, when it doesn't EEEVVERRRRR find anything because it doesn't index any useful locations...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'm not sure what the problem is, just tell Windows to index the locations you often search or locations you'll potentially want to find files in? Between the options of index everything and index select locations, MS decided to do select locations. It's up to the end user to determine what other locations Windows should index.

Heck, when searching a drive with non-indexed locations, there's even a little pop-up bar that prompts you to add locations to the index. BTW - you aren't by chance having Explorer open to C: drive, doing a search with the search box and expecting it to find something on the D: drive are you? Search through Explorer only searches the current location and all sub-locations, usually excluding hidden files and folders by default I believe.

There's a whole lot of things I don't like about Win7 (explorer not having sorting columns in anything other than details ), but I think the indexing was well done. Although some of the things linked to it I don't necessarily like all the time. Parsing every file in an unindexed location for media length, resolution, etc...

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

I'm not sure what the problem is

at least it could search its blasted index first and then automatically start scanning the non-indexed locations, instead of just telling me my file doesn't exist

just tell Windows to index the locations you often search or locations you'll potentially want to find files in?

I don't see why I should have to do that. I'd do better just turning indexing off altogether in that case since who knows when I need to find something in a location I didn't previously add to the index.

Between the options of index everything and index select locations, MS decided to do select locations. It's up to the end user to determine what other locations Windows should index.

Yea that's alright, but it's not alright that it only searches the index (if the indexing service is active) AND THEN NOTHING MORE, unless you deliberately tell it to forego the index and do a search directly on your volume(s).

It diminishes the usefulness of the index greatly.

BTW - you aren't by chance having Explorer open to C: drive, doing a search with the search box and expecting it to find something on the D: drive are you?

Ha, I'm not that stupid.

Parsing every file in an unindexed location for media length, resolution, etc...

Yeah, that's terrible. It should just list the file(s) first and foremost, then fill in further details if needed.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yea that's alright, but it's not alright that it only searches the index (if the indexing service is active) AND THEN NOTHING MORE, unless you deliberately tell it to forego the index and do a search directly on your volume(s).

I haven't run into this myself. If I do a search starting from "computer" which is the top of the tree, then it searches every hard drive and subfolder, indexed or not, as long as it isn't a hidden system folder.

I guess, I'm just not running into this problem. And yes it's quite noticeable when it has to search through non-indexed locations.

Regards,
SB