Windows Search

[Rii]

Has anyone ever managed to find anything using the Windows Vista/7 Search function? I'm tempted to simply disable it.

 

[trekkiedane]

^I don't know what the Windows Vista/7 Search function is... unless it's that thing that can find files on your system for you - I've had plenty of good use of that!

 

[stoneroses]

I tried using it at work and I hate it. We used to use macs now we use the awful Pcs.

 

[Peak]

Total Commander for the win in this instance.

I would be totally lost without it. Every time I have to use Windows Explorer I have no idea what i'm doing..

 

[George]

Chicken butt.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

Chicken butt.

Usually posts are expected to have content relevant to the topic at hand.

 

[Sparky]

If you mean the search bar in the start menu then yes. I use it all the time.

 

[Amaris]

Yes, all the time. I've had no trouble with Win 7 search.

 

[Rii]

If you mean the search bar in the start menu then yes. I use it all the time.

I find it useful for programs, but files? Forget it. Fortunately I have a fairly rigorous filing system in place already, so I rarely need to use it. Most occasions when I do, it's in search of some obscure system file; and it invariably turns out more productive to find a record of the file location online and navigate there manually.

Disabled it (in the interest of reducing the OS install footprint as it's now running off an SSD with limited capacity) and haven't missed it yet. Although I admit I have hit the Windows key and typed 'cmd' > Enter and then sat dumbly for a few seconds before going 'oh yeah' a few times now.

 

[George]

Chicken butt.

Usually posts are expected to have content relevant to the topic at hand.

The point of my ingenious non-sequitur-cum-reference was to point out that the topic at hand itself is irrelevant.

 

[Rii]

 

[TheGodBen]

I find it useful for programs, but files? Forget it. Fortunately I have a fairly rigorous filing system in place already, so I rarely need to use it. Most occasions when I do, it's in search of some obscure system file; and it invariably turns out more productive to find a record of the file location online and navigate there manually.

The search bar only checks for files in indexed locations, and the default indexed locations are your documents folder and the public folder. If you want it to find obscure system files, you're going to need to index the entire C drive, which you should be able to do from Indexing Options in the Control Panel. But that is going to increase the OS footprint, which is one of the reasons why MS doesn't have it on by default, the other reason being that they want to keep system files hidden from common users.

When I first got Vista, I did add the entire drive to the index, and while it didn't seem to slow down the machine too much, I kept getting "garbage" files whenever I did a search for something in my documents folder. When I upgraded to 7, I just kept the default index settings.

 

[Rii]

^ Even when I ask Windows to search non-indexed locations, it never seems to find anything. Oh well, it was all just too much hassle for too little gain. I have very little patience for dealing with PC issues these days.

 

[trekkiedane]

I find it useful for programs, but files? Forget it. Fortunately I have a fairly rigorous filing system in place already, so I rarely need to use it.

Whenever I DL an image (for instance) I name it according to the content - that way, I've discovered, I don't need to adhere too stringent to my own filing system; I can always do a search.

Same thing with bookmarks -it's so much easier to just put them (almost) all in one big folder and do a serch whenever there's some specific thing I'm looking for.

 

[John Clark]

^ Even when I ask Windows to search non-indexed locations, it never seems to find anything. Oh well, it was all just too much hassle for too little gain. I have very little patience for dealing with PC issues these days.

Agreed. I don't like it myself. I use Agent Ransack on my Win7 machine and it seems to do the job.

I do keep my pc well organised but the search that came with vista/win 7 just isn't effective enough for my tastes.

 

[Australis]

The point of my ingenious non-sequitur-cum-reference was to point out that the topic at hand itself is irrelevant.

Boy, you got that wrong. In oh so many ways.

On topic. It's one of the reasons why I still use & prefer XP. I can search by ext, name or text in file, or a combination thereof. And it works. I found Vista search worse than useless. I'm given to understand 7 search is more like XP

But tell me more about this Total Commander.