Help... search weirdness

[John]

Vista home premium with the updrade

I'm looking for folders whose name has the word "game" in them. If I
search using the word game it shows no folders or files with the word
game in them. If I search using the word gam (without the e) it shows
many folders and files with the word game in them with along with, of
course, a whole bunch of other junk with just gam.

This is true using regular search or advanced.

I'm wondering if others would get the same results. Or... what's the
answer to this.

thanks

John

 

[Retroman]

Vista home premium with the updrade

I'm looking for folders whose name has the word "game" in them. If I
search using the word game it shows no folders or files with the word
game in them. If I search using the word gam (without the e) it shows
many folders and files with the word game in them with along with, of
course, a whole bunch of other junk with just gam.

This is true using regular search or advanced.

I'm wondering if others would get the same results. Or... what's the
answer to this.

Hello John,

There's nothing weird about what you see. Normally, a search in Windows Desktop
Search 4 searches by word prefix only. To force WDS to search for a string that
appears anywhere within folder names, use this syntax:

kind:folder AND ~"*game*"

or:

kind:folder +~"*game*"

or simply:

kind:folder ~"*game*"

All three are equivalent and will return folders whose name contains "game". Their
sub folders will also be returned, regardless of name, when the option "Include sub
folders when typing in the search box" is enabled. The tilde character tells WDS to
use the asterisk as a wild card, even though it is within quotes.

Doug M. in NJ

 

[John]

Hello John,

There's nothing weird about what you see. Normally, a search in Windows Desktop
Search 4 searches by word prefix only. To force WDS to search for a string that
appears anywhere within folder names, use this syntax:

kind:folder AND ~"*game*"

or:

kind:folder +~"*game*"

or simply:

kind:folder ~"*game*"

All three are equivalent and will return folders whose name contains "game". Their
sub folders will also be returned, regardless of name, when the option "Include sub
folders when typing in the search box" is enabled. The tilde character tells WDS to
use the asterisk as a wild card, even though it is within quotes.

Doug M. in NJ

Thanks... where would I find instructions about all of that?
thanks again

John

 

[Retroman]

Thanks... where would I find instructions about all of that?

You're welcome, John.

Basic syntax is shown in the Vista help screen "Tips for finding
files". Morel details are found in these Microsoft WDS 4 pages:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/choose/tipsandtricks.mspx

That said, I have yet to find a WDS reference that is complete and comprehensive. The
trick of using the tilde character came from a forum post.

Doug M. in NJ