Permanently change Search agent?

[regenesis0]

My laptop was stolen on friday, and with a 90% chance of never seeing
it again, I bought a new one. Sadly- this one had Vista, not XP, and
a downgrade was not available.

I've mitigated much of what I hate about the interface changes, but
I'm stuck on the 'Search' function, which appears to permanently stuck
in 'doing a bad impression of Google Desktop Search' mode. (I like
GDS too- but it has to be used in conjunction with a REAL search
function, each one used for the take appropriate to it!)

Is there a way to make the Search Agent... point to a 3rd party
program instead? Based on recommendations I've installed Agent
Ransack (http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/) which shows up as a
choice in the 'search' menu on my start menu... is there a way to make
it my DEFAULT choice? Is there a way to make the Search field at the
top of Windows Explorer menus point to a 3rd party Search Agent?
Barring that is there a way to make it disappear? (Because frankly,
if I want to perform a Desktop Search- I'm gonna use Google Desktop.
I don't want to end up in the Vista search agent again-- ever. It
gives me hives.)

Finally- can anyone recommend a search program /other/ than Agent
Ransack? Its basic mode would be PERFECT... except that it lists
drive letters and not titles. I have a LOT of external hard drives,
flash drives, etc and frequently have more than 1 connected at once.
Not being able to tell which drive I'm searching is kinda
dealbreaker. (This arrangement also serves to severely impact the
usefulness of indexed searches- because the results it points too are
often no longer connected, or are now connected as a different drive
letter.)

Thanks to anyone who replies!

-Derik

 

[Fred B.]

Google took Microsoft to court over the "search" options thing months ago.
If I recall, Microsoft agreed to make options to choose an engine
available with SP1 which is due to be released shortly.

In the meantime I've been using Google Desktop Search from the taskbar.
Works far better than Vista's generic thing. It currently has over 300k
items indexed whereas Vista sees about 35k even after I tried adding
directories manually.

Only caveat I see right now is that Google can't run properly if you're
"switching" users all the time. You MUST logoff and then login under the
new user ID or Google will get all messed up.


Hope this helps a little.


Regards,

 

[BChat]

I have Google set as my default search in IE and FF - works great.

My laptop was stolen on friday, and with a 90% chance of never seeing
it again, I bought a new one. Sadly- this one had Vista, not XP, and
a downgrade was not available.

I've mitigated much of what I hate about the interface changes, but
I'm stuck on the 'Search' function, which appears to permanently stuck
in 'doing a bad impression of Google Desktop Search' mode. (I like
GDS too- but it has to be used in conjunction with a REAL search
function, each one used for the take appropriate to it!)

Is there a way to make the Search Agent... point to a 3rd party
program instead? Based on recommendations I've installed Agent
Ransack (http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/) which shows up as a
choice in the 'search' menu on my start menu... is there a way to make
it my DEFAULT choice? Is there a way to make the Search field at the
top of Windows Explorer menus point to a 3rd party Search Agent?
Barring that is there a way to make it disappear? (Because frankly,
if I want to perform a Desktop Search- I'm gonna use Google Desktop.
I don't want to end up in the Vista search agent again-- ever. It
gives me hives.)

Finally- can anyone recommend a search program /other/ than Agent
Ransack? Its basic mode would be PERFECT... except that it lists
drive letters and not titles. I have a LOT of external hard drives,
flash drives, etc and frequently have more than 1 connected at once.
Not being able to tell which drive I'm searching is kinda
dealbreaker. (This arrangement also serves to severely impact the
usefulness of indexed searches- because the results it points too are
often no longer connected, or are now connected as a different drive
letter.)

Thanks to anyone who replies!

-Derik

 

[regenesis0]

Google took Microsoft to court over the "search" options thing months ago.
If I recall, Microsoft agreed to make options to choose an engine
available with SP1 which is due to be released shortly.

In the meantime I've been using Google Desktop Search from the taskbar.
Works far better than Vista's generic thing.

Well it would HAVE to work better than 'Vista's Generic Thing',
wouldn't it?'

This is a search I performed today. I asked it to search in a folder
on my I: drive (circled)
http://www.emopanda.com/tmp/vista_search.jpg
All those other circles? Read "C:/".

It's not even searching the designated area FIRST, the responses I
wanted were halfway down, in no particular order at all. About 1/3 of
the files returned NO LONGER EXISTED, since I'd moved them off my
desktop since they were indexed, but they still came up as search
results at the old location.
I did a search later that came up with NO results on the requested
drive, despite files with that name existing there.

Microsoft released an operating system with no functioning search
capability. How is that... even LEGAL?

-Derik