Problems with Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax

[Peter Frank]

Hi,

I am fiddling around with all the parameters that Windows Vista Search
offers (Windows Vista SP2/German, Windows Search 4.0). I use this page
here as a reference:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx

However, here is my first problem:
Whenever I use the search term kind:, I never get any results no
matter whether I use kind:docs, kindics or anything else even though
the indexed locations definitely contain documents and pictures and
fulfill the other search criteria I use. As soon as I remove kind:
from my search terms, I do get results. Another similar search term
that does not work on my computer is type:? What could be the problem?

My second "problem" is this:
How can I use the search term ext: with more than one extension? Using
ext:doc works fine as well as ext:xls, but ext:doc xls does not work,
neither does "ext:doc or xls" or extdoc or xls). What would be the
correct syntax to search for files having either the extension doc or
xls?

Peter

 

[Peter Frank]

Hi,

I am fiddling around with all the parameters that Windows Vista Search
offers (Windows Vista SP2/German, Windows Search 4.0). I use this page
here as a reference:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx

However, here is my first problem:
Whenever I use the search term kind:, I never get any results no
matter whether I use kind:docs, kindics or anything else even though
the indexed locations definitely contain documents and pictures and
fulfill the other search criteria I use. As soon as I remove kind:
from my search terms, I do get results. Another similar search term
that does not work on my computer is type:? What could be the problem?

My second "problem" is this:
How can I use the search term ext: with more than one extension? Using
ext:doc works fine as well as ext:xls, but ext:doc xls does not work,
neither does "ext:doc or xls" or extdoc or xls). What would be the
correct syntax to search for files having either the extension doc or
xls?

I already found the solution to the second problem. I had to write OR
in all capital letters, i.e. extdoc OR xls).

My first problem may be related to the fact that my Windows version is
German but most of the English search terms work, so I am not sure.

Peter

 

[Retroman]

I already found the solution to the second problem. I had to write OR
in all capital letters, i.e. extdoc OR xls).

My first problem may be related to the fact that my Windows version is
German but most of the English search terms work, so I am not sure.

Hello Peter,

Yes, the operators AND and OR must be upper case.

On your first question, I can tell you that the "kind" and "type"
properties work as just expected on my US English Vista SP1 machine. I
would try the German equivalents instead of English. Perhaps MS has a
similar help page for German users of Windows Search.

Doug M. in NJ

 

[On Request]

You may find a solution at this URL:

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/advanced-search-techniques.aspx

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Peter Frank]

Hello Peter,

Yes, the operators AND and OR must be upper case.

On your first question, I can tell you that the "kind" and "type"
properties work as just expected on my US English Vista SP1 machine. I
would try the German equivalents instead of English. Perhaps MS has a
similar help page for German users of Windows Search.

Thanks for your reply. So, I now know that the problem is
language-related. Unfortunately, there is no similar help page for
German user of Windows search. The German help pages about Windows
Search that I could find using Google and the search function on
Microsoft's website were all much more basic than the one in my
posting above.
As you suggested, I will try the German equivalents although this is
some guess work because there are sometimes several possible
translations.

Peter

 

[Peter Frank]

You may find a solution at this URL:

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/advanced-search-techniques.aspx

No solution for problem No.2 but still helpful regarding the Boolean
operators (apart from which this page is almost identical to the link
I posted). Thanks.

Peter

 

[Jeff Richards]

snip <

As you suggested, I will try the German equivalents although this is
some guess work because there are sometimes several possible
translations.

Peter

If you use Group By (eg, Type) in an Explorer window and look at the labels
used for the groups you may be able to work out the language-specific terms
you need to use for your searching.