PeteCresswell said:
I probably do more than my share of file searches and find XP's
"Search Companion" irritating. I *always* do "All files and
folders" | "All or part of the file name".
Is there any way to just navigate to the root of where I want the
search to begin, press a key combination, type in the criteria,
and hit ENTER?
By "Search Companion" do you mean those stupid animated wizards, like a
dog walking around and barking at you? Why are you still using that
uberboobs interface to search? Turn it OFF!
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+xp+turn+off+search+companion
Almost all of those suggestions won't work for me because I opted to
*not* include the Search Companion during the Windows installation. To
disable it via the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState
"Use Search Asst"
Set its value to "no"
Alternatively, get the TweakUI powertoy for Windows XP and use it to
switch to the classic search pane for both Windows Explorer and Internet
Explorer.
So can't you, in Windows Explorer, right-click on whatever folder from
which you want to start searching, like the root folder, and select to
search from there?
I take it you are too young to remember or have used the command prompt
(DOS shell) to run console-mode commands, like 'dir'.
If you want a better search than Microsoft phucked up from Windows 2000
(the XP version will deliberately not find some files even when you
configure their search to include system and hidden files) then look at
FileLocator Lite (aka Agent Ransack). Sorry, it has a cutsy UI, too.
It integrates with Windows Explorer so you can right-click on a folder
as the starting point and search from there. It's free (the Pro version
is payware).
http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=home