Why doesn't search really SEARCH?!

[RW]

Running Vista Home Premium on Compaq Presario notebook


This is my first Vista machine and I find its inability to do a "proper"
search a stunning shortcoming. Or am I missing some secret setting?

Scenario- I want to do a search of my entire hard drive for a file. I only
know the extension so I enter .snf and the results are 1 file found. Wrong!

First of all, the results don't show me the complete path to the file.
Instead of displaying C:\Users\owner\Documents, it displays C:\Users\owner.
That's it. I either have to flail around and manually check all the owner
folders or right click and look at the file's properties. Why won't Vista
display the FULL path to the file?

Secondly, and this is really disappointing, is that I KNOW there are at
least 70 more .snf files on my C drive that Vista apparently can't locate! !

I never had this search problem with XP. You ask XP and it tells all.
Simple. So what gives with Vista?

Is there some way to make Vista do a COMPLETE search and display ALL found
files with FULL PATHS?? Isn't this what computers were designed to help us
do?

 

[RW]

Shawn,

You are the man!

Thanks a million,

R

 

[RW]

Thanks Propman. The "problem" is now solved!

Right click on file name - Open File Location


Start --> Help and Support --> Search "Search Everywhere" for suggestions
on tweaking search/display options.

Start --> Search --> .snf --> Click on "Search Everywhere"


Locates .* files on my Vista systems just fine....probably have to tweak
your settings a bit using the information provided through the "Help and
Support" center.

 

[fatsteve]

I second that! Great info there! Normally I just let it do it's dud
search first then choose advanced search and select "search non indexed
items" and finally the search results appear. Works the way it should
now.

 

[James Matthews]

Like search engines it searches through an index. The classic way of
searching files is to list the file directories and search through them.
This was slower and the index method is nicer. However you may still add
items to your index and then search will be faster.

 

[William Yanaire, ESQ]

Yeah it's widely known

Goto Mythicsoft's website and get either free AgentRansack or
FileLocatorPro ($40).

Free things aren't too advanced & AgentRansack developmen tstopped in
2003, it's still better than Vista BUT for $40 you would get truly great
FileLocatorPro used by FBI, CIA, Shipping companies which do a lot of
packages tracking, Airlines, etc. A great company.

I am an Electrical Engineer, having NOTHING todo w/MythicSoft in case you
start imagining I have a stock in the company.... NO, just sharing facts I
found after being frustrated with Vista's search a month ago when I first
started using reatrded OS after WIndowsXP....

You have it all wrong. Working the MOP and BUCKET at Taco-Bell doesn't
classify you as an electrical engineer. I can see why you call yourself
that. When you plug in the floor polisher, it has an electric cord
therefore you think you are an electrical engineer. I have news for you.
You are a Junior Custodian! Think outside the BUN.

 

[JEWboy]

Yeah it's widely known

Goto Mythicsoft's website and get either free AgentRansack or FileLocatorPro
($40).

Free things aren't too advanced & AgentRansack developmen tstopped in 2003,
it's still better than Vista BUT for $40 you would get truly great
FileLocatorPro used by FBI, CIA, Shipping companies which do a lot of
packages tracking, Airlines, etc. A great company.

I am an Electrical Engineer, having NOTHING todo w/MythicSoft in case you
start imagining I have a stock in the company.... NO, just sharing facts I
found after being frustrated with Vista's search a month ago when I first
started using reatrded OS after WIndowsXP....

Vista search is great in appearance, sleek, find smultimedia files, etc,
search syntax is the first thing you notice after WinXP; but it fails to
find special strings WITHIN FILE contents of uncommon files e.g. exe, dll,
bin, iso, ipt, iam, other CAD formats or arbitrary binary file.
has nothing todo with my ability to use it, you dont know who I am... too
long to explain, it was admitted by Microsoft that Search is well.... great
for multimedia, byut not fo rmy type of technical work.

SO I got FileLocator Pro, a company xisting since 1980's to fix expand every
Windows search abilities. since Windows95 thru Windows7.

 

[JEWboy]

All the suggestions WIndows-obsessed man gave you don't work and NOT needed
to bea heard about here. I knew it all.
I've been doing computer for longer than you'v ebeen alive!

Vista search simply fails to find rare, esoteric type of targets. I can
find pioctures, oK fine, go play in the next sandbox. I am searching
technical stuff - drawings, CAD models, binaries, executables - for strings
enbedded in them, WIndowsXP could do tha twith a registry patch or no patch
in SP2 (alredy included), but Vista can't!
So if you find things with Vista, I assure you coul dbe other thigns it
didn't show you.

NCan't be trusted for mission-critical searches like criminal suspects,
shipments, spacecraft data, etc.
That's where FileLocator Pro works.

 

[+Bob+]

Like search engines it searches through an index. The classic way of
searching files is to list the file directories and search through them.
This was slower and the index method is nicer. However you may still add
items to your index and then search will be faster.

Search engines like Google have to visit over 50 million distributed
servers on a world wide network of unknown proportions and collect
hundreds of millions of pages of content, then provide a tool that
will allow users to quickly search through them. A search database
(index) is not only warranted, it's required.

On your own computer you have a dedicated processor searching a known
set of drives (rarely more than 2). Unless you spend gobs of your time
searching every day, an index is totally unnecessary. Real time
searching is more accurate and doesn't waste system time indexing
content you'll never need to look at.

Add to that the fact that Vista's search tool has a convoluted, overly
complex interface that only works properly when you study its "hidden"
features, and that it specifically excludes certain file types and
folders that MS decided you didn't need to search (all without
exposure to the user)... and you have Vista's absolute worst
"feature".

http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

 

[+Bob+]

Yeah it's widely known

Goto Mythicsoft's website and get either free AgentRansack or FileLocatorPro
($40).

Exactly. I need a search tool that finds files without exception.

 

[fatsteve]

Real time searching is more accurate and doesn't waste system time indexing
content you'll never need to look at.

Sums it all up right there.

 

[JEWboy]

funny thing... when i see your name, i read 1st word of your post, literally
ONE word, then switch to another thread. So you wsste efforts, pal

 

[Paul A. Crable]

This is my first Vista machine and I find its inability to do a "proper"

search a stunning shortcoming. Or am I missing some secret setting?

I am glad to hear you are as baffled by Search as I am. I'm afraid I've give
up on it, and instead:

1. Open the DOS box (command prompt)
2. Type "CD \" to get to the root of the drive
3. Type "DIR <file> /S | MORE" where <file> is the file I am looking for,
such as "mumble*.exe". The answers come back a screen at a time.

Crude, granted, but it works for me.

I think this is a case of too many Microsoft programmers without enough to
do.

Paul

 

[+Bob+]

What you mean is that you can only understand one or two words from the
post. I know you are struggling but you better concentrate on your job at
Taco-Bell. You should ask your manager when you might be promoted to work
the fryer. Tell him/her that you will study real hard for the next 9 months
and you just might be ready for that complicated task! LOL!

You seem to know an awful lot about Taco Bell. You must be the one who
really works there.

 

[William Yanaire, ESQ]

You seem to know an awful lot about Taco Bell. You must be the one who
really works there.

Nope. Wrong again.

 

[Eric]

Yes, if you want it to work a certain way, you should RTFM.
You can operate the latest devices (iPhone?) without reading a manual, but
you're likely to have trouble figuring out how to do certain things.
You can't just jump from WinXP to Vista and expect to know everything. MS
rewrote the book. For example menus are hidden by default on all sorts of
windows now..

 

[+Bob+]

Yes, if you want it to work a certain way, you should RTFM.
You can operate the latest devices (iPhone?) without reading a manual, but
you're likely to have trouble figuring out how to do certain things.
You can't just jump from WinXP to Vista and expect to know everything. MS
rewrote the book. For example menus are hidden by default on all sorts of
windows now..

When you have to pull out the manual to use a friggin search tool that
worked just fine for everyone way back in Win2K, something is wrong
(and it's not the user).

 

[Eric]

It searches, doesn't it? You don't HAVE to pull out the manual to get it to
search the way you want it to, you could play around with it until you find
the option if you have a brain. It just lets you know up front what you
need to do to make everything work exactly the way you expect it to work if
you read the manual first. Do you buy a new toaster and complain the toast
doesn't come out perfect golden brown because you didn't read the manual or
check it for options and you didn't bother to adjust the darkness setting?
Do you buy a new cell phone and complain the default ringtone is different
than your old phone?

 

[Eric]

Many things in Vista are hidden. Many Vista included apps don't have menu
bars by default. If you read the manual maybe you can find a way to unhide
them.

 

[Eric]

Strange, I wrote replies to this thread 3-4 hours ago and they're not
showing. They are showing in my Sent Items folder, and replies I made after
them in other threads are showing.