Cannot get Vista search to work from Windows Explorer

[Jon Fleming]

I like lots of things about Vista. I like the ability to search for a
Start menu shortcut from the box above the Start button, which works
fine.

But I can't get it to find a file from the Explorer window. It just
doesn't find anything.

For example, see <http://tinyurl.com/3coedc>. Note there is a file
named"pauls expenses.xls" listed in the upper right Explorer window.
Note the lack of any such file listed in the lower middle Explorer
window. Now see <http://tinyurl.com/2ucfc7> and note the lack of that
file in the left Explorer window.

Can it really be this horrible or am I doing something terribly wrong?

 

[Dave]

A similar search on my computer returns results in a flash.

Is this folder under the Users folder? I can't tell. If it is, it should be
included in the Index, is it?

Perhaps your index is messed up... have you tried to rebuild it?
Start - Control Panel - Indexing Options - Advanced - Rebuild

and check the File Types, to see if .xls is checked

 

[David]

Can it really be this horrible or am I doing something terribly wrong?

Yes, search really is that horrible, I;ve been having all sorts of
issues with search on 2 Vista machines. I've had to finally resort to
turning off indexing and that solved the problem. I tried rebuilding
the index a couple weeks ago, but that didn't solve the problem.
There's only 2 methods I can use to find files: go to advanced search
and turn on "Include non-indexed...." or just turn indexing off
completely, so that i don't have to waste time bringing up the advanced
search function in the first place! MS blew it big time on Vista's
search feature. I'm shocked and disappointed that MS hasn't fixed this
in an update. and it's one of my biggest gripes with Vista.

Dave

 

[Terry W. Dotson]

But I can't get it to find a file from the Explorer window. It just
doesn't find anything.

Greetings Jon. I couldn't get it to work (along with other things)
until yesterday when I turned off UAC and rebooted. Search started
working along with drag/drop and the ability to access a shared drive on
an XP machine on the LAN.

Having a *tough* time with it here. I would reformat with XP in a
heartbeat if it were not for compatibility testing on our software.

Terry

 

[Jon Fleming]

A similar search on my computer returns results in a flash.

Is this folder under the Users folder? I can't tell. If it is, it should be
included in the Index, is it?

It's not under Users, but it's my Documents folder. I don't keep data
on the system disk. It's indexed.

Perhaps your index is messed up... have you tried to rebuild it?
Start - Control Panel - Indexing Options - Advanced - Rebuild

I haven't tried that; it fails in non-indexed locations in the same
way. I'll try it.

and check the File Types, to see if .xls is checked

I'll check ... but it fails for all files.

 

[Jon Fleming]

Greetings Jon. I couldn't get it to work (along with other things)
until yesterday when I turned off UAC and rebooted. Search started
working along with drag/drop and the ability to access a shared drive on
an XP machine on the LAN.

Having a *tough* time with it here. I would reformat with XP in a
heartbeat if it were not for compatibility testing on our software.

Hey, Terry, small world. I have UAC sort of half-way off; I have
TweakUAC installed. I suppose I could try it without that. But turning
off UAC after months of use appears to be a disaster; 'cause it turns
off registry redirection and all sorts of programs lose their
settings. E.g. Opera.

I can access shared drives on XP machines fine (although it
disconnects drive mappings regularly), but I can't drag/drop in many
situations.