Classic Search in Vista?

[Mark Gillespie]

Just when you thought Windows XP "Bob Dog" search could not get any worse,
they throw the Vista search at you, which is totally useless. (I have just
spent 1/2 hour trying to get it to find hidden .svn files which I know
exist, but it fails to find).

Can you switch it off, and use the Win2k style proper search? I know it's
still beta, but the team responsible for the search abortion really need
to get a clue, the GUI is very busy, confusing, and badly broken, as it's
unable to search for hidden files.

 

[jonah]

Just when you thought Windows XP "Bob Dog" search could not get any worse,
they throw the Vista search at you, which is totally useless. (I have just
spent 1/2 hour trying to get it to find hidden .svn files which I know
exist, but it fails to find).

Can you switch it off, and use the Win2k style proper search? I know it's
still beta, but the team responsible for the search abortion really need
to get a clue, the GUI is very busy, confusing, and badly broken, as it's
unable to search for hidden files.

Yeah we know its a dogs breakfast, it is presumed that MS are working
on it, they must have had a huge amount of complaints about the search
facility so maybe they have taken notice.

"Bob dog" search is ok as long as you know exactly what you are
looking for and where it is , & I like the dog. I would rather have
the XP search, flaws and all than the new version.

Personally I am a bit suspicious of the various third patry search
applications that search your drives and the internet but I am just
paranoid, so try one of them.

Jonah

 

[mikeyhsd]

you need to add the drives/folders to the search indes.
Control Panel | Indesing | Global Setting button.
add in the locations you wnat/need indexed.
sit back and wait 2 days for indexing to complete, then search can find its tail.



(e-mail address removed)



Just when you thought Windows XP "Bob Dog" search could not get any worse,
they throw the Vista search at you, which is totally useless. (I have just
spent 1/2 hour trying to get it to find hidden .svn files which I know
exist, but it fails to find).

Can you switch it off, and use the Win2k style proper search? I know it's
still beta, but the team responsible for the search abortion really need
to get a clue, the GUI is very busy, confusing, and badly broken, as it's
unable to search for hidden files.

 

[Alan Simpson]

Search in Vista is a whole different ball game. You have to forget all about
finding lost files and Bob Dog. Search in Vista has nothing to do with that.
It's all about bringing files together into virtual folders based on
meaning, content, or relevance. It's about transcending filename and
location as the primary organizational structure.

But you can make it into Bob Dog, if you want to, by changing some options
on the Search tab in the Folder Options dialog box. But if you do, there's
probably not much reason to use Vista. Might as well stick with XP.

 

[Robert Simpson]

You're right Alan -- Search is the *only* upgrade in Vista that makes
upgrading worthwhile.

As a matter of fact, I've known lots of people that turned off the new Start
Menu in XP, and I've told them "if you're going to switch the Start Menu to
classic, there's not much reason to use XP. You might as well go back to
using Windows 95".

 

[Chris Game]

Search in Vista is a whole different ball game. You have to forget
all about finding lost files and Bob Dog. Search in Vista has
nothing to do with that. It's all about bringing files together
into virtual folders based on meaning, content, or relevance.
It's about transcending filename and location as the primary
organizational structure.

Interesting - where is this explained more fully?

 

[R. McCarty]

Usability/GUI issues are seldom the best reason for upgrading an
Operating System. Usually, it's the underlying code changes not
visible that improves the OS. (Security/Performance).

Personally, I use XP with Classic Theme and 99.9% of all Eye
Candy turned off. An Operating System is a platform for doing
things, it's presentation ( aesthetics ) isn't something I care about.
Most PC users do not know how to or make significant changes
to the GUI from the Out-of-Box Experience.

I would rather get somewhere faster, than look at the surroundings
while on the journey.

 

[Robert Simpson]

My point exactly.

Usability/GUI issues are seldom the best reason for upgrading an
Operating System. Usually, it's the underlying code changes not
visible that improves the OS. (Security/Performance).

Personally, I use XP with Classic Theme and 99.9% of all Eye
Candy turned off. An Operating System is a platform for doing
things, it's presentation ( aesthetics ) isn't something I care about.
Most PC users do not know how to or make significant changes
to the GUI from the Out-of-Box Experience.

I would rather get somewhere faster, than look at the surroundings
while on the journey.

 

[Bernie]

Hmmmmmmmmm I would have agreed with that before I saw Vista. I thought
XP out of the box looked like "My first Operating System". I didn't
adopt XP till it had been out for at least 2 years. I stuck with Win2k
and still have it on a couple of older boxes. It is fast and reliable. I
only started using it when I needed to see how the applications I was
developing worked on it. But I am a bit of a sucker for good looks and
Vista is the best looking Windows to date AFAIC. I wouldn't adopt it for
that reason only but I am flat out impressed with Aero.

 

[Mark Gillespie]

Interesting - where is this explained more fully?

OK, so how do power users who don't want all this fluff find hidden files
in a certain folder? Google Desktop Search I suppose.

It got me thinking.. Wouldn't it be cool, if there were a GUI setup
wizard, that tweaked settings based on some basic questions like what you
will be doing, and if your a newbie or power user etc, and if you
preferred the Win2k/XP/Vista shell. and then applied these settings as
the default. I sure then most people would end up with something close to
what they need. Perhaps something in the Welcome Centre like a
"UITuner(tm)"..

As it is, if MS apply some settings, the new users can't work it, the
other end, the power users get upset...


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[Chris Game]

"if you're going to switch the Start Menu to classic, there's not
much reason to use XP. You might as well go back to using
Windows 95".

Now that's just silly!

 

[Chris Game]

Interesting - where is this explained more fully?

No, still can't see how to modify search criteria for, e.g.
name="somename", filetype=".pdf", content includes "somestuff".
Helpfile doesn't help. Yahoo! desktop search is much better.

 

[Guest]

Interesting - where is this explained more fully?

There's an Alan Simpson who writes very readable books on technical
issues... I'd look him up using my favorite i-bookstore....