Dave said:
Uninstalling MS Search was what I hoped to avoid, but I understand that that
may be the only option (which is sad) beyond a 3rd party tool. Thanks for
that tip though since I hadn't thought of it ...
I personally have no use for file indexers. I already keep my files
hierarchically organized. Searching through a long list of matches in a
search tool isn't any faster, for me, than just going to my folder tree
and finding the file(s). Indexers always seem to get the way, too. An
anti-virus program might lockup a file when indexing occurs, or visa
versa. I've encountered problems using e-mail client that bitched they
couldn't access their files because they were inuse (although I would've
thought that MS Search would use the Volume Shadow Service to make a
static copy of a file but that probably takes overhead for the setup and
I've still seen it incur waits until it can make a static copy).
I even tried a couple alternatives to MS Search, like Google Desktop
(with a UI designed for boobs and children) and Copernic (which was my
preference but I forget now why I got rid of it but would guess it had
to do with it still interfering with regular applications). Enhancement
utilities, just like security programs, are nice to have but not when
they get in your way. A better tennis stroke isn't worth having a
constant rash on your arm.
It seemed ridiculous to me to install MS Search just to make up for
Microsoft's poor choice to change how their file search utility works in
Windows XP (versus how it used to work in Windows 2000) where it won't
list a file in its match list unless it has a viewer to look inside it.
I can be right in the same folder as the file that I search on and can
use commands on it but the Windows XP search cannot find it. 3rd party
search tools find it, though. I found Agent Ransack an excellent
replacement for Windows XP search and it is extremely fast on subsequent
searches, plus I can use regular expressions to find exactly the file
that I want or exactly the string of text that I am searching for in the
files (Microsoft has yet to embrace regex since, oooh, it smacks of
Unix).
