Many Files and Folders Hidden From Search

[jim evans]

I'm new to Vista. My account shows as an Administrator account.

When I search for various files and folders they do not show up in
Search, but they are definitely there. I have set the Folder Options
to show all hidden files, system files, etc.

What do I do to force the Search function to show ALL files and
folders?

jim

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Are you sure those locations of the system are being indexed? It has to be
indexed to show up in the 'Search results'. Check your Indexing Options in
Control Panel.

 

[jim evans]

Hi Jim,

The index will only show results for what you have added to the
"Indexed Locations". This tutorial will show you how to change add or
remove files from this.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69581-indexing-options.html


If you want to always see all files when you do a search, then a
non-indexed search will be what you want. You can disable Search Index
toa allow Vista to default to using only non-indexed searches. This
tutorial will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Thanks for the replies.

jim

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

No problem

 

[Donald L McDaniel]

Are you sure those locations of the system are being indexed? It has to be
indexed to show up in the 'Search results'. Check your Indexing Options in
Control Panel.

Not necesarily:

Search without using the Index. It will be a little slower (by a few
seconds), but considerably more thorough.

Additionally, make sure Folder options are set to display hidden and
system folders/files. ALL executable files are considered to be
system files by Vista, and are hidden by default.

Donald L.McDaniel
Please reply to original thread and newsgroup.
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[Celegans]

The search in Windows Vista is fundamentally flawed and simply cannot find
many files regardless of your settings. My guess is I cannot find 20-25% of
the old files on my machine because Windows simply won't search them. If
you have any files with a "wrong" extension Vista just ignores them. I have
wasted hours in 2007 with manual file-by-file searches since Vista's search
cannot find files I know exist.

The Windows Vista Advance search techniques page was intended to explain how
to use the new search, but it is now documentation about the failures of
search in Vista:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/05/09/advanced-search-techniques.aspx

So far only silence from Microsoft about any fix or workaround, and just
another reason to go back to Windows XP. Search in Windows 2000 was better.