As I've already explained, typical users do NOT have thousands of
unregistered file
types. In fact, most of them won't have any.
If you work on BOTH Windows and Linux it's not uncommon at all for Linux
applications to be agnostic about Windows file types. These files when
imported into Vista cannot be searched now since Vista simply ignores them.
It's not at all uncommon for scientific, medical, and engineering files to
not "obey" Microsoft's rules about file extensions.
Was was there a warning on Vista's box that its new search may not work if
you had too many files? Where's the warning that Vista's search may not be
appropriate to search raw scientific/engineering data? Microsoft doesn't
expect scientists or engineers to use Vista? Or what about companies with
legacy files from years ago that didn't "obey" the new rules that Microsoft
is imposing on search? Vista can't search all legacy files either?
Finding an extension that's not being indexed, and then adding it to be
indexed, and then finding the next extension, and adding that, is a terrible
solution -- but the only one Microsoft is providing now.
Furthermore, Win95-style searching is
excruciatingly slow when used on the terabytes of data that current
machines can
handle.
I'm not trying to search terabytes with Vista (yet). I just want to search
~200 GB on my Vista Ultimate machine.
I'm trying to search directories, that may even be quite small, and Vista's
search refuses to look for strings within files. You're not listening. I'm
trying to do search tasks that worked easily and relatively efficiently in
ALL previous versions of Windows. Why can't Vista do simple searches like
before? Like even Windows 95? Why does Microsoft decide which files I can
now search?
That's why Microsoft added the indexing option and made it easy to restrict
the types of files to be included. Of course, with any indexing system,
there is a
tradeoff between speed and accuracy. If you prefer accuracy, you have the
option to
turn off indexing.
There's no tradeoff. You cannot search files with the "wrong" extensions in
Vista. Microsoft doesn't give me that choice to look at all files. That
checkbox "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" in
advanced search in Vista DOES NOT WORK. Microsooft refuses to fix that bug.
It doesn't mean that for me. You really should read up on how search
works in Vista
before making such generalizations.
I have been fighting the problem of a flawed Vista search since last July.
I have intereacted with two Microsoft product managers, and one even
suggested I should request a "hot fix". But there is no way to request such
a hot fix from Microsoft unless I am a big corporation. And, BTW, big
corporations can downgrade from Vista to XP, but Microsoft will not grant
that right to the little people, even those of us that bought Vista
Ultimate.
Perhaps you have not learned the new syntax.
I don't need the new syntax usually to look for a single string in a set of
files. I know where the files are. Looking through the files manually
one-by-one on Vista is a REAL PAIN when Vista's search refuses to search the
files.
That new syntax might really be neat someday, if I could just search the
files I need searched.
However, I'm not going to waste any more of my time in trying to educate
you since it
appears that your mind is firmly closed on this subject.
Non-sequitur? You still haven't explained why simple searches using Windows
Explorer that worked in Windows 95 DO NOT WORK in Vista. You still haven't
explained why Microsoft won't grant permission to downgrade to XP Pro to get
a search that still works.
Bottom line: Why is Microsoft restricting search choices in Vista instead
of giving options? Why is Microsoft taking away a search capability that's
been in Windows since Windows 95?
C.E.
