Vista search

[M Skabialka]

I just spent over an hour trying to talk (by phone) an elderly person (70's)
through finding a "lost" document using the search engine. For half that
time I wasn't at a Vista machine, but finally had to boot up a test machine
that is very slow in order to understand what she could possibly be telling
me what was on her screen. Anyway, I have never seen such a complicated
search engine in my life, and trying to explain it to someone who just got
off Windows 2000 in was excruciating!



Whatever happened to being able to search for a file name, location and
date? She was working on a Word document all morning, saved it frequently,
then when she went to email it, can't find it anywhere. Talking her through
finding "Search" was hard enough.



The "Start Search" didn't find it, only the version as it previously was
saved a year ago. And she has opened so many other documents in her search
that it isn't in any recent file lists.



Then using the Search Window, having to go to Advanced options just to make
sure she searched the entire C: drive, and selecting Date, Date modified,
is, 5/16/2007, then the Search button got grayed out until she put a search
term in the start search box.



Holy smokes - what happened to ease of use? I will NEVER recommend Vista to
anyone who isn't a geek - it is terribly unfriendly to basic users, and not
intuitive in the least.



I'm even going to hate it when our office changes over to Vista - time for a
LONG vacation!



Progress - NOT! <sigh>

Mich

 

[gls858]

I just spent over an hour trying to talk (by phone) an elderly person (70's)
through finding a "lost" document using the search engine. For half that
time I wasn't at a Vista machine, but finally had to boot up a test machine
that is very slow in order to understand what she could possibly be telling
me what was on her screen. Anyway, I have never seen such a complicated
search engine in my life, and trying to explain it to someone who just got
off Windows 2000 in was excruciating!



Whatever happened to being able to search for a file name, location and
date? She was working on a Word document all morning, saved it frequently,
then when she went to email it, can't find it anywhere. Talking her through
finding "Search" was hard enough.



The "Start Search" didn't find it, only the version as it previously was
saved a year ago. And she has opened so many other documents in her search
that it isn't in any recent file lists.



Then using the Search Window, having to go to Advanced options just to make
sure she searched the entire C: drive, and selecting Date, Date modified,
is, 5/16/2007, then the Search button got grayed out until she put a search
term in the start search box.



Holy smokes - what happened to ease of use? I will NEVER recommend Vista to
anyone who isn't a geek - it is terribly unfriendly to basic users, and not
intuitive in the least.



I'm even going to hate it when our office changes over to Vista - time for a
LONG vacation!



Progress - NOT! <sigh>

Mich

How were you searching? Whats was wrong with using the new instant
search? See Link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/instantsearch.mspx

Sounds like you were making it much more difficult than it really is.

gls858

 

[Jon]

I just spent over an hour trying to talk (by phone) an elderly person
(70's) through finding a "lost" document using the search engine. For half
that time I wasn't at a Vista machine, but finally had to boot up a test
machine that is very slow in order to understand what she could possibly be
telling me what was on her screen. Anyway, I have never seen such a
complicated search engine in my life, and trying to explain it to someone
who just got off Windows 2000 in was excruciating!



Whatever happened to being able to search for a file name, location and
date? She was working on a Word document all morning, saved it
frequently, then when she went to email it, can't find it anywhere.
Talking her through finding "Search" was hard enough.



The "Start Search" didn't find it, only the version as it previously was
saved a year ago. And she has opened so many other documents in her
search that it isn't in any recent file lists.



Then using the Search Window, having to go to Advanced options just to
make sure she searched the entire C: drive, and selecting Date, Date
modified, is, 5/16/2007, then the Search button got grayed out until she
put a search term in the start search box.



Holy smokes - what happened to ease of use? I will NEVER recommend Vista
to anyone who isn't a geek - it is terribly unfriendly to basic users, and
not intuitive in the least.



I'm even going to hate it when our office changes over to Vista - time for
a LONG vacation!



Progress - NOT! <sigh>

Mich

If she saved it in one of the standard places, such as a subfolder of her
'Documents', then it should have been found more or less instantly via Start

Search.

If she saved it in a less standard place, such as C:\MyWordDocs, then it
won't be found via "Start>Search" (at least with the default settings),
since "Start > Search" only looks at Indexed Locations by default, which
essentially means subfolders of C:\Users (excluding C:\Users\Default)

 

[Guest]

I knock Vista for particular reasons, BUT, the Vista search is brilliant.
You DO have to know what you are looking for, that might be your problem!