Nick FitzGerald said in news:
[email protected]:
Whilst your comments about Explorer and its search applet are correct,
I think you'll find that the addition of the "/a" swicth in the
command prompt "dir" command is _much_ more helpful (though even this
can be thwarted -- from memory directories with the hidden (and/or
system) attribute set are not traversed by the DOS command. Also,
much the same effect can be had with Explorer's search applet if you
set the appropriate options under the Tools, Folder Options menu
item...
The problem is that Windows XP Search program will miss files that do
not have the hidden and system file attributes set and neither do any
folders in the path to that file. It simply won't find some files.
I've even started the search on the folder under which the file was
located. I've already discussed this in other threads. The Search in
Windows 2000 did not encounter the same problems as the Search in
Windows XP. I had to get something to replace the Search program and
ended up using the freebie version of Agent Ransack. It can find the
same files that Search cannot.
The /a switch for the dir command is only needed if the file you are
hunting for has the specified file attribute. Since it is not an OR'ed
condition (to match those files with and without that extra attribute),
you end up having to do the search several times. However, the fact
that a 'dir <file> /s' (with no file attribute options) starting from
the root directory of a drive will find a file when a Search (with all
options enabled) cannot shows there are problems with the Search in
Windows XP. And this is even when NOT searching for any text within a
file. If you include a text string in the criteria to search within the
files then Search is an even worse program to use since it only will
then search specific filetypes. The Search in Windows 2000 was a better
tool.
