Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

elko — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:43:25 GMT

How can i take advantage of a saved search from outlooks "instant search" interface?

Or within AQS?

Or is there any other way to essentially alias a query and then use that alias in another query (especially from within Outlook)?

Thanks,

Eric

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

bitserf — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:58:34 GMT

I can't believe you managed to screw up Search so incredibly badly in Vista.

On Mac OS X, I type in any old keyword, and if the file contains it, guess what, it shows up in the result list, since Spotlight updates its database in real-time.

If I can't figure out how to make your search on Vista do this (and I'm a programmer working on embedded systems for a living), I have no idea how any consumer in the field is supposed to make it work for them.

It annoys me because you're not stupid, you should be able to get this right, I mean, hell, I develop to Microsoft platforms for a living, and some of your divisions are really executing.

But Windows is not of one of them. It's just too obtuse and dysfunctional.

Adding to the index doesn't work. Checking all the myriad checkboxes to search even non-indexed locations doesn't work. Setting the default to look inside the files as well as filenames from Tools->Options doesn't work.

What the hell does, actually, work?

Think I'll be "upgrading" to XP for my desktop at work, and keep running OS X at home.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Edward Keogh — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:02:43 GMT

All depends on how you've set up Vista. Downside of Vista is that just about every feature has to be configured on installation. There is no generic "Search for Folder/by name/type/date" or whatever, and the Windows Vista Search Folder, at Start Menu, doesn't work on all set ups. At least, not on mine or any I know of personally!

Best resort is to rely on good old keyboard shortcuts, such as Windows Key + F.

I am reminded of the Insect House at London Zoo. Full of little bugs.

Eddie.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

UserInSoCal — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:25:31 GMT

I find Vista search absolutely horrible: one thing I really hate is that I can't sort by a column unti Vista finishes it's search - unlike XP, which I could sort on the fly. (Just did a search and found 1,681 results returned: took Vista 3-4 minutes to finish until I could order a column - and I have the latest hardware.)

No improvement to me.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

johnbrvc — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:12:01 GMT

The important part of your post was the last bit... "In some cases....". That was the trick. Evidently the cache was not refreshed. I had already done 1 & 2 as you indicated, but I did not restart explorer... Thanks.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Nick White — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:06:38 GMT

Hey johnbrvc: I consulted one of my colleagues on the Search team and he responded with the following advice:

1. Go to Indexing Options | Advanced | File Types | Add New Extension for '.nsi' (if not in the list) & use the Plain Text Filter ("Index File Properties and Contents"). You may have already done this; these associations are used by Search (for non-indexed locations) as well as by the indexer.

2. Go to Folder Options | Search (tab) | Always search file names and contents (might be slow). By default, searches in non-indexed locations do not "crack" the files; this setting will change that.

In some cases, you may need to logoff and back on after making these changes (or restart the explorer process), since Search may have these associations cached.

Hope this helps!

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

johnbrvc — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:01:47 GMT

I recently installed Vista Ultimate.

I have read the comments above (and other locations on the web), and can not seem to find a way to:

search for all files named "*.nsi" in a particular folder, that contain the word "regdll".

If the files are named "*.txt", the search works fine. It seems, that Vista search does not understand that a *.nsi file is text and its contents can be searched.

I changed the "indexed search" options to include a filter for "nsi" files as "Plain Text filter" (control panel->indexing options->advanced). However, this probably only applies to those directories that are "indexed". The directory in my search is not indexed (it is a network driver).

How can I search for "*.nsi" files, containing the string "regdll" in an specific (non-indexed) directory?

Thanks

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

capt'n rob — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:52:38 GMT

Initially, similar issues and frustrations with Vista search but because of my own need for speed and listening to 'tech experts' advising how to tweak Vista, I shut off the indexing function without understanding its effects on search. After the advice of a wise geek, the following advice restored my search function and...Vista search works great from the desktop, from the start menu, or inside a file. For example, now right clicking a desktop file, and selecting search starts a search on my Lenovo T61 Vista Ultimate. After shutting off indexing and before reindexing as is recommended here, the search function was inop from the desktop or inside a file no matter how much work I put into the advanced search:

Note: allow several hours for reindexing to be completed. The advice given to me:

1. The Indexing is corrupted.

2. The Indexing service doesn’t working properly.

To troubleshoot this issue, I suggest we first perform these steps:

Step 1. Enable the Indexing Service in Control Panel

=============================

1. Click the Start Button, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click switch to a Classic View in left panel.

3. Double-click Programs and Features.

4. Click “Turn Windows features on or off” in left panel. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

5. In the prompt window, select the check box of “Indexing Service”, and them click OK.

6. Restart the computer and check if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, please try to rebuild the indexing to troubleshoot this issue:

Step 2. Rebuild the Indexing.

===============

1. Click Start, type Indexing options in the Search bar, and press Enter.

2. Click the Advanced button in the Indexing options window.

3. In the opened window, please click the Rebuild button in the Troubleshooting column.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Lars — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:52:21 GMT

I’m using Norwegian Vista Ultimate.

Click the “Start”, select “Search”, in Location select "Local disk (C:)”, tick off "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files", enter "*.bmp" as search text, click the “Search” button. I expected that all bmp-files on the C-drive to be listed. However, bmp-files in my Pictures folder are not included... By changing the Location to "Pictures", the bmp-files are found. By ticking off "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files” I expected ALL files to be included in the search, not a; to me unknown; subset of the files.

Create a folder in Pictures. A search using Location "Local disk (C:)” will not find the folder.

I created two png-files in the Pictures folder some days ago. When I this morning clicked the “Start” button, then entered "*.png" in the Search box, it didn't find any png-files. 4 hours later, repeating the search, those two files are found. In both searches none of the 5000+ other png-files on the computer are found…

So far, I find searching in Vista just confusing. There are different ways to search - giving different results. I can’t work out what part of the file system that is searched. I can see some files are found, but could not be sure that all files are found. Is the command line cmd /b /s “mask” the only reliable way of searching the entire file system?

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

dmulvaney — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:35:38 GMT

1. I don't think your Search works. My dtSearch program consistently finds 440 files on a simple Boolean content search. SAP AND (IS-U OR CCS)Using exactly the same search, Windows Vista will only find 361 no matter what I do. It doesn't work on a small sub-set that I created with docs and rtfs and it will not find all of the files, even though the content is duplicated. 2. In Vista Search Results when I Select All (361) and try to Move or Copy them it goes off into the Ether with a Discovere 0 items (0 bytes)... message. On the subset the Move worked ok. This has cost me several thousand dollars in lost productivity.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Nick White — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:26:47 GMT

Hey stevenyc: I'd suggest you try this:

- Go to the Control Panel and type "Search" in the Instant Search field to bring up the Index controls

- Choose Advanced

- Select the Filetypes tab

- Make sure .PST has a checkmark in its box

That ought to help :)

And by the way, readers, you might note that MS first showed Desktop Search back in 2003, before Spotlight was incorporated into the Apple OS. In actuality, we didn’t rip off anything from them.

Further, Apple doesn't:

1) Let you remotely search other PCs with Fast Search

2) Allow tagging of files with meaningful keywords

3) Provide easy filtering, grouping or stacking of items

4) Integrate search with your browsing experience

This should better delineate the differences between Windows Vista's Desktop Search and OSX's Spotlight.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

stevenyc — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:41:54 GMT

I love Vista except for one thing. Searching in Vista is completly ripped off from searching in OS X, which is one of the worst things about the Mac. I used to always connect to a Mac from an XP machine if I needed to search for anything on the Mac, since XP's was so much better. My big issue is that since I've upgraded to Vista, I can't find any of the pst files on my machine. I've tried everything and the search always come up empty. If I browse to the one folder where I know several of the files are, I see them just fine, but Vista is blind to them. I yearn for the days where searching for *.pst gave me everything I needed. What can I do?

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Nick White — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:35:55 GMT

Hi again dj_bridges: if you did not install Acrobat directly from the Adobe site, you may not have gotten the Windows Vista-compatible version of the Reader, which includes iFilter. Note that if you visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html from a Windows Vista machine, you get a link to the Windows Vista version of the Reader, while if you go there from a Windows XP machine, you get the Windows XP version. So, you may need to re-install the Reader to ensure you have the correct version.

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

dj_bridges — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:42:23 GMT

I have installed to the latest Adobe reader, but as soon as I index the file then it stops searching within the file. When I remove the file location from the indexed locations, I can select to search within a file and it find what I am looking for. Any ideas why indexing reduces functionality?

re: Searching, part II: Using Search Folders

Nick White — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:54:48 GMT

Hey dj_bridges: We do indeed index the contents of PDFs, provided you have Acrobat 8 (or the latest version) installed; you may need an upgrade to the client.