Hello Nick,

very useful article, thanks!

is there a typo here? you have or in the type this and not in the find this

microsoft or windows

Note: The word or must be in all lowercase letters.

Items containing all three words—microsoft, not, windows—but not necessarily in that order

a little bit useless...

Should I open always this site to see all possible search terms?

Sorry, but I am to stupid to remember all this things.

This should be somewhere in the Vista Help or better, there should exist something like a "query builder".

How do you make Advanced Search display by default, instead of having to select search pane first? (from both w/in explorer and from the startmenu search)0

Hey gkeramidas:  thanks for catching that, I've made the correction :)

Hey piaqt:  There is no way to permanently turn on the advanced search pane, but we may consider adding this change in future.  Meantime, a quick way to open the pane up is to run the first term of your search first.  Below the results there's a selection for "Advanced Search."  While not a one-step operation, this saves you from having to go to Organize/Layout, etc.

Hi, useful thanks. I work on a network (usually but not always as offline files). As network locations are not indexed, the search feature brings no results. I have to search / advanced / click "search non indexed..." to get any anthing. Any quick fix?

Hey benrolfe:  

I just checked with a member of our Search team and learned that they index all items that are pinned in the Offline Files cache, whether automatically by Folder Redirection or manually by selecting the "Always available offline" option in Windows Explorer.  

You should confirm that you have Offline Files enabled to determine that this is indeed the case.

i am almost give up with my vista, i am not a computer savvy person. Just bought a laptop with windows vista home premium. I am dealling with lots of files that are pretty much unorganized. With xp, i can always do advanced search by looking for a particular folder that contains particular words. How can i do this with vista?  

Hey, sorry if this functionality is documented somewhere and I'm just not finding it, but this problem is starting to make me insane: I want to find all files in a folder (including subfolders) with the series "Miller" in the file name, for instance "TheMillerAndHisWife".  In XP I just right click on the folder select search enter "miller" in the "search for files and folder named:" box hit enter and there they all are, in vista I get nothing, is there a search parameter I'm missing?  If not is there a way to do this kind of XP style search in Vista?

babyboo, once your computer is indexed by Windows Vista (and it should happen fairly soon after first setting things up), you should be able to use any of the search boxes to search across all your files.  

For example, click the Start Orb, then in the search box at the bottom of the Start menu, type in the word(s) that you want to search for.

If that's not what you're looking for, please post back with some more detailed information and I'll see if I can help more.

slimscraggle, I'm wondering if it's because Search is seeing a single word as "TheMillerAndHisWife".  

If this weren't the case, then Search would pick up every file that has 'the' or 'is' or any other full word within any title.  

To help narrow it down a bit, what happens if you do the actual search using ""TheMillerAndHisWife".  Does it find the file?

slimscraggle and babyboo, one of the people I know at Microsoft gave me this.  It should give you the results you're looking for.

Windows Vista absolutely lets you very easily search a folder (and its subfolders).  It does so without forcing you to right click and go into a context menu.  Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you have a folder A with files in it as well as sub folders X, Y, and Z, and you want to find all files where the name “Miller” in it.  All you need to do is:

1) Navigate to folder A

2) Type the following – “name:Miller” into the Instant Search field (search field in the top right corner of the explorer)

That should find everything in A and X, Y, and Z that has the name Miller in the file name.  From there, if you want to filter out a particular type of file in the results, just use the Type column control.

Please post back if this doesn't do it for you.

Anyone know how to filter search results to just results in OneNote 2007?  I'd like to be able to use the Vista search interface but to filter results only to OneNote.  I've tried a few things like:

kind:notes

ext:one

store:onenote

without success.

jcase4, try this and let us know if it works for you -

Type: OneNote

terri, thanks for the response, sadly, I'm still getting no results.  I really don't understand what's going.  I've copied the same folder over to my xp box and when I search on it I get hundreds of results but when I search in vista I get none, zip, zilch, zero.  It's extremely frustrating as I count on this functionality.  Can someone please help?

hello?

here's another example:

I have a folder full of pictures titled #-med or #-lrg (where # equals some number), I type med in to just see the medium size pictures in hope of deleting those but, inexplicably, vista tells me there are none

Could I please get some help here?

Hey slimscraggle:  sorry that it looks like we've gone dark -- we're in fact working with folks internally to see if we cannot find a resolution to your issues, as by all accounts, they should not be occurring (I know that that statement doesn't help you much, as of course you're having to deal with them nonetheless).  I will keep you posted.

thanks for the respons

will check back

well, mysteriously, I can now find files with names like "10-med" by searching for "med" but I still can't find files files like "TheMillerGirl" when putting a search in for Miller.  Also even though I can get a results for "med" if I try and do a select all (Ctrl+a) and then delete it doesn't work.  I have no problems doing this in XP.  Are there any solutions to these problems?  Is there any way to switch between the vista style search and the classic XP style search?

Although I think someone has already asked this, I don't see an answer.  I cannot figure out how to search for all Word documents that contain a specific word in the contents of the documents.  I have tried typing the word in the search box, but that absolutely does not work for me.  That is, even when I type a word that is in a document that I just saved: no results.  I find it frustrating that the advanced search has no field for this even though XP did.  Very maddening.

Sorry for the delay in the response, slmscraggle and jhester, but we've been checking with the people on the Windows Search team.  I just got this response.  Please see if it helps - WRT the syntax:

type:document  is a little ambiguous, since it will return “Adobe Acrobat Document”, “XML Document”, “XPS Document”, etc.  in addition to “Microsoft Office Word Document”

The following would be more precise:

ext:doc miller     (note that since we auto prefix match, ext:doc will also match on ext:docx)

*.doc miller

type:word miller   (this is still ambiguous, but less so.  since, this will also match on “WordPerfect Document” as well)

type:”word document” miller

Although we used slimscraggle's search term, it should work with any other one as well.

I'm still searching for a way to get Windows Vista search to work.  One the fixes for the flawed Windows XP search (from

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173/en-us) was to set the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions DWORD value to 1 in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlContentIndex

Why doesn't this work in Windows Vista?

Hey Sunflower34:  let me address your questions individually, as it seems there is misunderstanding about the use and functional extent of Desktop Search in Windows Vista.

- white space in Start search dialogue

Windows Vista search does differ from Windows XP because there is white space in the Start search experience that serves no purpose -- I'll grant you that.  But, being able to find your files in under 2 seconds far outweighs the annoyance of that white space.  In any case, that white space is instantly filled with results, much faster than competitors' products can return data.  But, know that we’re always looking for user experience feedback and that this is something that we’ll be addressing in future development, despite the fact that I'll assert that it doesn’t truly detract from the usability of search within our product.

- strings as part of a filename file and user span of control

Our search function searches both the contents of a file and its filename; in most cases, this yields exactly what the user is looking for, and right away.  In some cases a user will want to search for a string in a filename *or* within a doc, and we have provided the ability to do this.  One option is to bring up the Advanced Search pane.  Alternatively, you can learn some of the quick query syntax (like 'name:foo') to help narrow down the search.  In the vast majority of cases, people just want to find their files and don’t want to have to think about whether or not a string is in the filename or within a doc.  They just want to find their document quickly and efficiently.  We are optimizing for that case, rather than presenting the user with a smattering of options before they see the search results.

In this way, we do not take the control away from the user, but instead we are clearing up the user experience so that every user isn’t presented with a myriad of choices every time they want to find a simple document or email.

- search for file with 'path' in doc contents

Here’s one way to resolve your search:

1) Go to Computer, CD Drive, and open the CD in Explorer view

2) Type: 'path' into the Instant Search field

3) Use the Type column control to check '.bat' file type

If you perform this specific search often -- or even if you want to have a slightly more specific search saved, that you can then progressively filter after executing the initial search --, I'd save the search as a Search Folder and get the habit of executing searches from there to save time.

- searching for file 'test.R' containing word 'special'

Window Vista’s search, like any desktop search, can only "crack open" document types for which is has an Ifilter.  .txt has a built in iFilter; have you tried installing an iFilter for .dat and .r files (likely sourced from a third party in the latter case)?

In the case that there are no 3rd-party filters for these extensions, you can use the text filter, which can be set using the Indexing Options Control Panel | Advanced | .dat (Index Properties and File Contents).  If an extension is not in that list, you can add it via the same dialogue box.

Hope this helps you in your searching as well as clarifying the extent of the search functionality in Windows Vista.  If you have further questions, I'd suggest taking them offline by sending us an email.

It's so frustrating dealing with Microsoft.

From your response it seems that Microsoft does not care that they are taking away a needed capability for use with scientific files, and that a third party search tool is my only hope to search my files. For now, I'll run Windows 2000 on a VMWare box to be able to find files that Vista cannot find -- what an incredible, unnecessary pain because of a flawed Vista design.  I don't need this search feature every day, but now I cannot run it at all with Vista.

I'll eventually have to pay the $100 or so for a 3rd party search tool since Windows Vista Ultimate is not very "Ultimate." The "Simple Search Scanner" will cost me about $100 -- http://www.kryltech.com/scanner.htm. You guys refuse to even let Windows Explorer for Windows 2000 work under Vista.  This wasn't a technical decision, rather a marketing stiff arm, because you are taking choices/capabilities away from customers needlessly.

I am tired of paying Microsoft for screwing up things that worked as an excuse to take more of my money. The few improvements in Vista that I like are more than offset by the grief and lost productivity that Vista/Office 2007 provides.  

Did your software engineers learn this in school?  "Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming."  Donald Knuth

Microsoft optimized search so much, that it sometimes doesn't work -- but you're blind to that reality.  Why am I paying money for a defective Vista Ultimate earch, so Microsoft can try to compete with Google?  The benefits of a fast indexed search are lost on me when I cannot find simple files that I know exist on my PC. Google is never going to index the files on my machine, and Microsoft isn't going to index most of them either.  I still need to occasionally search some of these files that are not indexed, however. You could give your customers either search option as needed, but in a condescending way, you've taken away the options I need.

Linux and OpenOffice look better everyday especially when one is not respected as a paying customer.  

Thanks Nick for the syntax for searches.  That helped some, but I am still experiencing recently saved *.doc files that are not showing up.  They are saved to a flash drive that remains connected, but still no show.

I completly agree with you sunflower34.

2000 and XP allowed the user to display a plain or advanced search once and for all, now you have to play with the search each and every time...

Be default, you are only allowed to see what Microsoft wants you to see (by directory and extension filtering).

I do not want a Google or MS index based search system, I want the good old search facility that worked so well from Windows 98 to XP.

I have PHP files from a customer: I have to play with search just to find them... and it is impossible "out of the box" to search for a function defined in an include file... This is making me waste - literally - hours. 6 to be precise, and MS is not going to reimburse me $300 (and counting) in lost productivity.

Is there a way to delete this search system?

Is there a way to install a plain and simple search system that is not a ressource hog, like the search system in XP?

Is there a way of removing this search other than reinstalling XP?

Hey bpfh:  Sorry to hear of your toubles, but I'm nevertheless convinced that you can consistently find the search results you need using the search function built into Windows Vista.  It may be worth your time to familiarize yourself with the nuances of search syntax (see above), optimizing the Indexer (http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/68dd14f2-a9cb-4134-a076-b8abb011a1f61033.mspx), and the use of Search Folders (http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/50fdc72f-3274-4a53-ad84-c82c71a320cf1033.mspx) to shorten the time it takes to conduct routine searches.

FWIW, it's currently not possible to turn off the search indexer in Windows Vista:  http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/58bc79b0-6b79-411d-9e95-629e9904f0581033.mspx.  

I hope this information helps.

Nick,

Please listen.

You and Microsoft are forgetting who the customer is.  Your attitude is arrogant and condescending.  We know exactly what we need to do and Microsoft is not helping and needlessly making an easy task difficult – actually impossible without a 3rd party tool now in Vista.  

I'm not sure why anyone should trust the new Vista search since it cannot find all the "hits" by design.  You won't give users the option to do a search that is 100% correct and 100% complete.  But your flawed solution is fast, which apparently is the only thing that is important.

Give us a choice, and give us a choice that works. Don't force a flawed "improvement" as the only way.  Use a carrot (something that works and works well) instead of a stick (do it our way because we know better than you).  

Why does Microsoft refuse to listen and give us a quick solution?  Just let us run Windows Explorer from Windows 2000 in Vista.  Why do you refuse to provide that solution?  It's not impossible technically (at least with some trivial changes).  Microsoft freely chooses to take away the search ability from paying customers that has worked since Windows 95.  Why is Microsoft forcing us to look for some other solution that works in Vista instead of listening and addressing the real problem?

Nick,

I son't want to come across as hostile or angry, but I do agree with the point that others have made about the new search capabilities.  As designed, I simply don't find them trust worthy.  You seem to have sacrificed speed for dependability and usability.  I know that you guys are focused on the new and sexy thing, and you're trying to compete with others, but this new search is not a step in the right direction because you have ignored your bread and butter clients who want a no nonsense search.

I could select the type of search that gave me the control.  I didn't have to allow you to guess whether a file was a document or music or whatever.  I could type in *.* and get EVERY file on my system if I wanted to.  I had control.  I do not like the new interfaces that seize control for the sake of making it more usable for those who are not very savvy.

I don't want to have to familiarize myself with a bunch of nuances (your word) that you have added to the search.  Actually I wouldn't mind if I thought it would work, but so far my experience with your search is that it is wildly unreliable.  I never know what might appear when I type something in the search box.  For example.  I just searched for something and the only thing that appeared were emails!  Who knows what I did to trigger the system to decide that my context or whatever was email.  I  wasn't even running an email program.

Essentially you are forcing us to give up on your search capabilities.  This translates into your customers testifying to others that for all practicle purposes Vista lacks any functional search capability.  You should be more concerned about this problem than your responses indicate.  You've got a BIG problem for those of us who actually need to search for files.

My experience is that most people who use PCs have never even tried to search for stuff on their PC so they won't care, but you've given the rest of us one more reason to start exploring alternative operating systems, and isn't that EXACTLY what Microsoft is trying to avoid with its attempt to revamp the search capability in the first place?

Maybe I'm wrong about the capabilities.  Maybe you can give me a command that will not try to second guess what I am looking for and just search for whatever the heck I tell it to search for.  If so, can you tell me where that command is?

corrections to previous post  (I'm so frustrated I can't even think straight!;):

I don't want to come across as hostile or angry, but I do agree with the point that others have made about the new search capabilities.  As designed, I simply don't find them trust worthy.  You seem to have sacrificed dependability for speed and usability.

Okay here's an example of my problem.  I tried the same search on both of my machines (one XP one Vista).  I searched for a document that is on the hard drive of my XP machine and on a plugged in flash drive of my Vista machine.

On XP I typed *.doc in one field and "reasonably intelligent" in the contents field.  It took it about 3 minutes to find the file.

On Vista I typed *.doc reasonably intelligent in the start search field: immediately it said "no items match your search."  This statement is inaccurate.  If it cannot find a match through it quick process then it should continue searching rather than tell me that there are no matches.  Saying, "no items match your search" indicate that it is finished searching, and it is telling me definitively that such a document does not exist.

The odd thing is that if I remove the contents qualifier, and simply search for "*.doc" then the document that contains "reasonably intelligent" appears in the list!

From the start menu I click "search everywhere."  I take this as a clue that perhaps Vista did not actually search everywhere the first time-which I find to be a bizaar possibility.  I cannot understand why from the start screen you would decide to tease your users:  "Oh yes I know you want me to search for this file, but I think I will just look in a few places rather than everywhere because I'm just obnoxious that way!"  Dude, when I use the "search" function it because I don't know where something is, right?  If I don't know where it is, then I want you to search everywhere for it.

At any rate, the search pane appears.  It's not obvious what one should do differently with this, so I decided to select advanced search.  I then point to my flash drive, to give it a little help.  (In my case I DO know where this file is and I am just testing Vista!)  Even then it comes up with nothing.  I click on "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files(might be slow)."  It ain't slow; it immediately tells me the same thing: "no items match your search."

At this point I want to swear off your new search capabilities, and frankly I begin to wonder what else did Microsoft bungle in its new Vista design.

The point of this post is not to vent but to give you details of my experience so that perhaps you can either tell me what I did wrong or tell me that there is indeed a problem that Microsoft will address or tell me that this is the way the designers want the search to work and I should expect the same sort of logic applied to other features in Vista.

Hi Nick, thanks for your description of the search query language -- it works well for me. (As mentioned by someone earlier, it'd be handy if there were a link from the advanced search pane to a description of the search query language).

Here's my question:  I've created a multi-phrase search and saved it (so the file name is foo.search-ms); by multi-phrase, I mean it has query terms connected by AND's and/or OR's.  It works.  Now I want to change this saved search's query slightly.  How do I do that?  I can't even figure out how to display the saved search query in Windows Explorer (I can do it using SendTo->Notepad, but that just gives me an XML file).

In summary:  How do I view and edit the query of saved searches?

I'm using Home Premium and Classic view.

Also, a lesser concern:  It'd be nice if Explorer treated a saved search more like a folder, eg., right-clicking on it would bring up appropriate folder operations, such as Properties giving the number of files and sum of sizes of the files.  In general, it'd be nice if saved searches were more like folders, ie., if they were virtual folders.  Then view templates, etc would work on search results too.  Also, then I would be able to give Microsoft's Photos screensaver, when it asks for a folder root, a saved search as its input (a perfect application of a saved search!).

I know this might not be the place to ask this question but maybe some of might be able to help me?

My search is working fine as long as I don't click on "Show only E-Mail". Then zero results will be displayed although all the e-mails are displaying when don't filter the "all" results.

Why could this be?

Here is a clue regarding why it seems that “Vista Search” is not working as expected.

I’m using the Norwegian version of Vista Ultimate.

I created 24 folders and files with Lars77 as part of the name. Two files and one folder were marked as hidden.

By using the command line “cmd /b /s *Lars77*” 21 files was found and using “cmd /b /s /ah *Lars77*” the remaining 3 files was found.

In the Search Explorer (Start|Search) I used the following: Location “Everywhere”, selected “All” for type of files, selected "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files", and entered “*Lars77*” in the Instant Search box.  8 files was found, among them 1 hidden folder and 2 hidden files.

Then, in the Search Explorer window: “Organize” -> “Folder and search options” -> “Folder Options” window -> “View” -> “Advanced settings”, I deselected the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option. After clicking the “OK” button, the window closed, and the search started over again – to find 24 files...  

Nick, is this by design? As long as hiding protected operating system files is recommended, I don’t find it intuitive to have this option deselected.

In the “Folder Options” window -> “View” -> “Advanced settings”, you can select either “Do not show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files and folders”.  Both options will list hidden files. Is this by design as well?

This test was run from the standard user that created the folders and files, from another standard user (which found all files except those placed under the file structure for the user that created the folders and files), and from an admin user (found 24 files).

An annoying “feature” experienced by deselecting the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option, is that in the user folder (“Lars”) I have a sub-folder named “Dokumenter” (“Documents”) and a non-working link named “Mine dokumenter” (“My documents”).

Hey Lars:  sorry this took some time to get to you, I had to track down the right internal expert to get this information.

The option in "Folder Options" window -> “View” -> "Advanced settings" is a persistent global setting.  When set to “show” hidden files, hidden files will be visible (grayed-out) when browsing folders as well as in search results.  

The "include non-indexed, hidden, and system files)" checkbox in the Advanced search pane is a transient setting that persists only for the life of that search and refers only to search results.  If your global setting is already set to "show", then this checkbox will have no effect on hidden files (but will still affect whether or not we search system folders and non-indexed locations).

Similarly, if the global setting is toggled back to "hide", this checkbox will only have an effect on the current search window, and hidden files will not be visible when browsing other folder locations.

Hope this helps clarify for you.

Thanks.  This clarified some.

This explains the hidden files issue. It could be discussed if you should be allowed to override the global setting for “Show hidden files” in the search window.

The "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files" choice is a little bit confusing. It should be broken into three choices. I might want to include non-indexed, but not hidden and system files.  If you in the Folder Options have selected the “Do not show hidden files and folders”, the “Include hidden files” could be disabled as an option.  This is what I as a user would expect.

Is the files included in “system files” in the "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files" option the same files as are included in the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option in the Folder Options Window?  If yes, the “Include system files” option in the advanced search should be enabled only if “Hide protected operating system files” is deselected.

What you didn’t answer was the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” issue.  Here is a simple test to demonstrate that something seems wrong is Search:

Log on as a standard user.

In the Search Explorer window: “Organize” -> “Folder and search options” -> “Folder Options” window -> “View” -> “Advanced settings”, select the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option.

In your Documents folder, create a new folder (e.g. “Lars77”, and create a document in the new folder (e.g. Lars77.bmp”).

Run a search. In the Search Explorer window (Start|Search) use the following: Location “Everywhere”, select “All” for type of files, select "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files", and enter a filename mask (e.g. “*Lars77*”) in the Instant Search box. The folder and the file you created will not be found.  Please explain why!

In the Search Explorer window: “Organize” -> “Folder and search options” -> “Folder Options” window -> “View” -> “Advanced settings”, deselect the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option.

Run a new search, using the same settings as in the first search. The files are found!

The files you created seems to be treated as system files…  Please explain why!

Please explain why I have to deselect the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option to find my non-system folders and files under my user folder.

Hi Nick,

I still find that my most frequent search is to want to see all of the email threads I have with any paricular email account or email domain - becasue I want to know what has been said by them and by me in the past, so I can sound intelligent and organised when I speak to them,.  This means that I have to type 'to:<string> OR from:<string>' commands into the search box, for eaxample

   to:lyalla OR from:lyalla

It doesn't seem to radical a requeat that I would be able type a single command to get all of the emails from a particular addresss (or part-address) something like

    thread:lyalla

or

    mails:lyalla

or some such

The main reason that this is much more productive is that apart from more typing, it is sometimes hard to type a part-address in twice and get the same characters in the right order!

Hey wgrahamt:  this sounds like a great case for Search Folders, which are essentially longstanding virtual locations containing all items relating to a certain set of search criteria.  As items are added to the system, the Indexer places a shortcut to the new relevant items in the appropriate Search Folder for easy retrieval at any time.  Take a look at this article for details:  http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/05/10/searching-part-ii-using-search-folders.aspx.

Hi Nick,

Unless I am missing the point somewhere, then yes a Search Folder would solve this problem if I wanted to continually refer to email conversations with specific individuals or groups within a domain.

But that is not the case.

If I am contacted by email or by phone by somebody who I think I may have corresponded with before, or from a company domain where I might have spoken with one of their colleagues; but I am not sure, then I will do a "to: OR from:" search.

* The beauty of the speed of Windows Search indexing is that I can do this in the first few moments of a conversation and then I am able to talk knowledgeably about an email conversation that we might have had months (or even years) ago – from the same person or same organisation.

* The issue with the Search functionality is that you have to type the same search string in twice (accurately).

This is not a "canned" search, the search strings are different many times a day and although over the period of a couple of weeks (whilst maintaining a conversation) a few might be repeated, in the long term they have little value, so it's not worth making a Search Folder for any of them - especially since you don't know how many times you might want to reuse one, if at all.

Regards

Graham

Nick,

I posted a detailed description of my problem with search on Aug 31.  I would appreciate some sort of response.

Hi Nick,

As jhester, I'm waiting for, and would appreciate, a reponse on a detailed described problem. Mine was posted September 21st.

I am having a problem with Windows Vista's search functionality. I am attempting to search for part numbers at work. These part numbers are in Excel files, and there are many files, so I don't want to have to search for them by opening each file, searching it, and closing it again. That's where the search function comes in. Unfortunately, the search function often 'finds' the part number in files that don't actually contain that part number, and at the same time don't find the part number in files that definitely contain it.

As an example of what my procedure is, I do the following:

1: Go to folder in which the files are contained.

2: Put the file name into the search field (something like "54038-423G9" without the quotes).

3: Make sure that the search function is searching subfolders and contents of the files and that the file type is "All".

4: Wait for the files to show up.

It takes a while, because there are a lot of files and the files are big, and sometimes it finds the files correctly. Other times it finds files that, when I look in them, don't actually contain the part number (I've 'unhid' all cells, just to make sure). But usually, when it's incorrectly finding those files, it also fails to find the part numbers in files in which I know the part numbers exist (I've checked to make sure, and they're there).

What could I be doing incorrectly to get these odd results?

- Zohar S.E.

I am having real problems getting Vista to find even the most basic thing. Personally I find it most useful to be able to search for a string in files, but this is completely impossible in Vista. Even if YOU think the new search is fab, please listen to you customers who say it lacks some very important features. If after all this you don't want to alter it, then could you please create some separate search tool we can download for the rest of us that just does what searches used to do in, say W2000?

Example 1

I wanted to find the exact phrase "six famous people" in files under a particular directory, so I typed it into the advanced search (with quotes), had all files/all sizes/etc being searched (including non-indexed files) and the search found a huge list of files. Great you'd think, but oh no. It was NOT finding the exact phrase, it was just finding files which contained all those words. Exactly what I didn't want or expect. Is this really the design? It's far from intuitive.

Example 2

I wasn't sure of the exact spelling/word used but I knew part of it. I don't remember the original, but take this as the example (which I have repeated, so it is still true). I searched for "search ignore" and it found no files. In fact, the file I knew existed contains "search ignores". Now what I wanted it to do was to match the string anywhere, not to try and interpret whole words. If I could remember the exact phrase I'd probably remember the exact filename too and wouldn't need the search (!)

Example 3

I was looking for COPENHAGEN in a directory full of .htm files. My search (using all possible options to find files) gave two hits. I knew this was wrong so I copied the entire directory onto a memory stick, took it to work, used W2000 to do the search and found all the files I was looking for - I forget how many but at least 5. This was after spending about 25 minutes trying to encourage Vista to find them. How is this superfast indexing helping me to do what I'd expect of even the most basic of operating systems. It certainly isn't saving me any time. I was actually forced at one point to open each file and search the page I was in - at least that found them.

Example 4

I created a test file - it was a copy of a an .htm file that had COPENHAGEN in it but Vista was refusing to "find". Please note Vista did find a couple of other files in the same directory with the same file extension - and I tried very hard to figure out what the difference was that meant one file was found the the other not, but it beats me. So now I have a copy of the file and I change the file extension to .txt (just in case) and I paste some test words and phrases into the very top of the file so I can use this for experiments. One was "what is wrong with this file that the search ignores it?" without the quotes. Then on the next line I had "xcvxcvxcv" - again without quotes. Then the rest of the file was what was in the original .htm I'd copied. I search for "search ignores" (with quotes) and it finds the file. I search for xcvxcvxcv (with and again without quotes) and it doesn't find the file. Why? It makes NO sense to me. Don't tell me Vista thinks xcvxcvxcv is not a sensible string to search for and so ignores it!! As if Vista or Microsoft could know what I want to write and search for in my files! So explain, please, why it cannot be found.

There are plenty more tests I did and could list a whole lot more ridiculous and incongruous results I've obtained.

The bottom line: I now know I have no control over what the search is doing, so even when Vista says "here's your results" I know it is probably not correct. Complete loss of trust I'm afraid.

Please give your users the option to search like we used to, don't hide things away so we can't tell what is happening.

Cheers

J

Although you most likely had nothing to do with the creation of the search features in either MS Vista or MS Office, I have run into a new searching problem which, in my mind, is even worse than the ones I'd already experienced with Vista, and somebody needs to know.

In MS Office 2007 I had typed the string QAA0003 many times throughout a 41 page file, but I was then requested to add some text next to each string. I copied the text, did a search for QAA0003, and began adding the text where needed. But then I got to a point where QAA0003 was listed twice in the same paragraph. MS Word's search found the first one, and - being lazy - I hit "Find Next" again to get to the next one. The search function skipped over it. I went back and tried it again, but the search refused to find what I could clearly see with my own eyes. I thought that perhaps there was some nuance in the apparent string that I just couldn't see, so I copied it and pasted it into the search field, backed up, and clicked "Find Next" again, but received the same results. MS Office 2007 refused to find the text string. Since I didn't know how many other strings might have been missed by MS Word's search function I copied the file to my other computer with MS Word 2003 and performed the same search. The results were flawless. MS Office, it appears, has the same or a similar problem as MS Vista has. While this makes sense considering that they were apparently produced at around the same time, it does not make sense considering that my company has spend a great deal of money on these products with the expectation that they will function better than the last generation did. While in most cases I have found MS Office very useful, it is this one glaring and unconscionable flaw that I cannot overlook.

I don't want a response telling me about the benefits of the new search algorithms or tips on how to work around the issue. I want the problem solved. Please, if you have any influence at all at Microsoft, ask them on my behalf - on behalf of all Microsoft customers - to fix this. Thank you for your time.

Continuing saga of frustration with Vista Search

Today I needed to search an old C:\Library directory for any file with the word "ellipse" since I was looking for a note about a special graphics algorithm I thought I kept some years ago.  This was a fairly simple search:  looking for a single word in the files of a directory and all its subdirectories.

Windows Vista quickly returned 52 hits, which was fairly good.  Oddly, when I checked the box to "include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" I only saw 11 hits. I'm not sure how to explain how searching more gave fewer hits.

To be sure I was finding all the files, I fired up a Windows 2000 VMware virtual machine on this very same Windows Vista (Ultimate) machine.  Through the virtual network I did the same search of C:\Library for the word "ellipse" using Windows Explorer from Windows 2000.  That search resulted in 69 hits, which was quite a few more than the 52 returned by Windows Vista.

When will Microsoft seriously address the search problem in Vista?  When can I run Windows Explorer for Windows 2000 under Vista without all the overhead of a whole virtual machine?  

Until there is a fix, I'll keep posting real world examples of frustrations with Vista's search.

Reading through these comments, Nick, I frankly don't find them excessively helpful.

THIS IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO DO EASILY:

Find a file or a folder with such and such a word within its title EASILY.

Find a file with such and such a word or phrase in it EASILY.  

("EASILY" would be defined as is found on Windows XP, not having to type in title: or name: or whatever--they just don't seem to always give me the universal search that I desire and thus I get frustrated and my valuable time is very much wasted!)

I don't want to have to type the word in the search box, get ten million hits of both in the document and in the documents title, then have to figure out how do I limit my search.  I just want ot find files easily.  I am a researcher and there is much repition in the matter in the files that when I search I get too much information back.

As has been said on this blog, Microsoft should give us less compliant users (i.e. us users with more valuable things to do with our time then figure out how to use such a complicated search engine and its terms) the means to do a search as Windows XP or others had (cf. Sunflower34) had.  

I just need to find files quickly or find what is in files quickly.

If I were a programmer for Microsoft--I am a medical doctor, not screwdriver--I would simply make a search box that would simply and easily find a file or folder as XP did and then gave the option of finding a word or words or a phrase in files.  

WHY CANNOT MICROSOFT SIMPLY DO THIS FOR US USERS???  Talk about Ma Bell...

My other serious problem with Vista: Several programs that ran under Windows 98, can't be run...  That also baffles me...  Hundreds of dollars wasted...

Still problems with search.

A) Why I can´t sort search results by size?

Sometimes it tries to sort but the result will not be Ascending nor Descending...

Doing advanced search by name (string in name like "img" for photos or "clip" for videos) over portable (USB) or network drives (non-indexed). I will got results with different filetypes and filesizes. Now if I want to sort these results by size it never works!

B) Why Vista search can't remember the view and columns I want to see in results? I allways shall again choose (additionally to name): detailed view, Sise, Date Modified, Type, and Folder Path. I will allways see these columns - why I can't configure my Vista (and Search) such way?

I just discovered this blog.  I am having all kinds of problems with searching with Vista.

I have an application that brings in messages (thousands) in as .tmp files.  All I want to do is be able to find which one of those contains a string (like a name or particular SSN).  Search will NOT return any results, even though I'm looking right at them.

I've discovered if I rename the file to .txt it works though, so I guess Vista is ignoring the .tmp file extension.

So am I correct that my choices are:

1)  Rename thousands and thousands and thousands of files just to be able to do a simple search.

or

2)  Copy all of the files up to my server that has Windows 2000 and use it's much superior search functionality.

Is that right?  Is there really not any way to make Vista search these files?  I thought maybe if I associated the .tmp file extension with Notepad it would work, but apparently not.

I guess I'm to the point where I just can't trust that Vista's search functionality is giving me valid results.

Hey mproper:  it's my understanding that .tmp files are not indexed by default, but you can easily change this.  Go to Control Panel | Indexing Options | Advanced | File Types, and select .tmp from the list.  Also be sure to toggle the radio button such that file Properties and contents are both indexed.  This should do the trick.

Continuing saga of frustration with Vista Search

I have old Microsoft Word documents that were once stored in a revision control system (PCDOCS, circa 1996).  All these old Word documents have extensions like .01, .02, .06.  Word 2007 is smart enough to open these old documents using "Open With", but Vista Ultimate is not smart enough to search them.  These files cannot be found using Vista search even with  "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" .  Under Vista I can fire up an old Windows 2000 virtual machine and through the virtual network find the missing documents using Windows Explorer for Windows 2000.  Why can Windows 2000 find these documents but Windows Vista cannot?

I'm having trouble understanding the search syntax. Could anyone give me a hint about how to search for files with the string "(1)" (not including the quotes). The open/close parentheses seem to have special meaning in the search syntax - is there anyway to 'escape' that meaning?

I have never participated in a blog before because normally I can fine some kind of solution just searching the web.  The search on Vista has not only raised my blood pressure enough but wasted hours and hours of time also.  So here it goes.

Ditto to the above regarding the search in Vista.  It is like it will not find a word in a file, or all the files that contain a word etc...  I knew it was not working so I created a new folder with one Excel file in it and have tried all the tips and tricks above to have it find the file when I search for a word in the file (not the file name) and nothing works.  Bottom line is it will not find the file (indexed or not) that contains the word!  It should not have to be indexed to do so.

Not only will it not find the file, when the path column is listed and you try sorting on that it does not even sort correctly.

My sentiments as well when it comes to having to continually change the columns in view.  It is beyond me why you can not just set the columns you wish to view once as the default and have the option carried through to all folders if you choose.  Another waste of time.

I haven't seen this one out here yet so I will throw it out and maybe you can explain why in XP you could highlight all (control A) or some of the files and right click / open and low and behold all the files would open.  Now when you highlight multiple mixed files (adobe, .xls, .doc etc) and right click, there is NOT an open option.  If you highlight all .doc files, or all .xls files etc... and right click the open option is there.  If I am not missing something, give us back the feature to highlight any files you want and open them all at once.  Just another waste of time.

I lived and died by the search in XP at the office and home.  I now constantly tell them at the office not to upgrade to Vista until you guys can get this thing working correctly.

What happened to "if it is not broke, don't fix it"?  MS has taken something really good and ruined it so far.  What's really sad is that many users will not even realize that they are getting false results as they could previously trust the search in earlier versions.

I don't know who designed / tested this software, but they have failed the user so far on this one.  Issues above goes back to at least July and I have not read anything that even states that MS is working on the issues.  In many cases there has been no response at all to the above comments and concerns.  I have to ask, if Mr. Gates knows about all the issues with the untrustworthy search?  If not, it's high time he did!

If this is not fixed soon and someone comes up with a good search software like MS use to have, please post it here.  Thank you.

Need help w. XP Office 2007 Instant Search:

disclaimer: I understand that this is a Vista blog but my MS Office 2007 claims that it uses Vista instant search.

I use XP professional SP2; 2G RAM; IBM T40 laptop; Office 2007 Outlook.

I have enabled Win Indexing Servises, reinstalled Office 2007 complete package, enabled indexing,; indexing is complete w. 0 oustanding items.

Note: I have many folders (.pst) about 100 about 50MB each.

Problem-1:In "All items search" mode:  instant search can not finish. I believe that its the large number of folders which Vista Search can not handle; I experimented with about 10 folders at 500MB each and it works fine. Does anybody know what is the limit of the number of folders Outlook Instant Search can handle? Apart from reconfiguring the folder structure: is there another way to help Outloog Istant Search to handle large number of folders?

Problem-2: In "Search only selected Folder" mode: search does not go into subfolders but checks for items only in the Top level of the selected folder. Can you help me to make Instant Search to go search in sub-folders for "Selected folder Serch" mode?

Hey ves:  I've conferred with my colleagues on the Client and Office Search teams and below are their recommendations.

Problem 1:  if you want to improve search performance, you can select only the stores you are interested in searching via All Mail Items; otherwise, all PSTs are searched by default.  To do this, you can click the drop-down to the right of All Mail Items in the navigation pane.  Using the Windows Search UI should be noticeably faster to search across all your indexed mail stores.

Problem 2:  searching on a regular folder will always do a shallow search.  You can search All Mail Items or create a search folder that scopes your search to only the folders you most frequently search.  It's also worth mentioning that you can perform deep folder searches of your Outlook folder hierarchy in the Windows Search UI as such:

- under:MyFolder will do a deep search

- in:MyFolder will do a shallow search

I hope this information helps you sort things out.

A bit of confusion above, at least to us pedants :)

microsoft has attachment:true

Items that have attachments containing the word microsoft

It think this should say:

microsoft has attachment:true

Items containing the word microsoft that have attachments

so it agrees with:

has:attachment

report has:attachment

Finds items containing the word report that have attachments. Same as hasattachment:true

Nick,

I notice that there are several among us who have posted questions that you have not addressed.  Please tell us how we should interpret that.  Should we continue to revisit this blog in hopes of a response?

Nick,

    Thanks for the work and thanks for the interaction on the blog. Many have already said it. But just to add my $.02. Please include a simple ascii search everything option in the search dialog.

I figured this would have been resolved after the mess with the XP search that had everyone that actually needed to search everything downloading Agent Ransack. Unfortunately we are again limited to searching content only within the guidelines of what Microsoft anticipates. Recently I needed to search a whole directory of *.vb, *.cs, ascx and aspx files for a specific word. Despite the fact that these are file types produced by Microsoft Advanced search still won't look at them.

Fortunately it appears that Agent Ransack still works on Vista.

If the desire is to keep the search as it is please at least include a utility for those of us that actually need to search.

In 1992 I uninstalled Win 3.1 and used PCTools as my Shell because PCTools allowed me to perform a basic ascii search across all files in all folders and Win 3.1 didn't have that option. It's ironic that all this time has passed and I'm still having troubles with finding all files in all directories containing a specific string of ascii characters.  

I ordered a new high-end workstation for a special project yesterday, but I had to specify Windows XP because Microsoft has ignored all requests to fix search in Vista.  

I've had Vista for nearly 10 months on my notebook computer, but it may be time to buy a new hard drive and rebuild the system with Windows XP since Vista refuses to search about 20-25% of my files.  Why won't Microsoft do ANYTHING about a serious search problem in Vista?  

There are no "advanced" search techniques in Vista -- we can't do simple searches yet.  Why the deafening silence here on this blog instead of some solutions -- even short term ones -- to address the search problem in Vista?

I spent two hours to find out how to search text into a filename. One more hour to search for a string that in the file but not in the file name.

Thanks to Nick (and Google) for this very interesting article.

Some comments:

- I'm astonished that such a basic feature (in XP) is not documented in vista help,

- it is so complicated : I had to enable search on content to see all the file and had to find the option and to enter keywords in the search box. How to explain that to my wife who is not software engineer ?

- because of the global setings, it is very slow because all my searches look into file content (I have 20000 image files mixed with text files), it seems it looks into text into the images

- if the search pattern is "test AND filename:data.txt" it works, but if the pattern  is "NOT comment and filename:data.txt" the result is not correct.

- the filter seems to be not efficient since it seems to looks to the patern in all files and then filter by file name. Ohterwise how to explain that the same request is much faster on XP ?

- if a search is not finished (it often happens since the search starts as soon as you edit the pattern), and you modify the pattern to another long search, you don't know if the files in the list view are from the previous search or not because the previous search is cleaned after a dozen of seconds

- in the end I add to find a grep tool like unix. It is sad for a recent OS.

To be constructive, I want to share a couple of tests on vista search on 7000 files. Data are in a dedicated partition (not indexed by Vista). I did the test on my brand new laptop Asus V1S.

All default settings in Folder options : look for content on indexed file only

I searched '*.txt', and got 2355 files after 3 mn  

I searched 'file:*.txt' and got 2344 files  after 1 second

I searched 'filename:*.txt' and got 2351 files  after 1 second

I searched 'special and filename:*.txt' and got  an empty list after 6 mn

Note: the system cannot warn me that it is impossible to find file content because it doesn't know if I search for content or not

So I decided to add my root folder to the index. Note: you can do that easily only after the search, clicking on the warning message

10 mn later, I don't know if indexation is terminated. I started again:

I searched '*.txt' and got 93 files (immmediately)

As I know this is a bad answer, I understood that indexation was not terminated, I checked the box 'include non indexed file' in adanced search option and got  2351 files immediately

I searched 'file:*.txt AND special' and got and empty list

Then I changed the default option in Folder options to search content even on non indexed files.

I searched 'file:*.txt AND special' and got an empty list

I searched 'special AND file:*.txt ' and got 810 files after 6 mn

...users can become crazy tring to understand why so many different results for somthing that requires only one answer.

I compared with BareGrep 3.5

I searched '*.txt' with word 'special' and got my 870 files in 8 seconds !!!

This is much better, to be compared to the 6 mn used by Vista finder. No complicated option to set, no advance documentation needed to put keywords plus the possibility to see the lines with the match in the finder, reliable result, fast. Moreover the result list is cleaned when the search starts. Is all this simple things possible in Vista Finder ?

Continuing saga of frustration with Vista Search

I wanted to search a directory of 13,277 files in 817 folders for *.pas source programs that had the string "TPoint".  I wanted to give someone an example of using TPoint.

Windows Vista Ultimate:  0 hits; 0 hits with "include non-indexed, hidden and system files" checked.

Over a virtual network using a Windows 2000 box, searching the same files:  Windows 2000 gives 111 hits!

Windows Vista Ultimate Missing Hits: 111

%Error by Windows Vista Search: 100%

What is "Advanced" about a 100% error rate?

Where is the Vista version of http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309173

Using the "A word or phrase in the file" search criterion may not work

Did I not pay enough to get a search that works when I bought the "Ultimate" version of Vista?  PLEASE, Microsoft, Vista search is a problem that needs to be addressed.  Why the silence about a fix?

Windows XP Search is #13 on the list of the 20 Worst Windows Features of All Time

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133191-page,9-c,electronics/article.html

Unfortuantely, Vista's Search is WORSE.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, just give us back Windows Search from Windows 2000.  I need something that will search ALL files, not just the ones Microsoft has decided I should search.

Sunflower34,

Thank you so much for the suggestion of BareGrep!  I just downloaded it - wow, what a breath of fresh air!  Like so many other people in this thread, I've wasted several hours searching the net for workarounds/tips/etc on Vista's built-in search.  BareGrep returns to us, at first glance, the easy "search within a file" (ANY file!) functionality that Windows 2000 had.  You can also get crazy with regular expressions, but it's godsend just for its basic text search alone...

Let me reiterate: Vista's search is slow, difficult to use properly (for advanced searches, if it's even possible to accomplish your desired filter), and difficult to use reliably (who can remember all those filter keywords when assembling a search?).  I found it incredibly disappointing and a source of huge frustration.  Nice to see I'm not the only one - maybe something will get done.

Nick,

I have an immense amount of photos/images/files that I have taken/collected/files over the years.  When I transferred the files from my laptop to the Vista box many of the files became corrupt during the move.  Those files now have a twin with the extension of let us theoretically say "100_3447(1).jpg".

So now I have two files. "100_3447.jpg" and "100_3447(1).jpg".  The bad thing is that one of the files is good and one is bad.

I know...it should be the "(1)" file being good, but that is not the situation because the silly iTunes won't load certain photos as it did before and they now show up as garbage on my iPod.  Something is corrupt and I must resolve it.

Oh, that laptop's disk drive has crashed.  It really did crash.  So I am at least lucky that I transferred something.

Well this is what I want to do:

I want to search for files with this mask (and for some reason I am being specific to search these files):

*(?).*

NO ITEMS MATCH YOUR SEARCH. (Vista response)

"*.*" works.  But then I have to mouse-hunt and peck

"*(?).jpg"

manually...one at a time...carpal tunnel alert.  Did I mention that I am a "no mouse" whenever possible type of guy?  I like to [tab] and [enter] in Excel and [ctrl-pgup].  It's faster than the ol' mouse here and mouse to the adjacent cell, and mouse to tab and aaarrghh.  I have been using computers since I was about 7 in 1979.  Later...I was the first (and apparently only) kid in school to have a new Compaq PORTABLE (ugh) computer with TWO drives thanks to my aunt's doctor-boyfriend having to leave Texas to work in Saudi Arabia!

I just want to use the "*(?).jpg" mask so I can verify each of those files before archiving them or deleting them.

Oh, and I have many many many files that I would like to use this type of mask:

dav???x???.*

So I can find it anywhere in my drive move it somewhere else because I don't want to get...

fre???x???.*

or something like that....

Nowhere did it say on the box that I had to take a Video Professor course or a buy "Dummies" book to learn 250 new syntaxes (ugh remember "Syntax error") just to do a file search in Vista when I purchased it in February '07.

I just want to do a quick and powerful search that I have always been able to do since before my puberty.

Oh and Miss Dewey cursed at me when I asked her...just like Santa Claus did. ;)

Hi Nick,

I have just been ramping up my new vista pc over the last month and have started to hit the issues with search.  

Here are the top 2 that I could REALLY use help with:

1) Vista appears to not be indexing ANY files that are located in folders whose name begins with "_".  (That's an underscore.)  These folders are all checked in my index options settings, but still not being indexed.  This affects about 25% of all my personal files, as I use underscore in folder names extensively. These files ARE returned in search when I check the "include non-indexed files" box in advanced search ... but this then takes 10-15 minutes to find a single file!  Please a solution?!

2) I almost always  need to see the path name in the search results, and I have to re-add this column EVERY time.  But the really major issue is that if Vista search has already returned results (after 10-15 minutes) and then I click to add the path column, it throws out the results and starts all over again!  Any way to avoid this?

It looks like I'm pretty close to installing google desktop search just to have an effective search solution.  I was really trying to avoid this.  I think it could be worth passing this on to the sr mgmt to underscore (sorry for the pun) how severely impacted customer are and how significant the flight to other major competitors may be.

Thanks for all your time reading our input!  (I used to be a product manager at eBay, so I really applaud your efforts for staying connected to the customer community.)

Hey wbmunro:  I've conferred with my colleagues on the Search team and they've relayed to me the following responses:

1) You should verify that the 'do not index' attribute (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED) is *not* set on the folder in question and/or the individual files within it.  Right-click on the folder name (or file name) -> Properties -> Advanced -> make sure that the "index this file for faster searching" checkbox is checked.  If it is and these files are still not being indexed, let me know so we can follow up offline.

2) View settings in Windows Vista - as in Windows XP - persist per folder/search.  This enables you to have two folders/searches with different columns, view mode, etc. if you want.  If you want all folders/searches of the same type to have the same view settings (e.g. all documents folders or all pictures searches, etc.), then just customize the view settings the way you like in one folder/search of that type and click Organize -> Folder Options -> View -> Apply to Folders, to make all other folders/searches of that same type have the same view settings.  That said, the "Folder" column is shown by default in all search results views in Windows Vista, so it's unclear why you would need to keep adding it.  Are we understanding your situation correctly?

Hey Bern:  I’m not entirely certain what you're trying to accomplish and so need more information -- can you please provide me more details offline via a private message?

Hey wavydave: My Search colleagues seem to think that the issue here is that we don't index the parentheses and we also see them as a word-break.  Although this may not be as precise as you want, try the following:  *1?.jpg

Also, queries like dav???x???.* should definitely work on filenames and on other properties; such queries do not work on file contents, though.  If you are seeing otherwise, please send along more details to me in a private message.

Continuing saga of search problems ...

Now I can't get Outlook 2007 search to work.  Is that related to the Vista Search problems?

I found this blog that describes my problem, and no one seems to have solutions:

http://qgyen.net/archive/outlook-2007-s-search-is-retarded/

Outlook 2007's search is retarded

Why is search so hard in Vista/Office 2007?

Are failed searches now a feature?

You cannot search RTF e-mail messages in Outlook 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927595

When will Microsoft give us back the functionality we had in earlier versions of Windows/Office?

Continuing saga of Vista search problems

I wasted hours today because Vista's search does not work.  I needed to find an old E-mail that showed how to write code to access a DLL, and Vista's search failed again.  I know the E-mail exists on my machine, but Outlook 2007 won't find any E-mail in any folder.  I can see the thousands of old E-mails that I have, but I cannot find any via search.  I'll try to re-index them, but why is search so flawed?

My folders and files are very organized, and I can get "close" quickly, but Microsoft doesn't even allow a "guided" search once you're close.  Manual file-by-file searches are quite slow, but that is the state of the art now with Vista.

Look how long Microsoft's own article is about Vista search:

You cannot find files when you search a Windows Vista-based computer even though the files exist on the computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932989/en-us

Why isn't Microsoft embarrassed enough by the failure of Vista search to fix the problem?  Why must customers suffer lost time and productivity?  

I've now had this Vista search problem for nearly ll months.  How long does a fix take?

Microsoft cares so much about "hot fixes" they have made hot fix submission requests almost impossible:

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

So is the solution Windows XP, or should I try a new Apple computer?  The Apple computer will be about as alien as Vista has been compared to XP.

Clarification on searching E-mail:  Searching my "normal" Outlook 2007 folders seems to have always worked (and well).  BUT, I had several .pst files with old notes and none of those could be search.  Perhaps re-indexing (which may take hours) will fix the problem.

But is re-indexing a "good" solution here?  I wait hours so I can do the search in seconds, when an exhasutive non-indexed search might take minutes?  Why can't Microsoft give me the choice/control over solvling my problem?

Nick,

You posted that the search "microsoft windows" finds items containing the exact phrase microsoft windows. That search fails on my computer. Vista returns a list of documents that contain both the word microsoft and the word windows even if those documents did not contain the exact phrase "microsoft windows" that was specified in the search criteria.

Did Microsoft issue a fix for this search problem? If not, is there a free 3rd party application that can properly perform an exact search for a phrase in Vista?

Sunflower34,

You can access the old XP like search functionality in Outlook 2007 via Control Shift F.

Murphyw:  Thanks for the tip.  That would have been a lot better than spending Friday - early Sunday morning indexing all my old mail again to get the search to work.  

Vista won't find a file given a word in the contents!

It just doesn't work.

I have a simple text file with a certain word in it.

I try to find this text file, but vista won't find it.

Windows 2000 (linked by a network connection) finds it within a second.

I have tried all available options.

"include non-indexed"

"always search file names and contents"

"find partial matches"

"include subfolders"

etc

etc

It just doesn't work.

Why is there not a simple search function that actually works like in

windows2000?

Do I really have to pay extra money to a third party to buy myself a windows2000 search function?

If so, this is my last microsoft product my company has bought.

I'm signed in as an administrator using vista ultimate.

I design and program 3D engines for Windows in C++, and worked with windows since windows 3.11, and don't consider myself a novice or simnple windows user.

Why is it than impossible to find a text file.

I hope to see a simple solution fast from microsoft, but seeing sunflower34's frustrations that won't happen anytime soon.

Another frustrated user in the netherlands.

As an MSDN subscriber I used one of my "Technical Support Incidents" yesterday pleading for Microsoft to fix Vista's search, or give me a hotfix, or give me a work around.  After nearly two days, there is still silence from Microsoft.

Vista Search just failed me again.  I wrote an R program (http://www.r-project.org/)  a few days ago with a "layout" example and wanted to re-use that code.  I know the directory containing the file, but Windows Vista cannot search the *.R files for the word "layout".  A file-by-file manual search was needed just now in Vista – this is not at all an "advanced" search technique.  Was Vista not designed for programmers that use "other" languages?  

Microsoft:  Why won't you break your silence and say when you'll fix Vista's search?  Admitting there is a problem and the problem is being taken seriously is a more responsible approach than silence.

This was a very useful discussion and reference material. I demonstrated most of the operators and options to myself by doing actual examples, and learned a whole lot. Once the features and options are understood, this is very much more flexible and intuitive than what we had in XP (I realize not everyone thinks that, but it works for me).  

Despair, depression, gloom?

I've learned a request via a MSDN "Technical Support Incident" for a fix to Vista's search goes nowhere since they only provide a solution if one already exists.  Problems without solutions, like Vista's flawed search, go nowhere with MSDN.  After a week, MSDN lost my original "Technical Support Incident" question.  I don't understand how that could happen, since I spent at least half-an-hour on the phone with MSDN about this problem.

Since MSDN cannot "create" anything new to help with this problem, in my second phone call MSDN gave me the phone number for Microsoft Corporate, 425-882-8080, for "Technical Support" – but I explained I thought MSDN was Microsoft technical support, and besides MSDN gave me no contact as a starting point.  So, I called that corporate number and asked for the guy that Nick White referred me to in an E-mail for help on Vista search.  That guy is working on the "next" Windows – so hopefully he'll get search fixed.

But why should I care what Microsoft does?  Microsoft cannot, or will not, fix the current search problem and are happy with frustrated customers who must waste hours and hours to get around problems Microsoft has created.  Many Microsoft customers will never know that search has failed them.  I guess I could try to call Nick White, but despair, depression, gloom have set in.  It's hopeless now.

After nearly a year with Vista, I still can't search 20-25% of my files that have important information I need.  I give up on getting help – Microsoft's bureaucracy is unable or unwilling to address the problem.  My decision now is to pay more money to buy an XP license and abandon Vista, and look seriously at Apple or Linux alternatives for the future.

I saved hundreds of thousands of files so I can search them, why should I abandon those files now?  I do plan to abandon Microsoft since they have such little respect for power users of their products.  I will ultimately save time by returning to XP, where with a registry patch, search still works.  

QUOTE

Posted by Nick White

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey wavydave: My Search colleagues seem to think that the issue here is that we don't index the parentheses and we also see them as a word-break.  Although this may not be as precise as you want, try the following:  *1?.jpg

Also, queries like dav???x???.* should definitely work on filenames and on other properties; such queries do not work on file contents, though.  If you are seeing otherwise, please send along more details to me in a private message.

END QUOTE

No private messages needed.  Empower me with the ability to search all the characters that your colleagues don't index or any other given string for that matter.

I don't need indexing for the function I perform and Vista won't index ALL the files I want to search anyway.

So...just give me and everyone else the option to return the old way of searching. Please??

Just ran into this - the Search feature being more interested in searching its index of files than the files themselves. I really hoped this idea had died in Windows after XP, or at least that the manual option would be a bit more obvious (if you have a button saying "Search within contents...", many people might make the same mistake I did and think it means just what it says).

I went to Folder Options, and on the Search Tab changed the "What to search" radio button set to "Always search filenames and contents (may be slow)". Seemed to get me all my matches back again. No guarantees etc.

I tried what you suggested using Vista Ultimate:

Folder Options | Search.

These options were selected:

- "Always search file names and contents (might be slow)"

- "Don't use the index when searching the file system (might be slow)"

With those settings, I tried to search a directory with some R files (.R) (http://www.r-project.org/) for the word "library", since most R programs use a variety of packages listed in the library statement.  Vista's search returned ZERO hits.  [Checking or unchecking the box "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" doesn't make any difference.]

I tried to search a directory with some Delphi .pas files for the word "string".  Vista's search returned ZERO hits.

I have VMWare on that Vista Ultimate machine and have created a Windows 2000 virtual machine that can read the same Vista files over a virtual network.  Searching the same Vista directories using Windows 2000 resulted in 2 hits for .R files that had the word "library" and 3 hits for .pas files that had the word "string".  Windows Vista Ultimate returned ZERO HITS for searching the same directories for the same strings.  Unfortunately, I don't have the memory resources to run the Windows 2000 virtual machine all the time so I have an easy fix to the flawed search in Vista.

Since July 2007 no solution for Vista's flawed search can be found

- on this blog

- from other Microsoft staff referred to in private messages

- on other Microsoft web pages

- from an MSDN "Technical Support Incident"

- anywhere on the Internet

Microsoft refuses to give permission to downgrade to Windows XP Pro so I can do a search that returns all the hits.  I bought the "Ultimate" Vista, but a defective search is not a good enough reason to downgrade according to Microsoft.

I have appealed for help through Microsoft Response Management, either for a solution to get Vista's search fixed (the preferred solution), or for permission to downgrade to Windows XP.  The Microsoft Response Management Escalation Specialist has stopped discussing the issue.  She considers the case "closed" even there was no fix for the flawed Vista's search, or permission to downgrade.  The problem isn't solved, is a near daily annoyance, but is "closed" according to Microsoft.  

Big businesses can get permission to downgrade to XP from Vista, but normal home users cannot.  Microsoft doesn't care that Vista's search doesn't work.  Microsoft doesn't care that customers need to search files recently created, or legacy files that go back to Window 95 or before – but Vista's search fails on either old or new files.  I guess I could try an appeal directly to Microsoft's Board of Directors since no one at Microsoft will discuss or fix the problem.  My guess is they don't care either.

I currently don't have the "extra" money to buy a separate copy of Windows XP Pro until Windows Vista is "fixed" with a search that works.  Unfortunately, my only options appear to be legal, through an appeal to my state's Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection, or possibly small claims court.  But, Microsoft likely doesn't care about that either, since they have plenty of attorneys.  

Why is it so hard to get Microsoft to listen and fix a problem in Vista?  Why is it unreasonable to expect Windows Vista's search to work as well as the search in Windows 95?

I am a new user and have the "Vista's flawed search" problem:

1) I have a folder and subfolders containing over 200 .wav files

2) Search for *.wav

3) only 11 results found

4) Search for 114 (mix114.wav exists - I am looking at it!)

5) No results for 114

Same applies for .jpgs etc...

I have read all above posts and tried everything.

Please help someone?

Vista SP1 did NOT fix the search problem.

I loved waiting that 90+ minutes for the SP1 update to complete when my machine couldn't be used.

Well, I may be in a minority, but Vista's search for a string within a file that is not indexed STILL DOES NOT WORK with SP1.

That Advanced Search checkbox "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" simply does not work on my Vista Ultimate SP1 machine.

Here's my test: Create a  C:\TestSearch directory with a test.txt file with the string "VistaVistaVista" -- that's all. Vista SP1 can find that one. But if you copy that file to test.R and copy again to test.pas, those files only show up in a string search for "VistaVistaVista" after you re-index -- at least for me. I love the 20 hours or so needed for re-indexing when I discover an extension that needs to be indexed differently. Copy test.txt to test.X, text.Y and test.Z again in the same directory -- on my machine the .X, .Y and .Z files are not indexed. (I have many older files that either didn't follow Microsoft's current convention, or are various scientific formats that Microsoft doesn't care about).  Vista SP1 absolutely cannot find these .X, .Y and .Z files on my machine even with that checkbox "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" checked.

PLEASE, Microsoft, give me back Windows XP so I can find the many files I've collected over many years. I've only been complaining about this failed search since July 2007. [The only way I can find to search for strings in files that are not indexed is to use Agent Ransack or some other third party tool.]

I can figure out how to search for strings in files in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP (with that needed registry fix), but I'm not smart enough to get string search to work in Vista Ultimate.

And with Vista SP1 it's now harder to get to advanced search (I almost always want ONLY advanced search).

I wish someone at Microsoft cared enough to fix string search in Vista.  How many years does it take?

I have a new notebook computer with Vista Business. I maintain it with all regular updates from Microsft Update.

I have about 15 Word 2007 documents in a folder under My Documents. The folder has the "Index this folder" checkbox checked. One of the files has the name of a colleague, "Luis", on its second page. Typing "Luis" in the search pane yields nothing. Going to Advanced Search and checking the box "Include non-indexed..." yields nothing.

If I go to a command line and use a grep utility, the file with the name in it is found.

This is a clear indication of a bug in Vista file searching.

Please add a button to the Advanced Search pane which loads a simple dialog with fields for filename and search term. Use the simple FindFirstFile and FindNextFile Windows API functions for filename matching, no need for custom regex handling there. Use the relatively simple grep algorithms widely available for text processing. No hooks for add-on search processors.

This is grade-school programming, folks. Why not do it? People will be happy. Information that is now lost will be found. You will sleep better nights. Everyone wins.

I am not sure what the Google Complaint was about. Microsoft is already shot itself in the foot. Google just needs to deliver a competent search product that fullfills users needs. Microsoft certainly is not going to.

Enough of my ranting. I know my troubles will not make any difference to anybody at Microsoft. I am just hoping someone from Google reads this and actually jumps on the chance to capture the desktop search.

I built a VMware virtual Vista machine for test purposes.  When I create a new directory on this test machine and try to search for something, I see a new message box under the normal search menu:  "Searches might be slow in non-indexed locations.  C:\TestSearch.  Click to add to index...".  When I follow those instructions and add that new directory to the index, I can search all the files for strings and everything is correctly found.

BUT, on my Vista machine that is over a year old, I never see that dialog "Searches might be slow in non-indexed locations.  C:\TestSearch.  Click to add to index..."  How do I get my old Vista machine to give me this option to search a directory?  Why have I never seen this option on my old Vista machine?

I'm having difficulty with Vista's built-in search function. I'm an experienced Windows user (I've maintained PCs running 3.1, 95, 98, 2000 and XP before this one). Here's the problem:

I have a file called C:\xampp\htdocs\eclipselocalsvn\php_projects_eclipse\symfonytest002\apps\frontend\modules\event\templates\editSuccess.php

That file contains the following line:

<td><?php echo select_country_tag('country', 'DE') ?></td>

Yet when I search for "select_country_tag" (either with or without quotes) in the C:\xampp\htdocs\eclipselocalsvn\php_projects_eclipse\symfonytest002\ directory, even if I select the option to search file contents, Vista comes up with no results.

I'd very much appreciate some help!

Thanks,

Sam

I triggered a complete re-indexing of my system in trying to find a way to get search to work with Vista.  Oddly, Vista says indexing is complete, but later starts indexing other items.  Days after I thought indexing was complete, I tried to search through some old E-mails in Outlook and was told that indexing was not complete.  The user interface needs to be more helpful on just how complete indexing is. Waiting hours or days for indexing to occur before being able to search for files within a specified directory is a Vista search design flaw. How can we ever use "Advanced Search Techniques" in Vista when we cannot get simple searches to work?

Does indexing of Outlook E-mail only happen when Outlook is open?  I closed Outlook and the Indexing Options page shows indexing is complete.  But when I re-open Outlook and try an obscure search of old E-mail, I'm told "search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed ... Outlook is currently indexing your items.  33,583 items remaining across all open mailboxes".  So keeping Outlook open is absolutely required to getting E-mail indexed?  [And some recent sluggishness in Outlook while typing may be explained by this background indexing?  (I can type faster than Outlook displays the words -- it's a great feature).]  

Perhaps when an operating system is lacking in basic functionality it may be time to switch to another?

While using Windows XP, I installed Ubuntu GNU/Linux (a Unix type free/open source operating system) as well, and used to dual boot between them depending on my task. I set this up because I wanted to use some functions and programs I liked that Ubuntu had. It seems now with Vista there is even more reason to consider alternatives, above and beyond the freedom (to use, modify, copy, and distribute, etc) one inherently has with free/open source software in general.

One thing is for certain, when you have complete control over a program (e.g., an operating system) since you have access and rights (granted by the license) to the source code, no one can insist that you 'upgrade' to other software unless you choose to do so.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://www.fsf.org/

Monthly reminder of the continuing saga of Vista search failure:

I'm looking for old *.pas source files with the string "mousemove".  I try Vista's search:  no hits.  Try again with "Search in File Contents". no hits.  Try again after checking "include non-indexed, hidden and system files (might be slow).  No hits.

In less time than any of the above searches, Agent Ransack can quickly find 53 files, compared with Vista's 0 files.  Vista's %error = 100%.

This blog entry is almost a year old and Vista search still fails.  Why the silence from Microsoft?  Why is it unreasonable to have a new product fixed when it doesn't work?

Re: Search for files accd'g to content (string) in file

I use files with extention *.cnc, with numeric file names.  I needed to get a list of which files contained the text "Tab60v1b".  Advanced search failed to "look inside" these.  This was rectified by using "Indexing Options" in Control Panel to change the indexing setting for *.cnc files from "index properties only" to "index properties and file content". (Control Panel > Indexing Options > Advanced button > File Types tab).  

Note, my files are stored on a memory stick; I had added the location of the stick, ie "Removable Disk G:", to my indexing locations (Control Panel > Indexing Options), and hit "modify" in an earlier attempt to follow the help information for searching.  I'm not sure whether I could have gotten away without this or not.

 This blog was helpful, but at what cost.  MS continues to struggle with the efficiency at which it re-teaches the system as it re-invents it.  I've been with windows since win 3.1 and shouldn't have had to spend 2 hrs to get up to speed in Vista regarding how to search files for content strings.  Instead of re-inventing the Op System, MS needs to re-invent its tutorials.  The basic stuff should be easy to re-learn, with less dependence on going to communities on the web that are full of redundant instruction and obscure minutae.

Thanks

Nick, it seems you are not answering the posts about why we are not able to search contents of files with Vista search.

Is this something you are working on or is the question being ignored?

I'm also missing the contents search. That's the type of search I've always used the most; the only one I really need. =(

Nick,

Please start answering your E-mail again.

Ignoring the search problems with Vista is not the way to solve the problem.  Ignoring paying customers is not the way to solve the problem.

Agent Ransack allows me to find files in Vista.

For those that need Agent Ransack for Vista string searches:

http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/download.aspx

I never had a problem searching in earlier operating systems but I can't get Vista to find anything unless I screw around with the search settings for an hour, but even then it's hit or miss and the results can't be trusted. It's sad that one of the most basic functions that an operating system is supposed to provide doesn't work at all in Windows Vista.

I work on a number of folders throughout a day or week, and in XP I would search a ';' seperated list of folders, for files of a certain pattern. In XP I would type my folder list into the "look in" box, and my file pattern into the "All or part of the file name" box, click "Search" and the results would be there almost instantly.

Now in Vista, I have to click "Advanced Search", then "Location", then choose "Choose search location" and type in each folder individually and click add. Then Click OK. I have discovered that if I replace my ';' seperated list with the keyword OR, my name patterns seem to work, but there are three issues here for me.

1. I have to keep clicking "Advanced Search" when I open the search screen. Even XP had the option to make this the default.

2. I have no place to type my folder list. I have to use the mouse / GUI / 'lots of keystrokes' where there is no need for this.

3. The search box itself, that shows you the syntax of the search, is a tiny little box in the top right corner that fits no more than 30 characters. If you want to do more complex searches, it's impossible to see all the contents of this box. And it reacts as you type, which is totally bonkers.

Also, the search "folder list" does not appear in the search box, so I cannot even save my query to a text file and paste it in later.

Are there any easier ways in Vista to do what I need? I have installed Agent Ransack which works like a dream. No fancy graphics or themes, but is a 'Productivity' centred application - unlike Vista - which seems to be entirely 'Multi-Media' based.

Why can't I search old .pst files in Outlook 2007?  How do I force them to be re-indexed?  I can't find anything in megabytes of old information because of Vista design flaws?

Going through these old .pst files MANUALLY is a TERRIBLE SEARCH but all that Outlook 2007 provides?

Why does Microsoft continue to ignore Vista search problems?

I want Windows XP or 2000 search back -- when it always worked.

I am also here because I'm having a heck of a time finding anything using the search function in windows vista and am a little steamed.

I'm also having trouble following the logic of where programs get installed and the directory tree in general.  Is there a neat explanation for these things somewhere?  I hate to have to spend more hours reading docs that seem to lead no where.

How can you search only top level of the selected directory?

The situation is as follows: I have n directories, and I want all top-level files and folders in them to be shown in one virtual folder, but content of their subfolders must not be shown. In other words I want to merge them visually.

For example. There are two directories: "c:\one" and "c:\two". I make search folder for them and it shows:

"c:\one\top"

"c:\one\top\.."

"c:\one\top\..\.."

"c:\two\top"

"c:\two\top\.."

"c:\two\top\..\.."

And I need only:

"c:\one\top"

"c:\two\top"

The only possible solution which I have found - manually exclude every first-level subfolder from a search list. But it is ineffective and boring, because you have to change exclusions list every time you add or delete subfolders... So I need some command to search only first level of directory.

Can you help me, please?

It is good to see I'm not the only one furious with Microsoft. I read through all of the posts and have downloaded Agent Ransack which is great. Most disturbing is how Nick has ignored the site users whom he doesn't appear to like.

I just accepted a position as a Master Black Belt with Microsoft in their Continuous Improvement program. I am requesting as my first project improving this teams response to customer issues. Having done CI for over a decade I fully expect some people to be "reassigned" as a improvement to this process. It won't fix the search function issue but hopefully it will make this process more customer focused and responsive. See you soon Nick!    

I agree with everything sunflower34 and others have said.

Search in Windows NT 4 and 2000 used to work perfectly. I never figured out how to get XP search to give me results I could believe. The only way to find files containing certain text was to use Delphi's "Find in Files" menu option, which simply does what a lot of the people here want: just iterate through all the files matching a ceraing file mask (like *.pas) and then open each of the files and look for the search text. I don't care how long it takes. Just do the search. Any time saved by the so-called optimizations of the indexing service are lost if it doesn't even bother to look in all the files. My hard drive and computer are so fast that the time it takes to searcg for text is not exactly a critical factor.

Vista is now even worse. The interface has been dumbed down, understandibly to appeal to the mass-market who are probably only interested in Word, Excel and Email documents or photographs. That's fine for those people, but why can't you just keep the simple original brute force options available in the "advanced" options?

As a software developer I have to search for stuff every day, but I never need anything any more complicated than "look for this bit of text in all those files there". That's a really, really simple task that simply cannot be done in Vista without getting really, really angry. I'm not interested in keywords and semi-colons and "intuitive" search features or registry settings. I just want to select a folder, type in a filemask and enter a search text. Simple. Out-of the box in Vista this simple does not work.

I actually like most of Windows and I'm not a big fan of loading my system full of (often dubious) third-party tools to perform a bunch of basic, simple tasks. There's just a bunch of "improvements" that seem to be targeted towards the mass-market point-and-click drones who don't know any better. The coding required to povide a few checkboxes in the "advanced" options to give us these original features back, that existed in Windows 2000, is so rediculously trivial which makes it even more frustrating.

There are other features that are in the same league as Searching: absolutely no idea how to control the view/columns in file listings; the fact that there is no way to manually tune a TV station in Media Centre (because it is assumed that the maintream all have access to digital media guides, I suppose it is also assumed the rest of us are too backwards to be using Media Centre so no need for manual tuning. Every TV I owned had one little button called "Auto-Tune" that automatically tuned every available station for me, but not Media Centre - I had to go and type some long number into an undocumented XML file to get it to tune to my station.); Explorer window vanishes because I was dumb enough to eject the DVD before clicking on a different node in the tree; "Cannot stop the device because some unknown, un-detectable, program is still accessing the device and Windows cannot tell me what it is and actually I don't believe it anyway because it still tells me it's being accessed even after I go into task Manager and kill everything."

That last one will give a lot of people a nice little chuckle. It also led me to disabling the indexing service which has had no noticable impact on the search (in)capabilities of my Vista installation.

The point of my ramblings is: yes go ahead and add new fatures. I can see the value of progressing the OS and adding in fancy new features - but please don't throw away useful features just because they don't seem important to the mainstream audience. Hide it behind a checkbox somewhere if you have to, don't just get rid of it. The overly complicated array of folder types and columns may suit the novice who just wants to work with family photos, but developers like me are desperate to just disable all that rubbish and have a simple consistent column selection used everywhere - like we had in XP. Again, we get all this fancy new functionality that stomps on and replaces the nice comfortable settings we could rely on in XP. All it needs is a little checkbox somewhere.

Most of the people being annoyed by these things seem to be the developers - be careful not to annoy them because they may start developing on other platforms!

I hope these things are being considered in the next release of Windows?

Great post - is a pity it took me 5 month before I get to read it.

Vista search is a good feature but ... is A) VERY BAD DESIGNED B) VERY BAD IMPLEMENTED!  C) AND NOT MUCH NEEDED.

A) VERY BAD DESIGNED :

An easy set of "tick boxes" or radio buttons is a must

This Folder only [ ]   Include Subfolder [ ]

This Hard drive  [ ] All hard drives [ ] .. etc

File Name [ ] Full Document [ ]

File types [ ] All files [ ]

... or Classic search [ ] (DEFAULT) new search [ ]

B) VERY BAD IMPLEMENTED!  

Pretends to be an exhaustive search but ... The limitations are not explained -  at all

e.g. for several week I thought that I have lost many files while transferring fro my old PC - only to realise later that they were not lost, just not indexed - I have several hard drives and only some of them where indexed.

You should alert when you are searching in a hard drive or folder that is not indexed. (Oups!  I realised that now you cannot search in a particular folder without expanding a few hours understanding the list of options in this post)

(I wont go the all the other problems presented in this post)

C) AND NOT MUCH NEEDED

Unless MS needs to prove that they can do like Google - the file search in XP etc was perfectly good for most users

Try to explain to my mother the long list of option in this post!

In any case thanks to keep responding to this blog.

hi,

i just took the effort to join so that i could express my complete and total disatisfaction with the functionality and performance of windows vista. As well as being the slowest system hog that i've ever had the misfortune to have to use i find that performing even the simplest of tasks is now a trial. For example searching a dvd for files when the provided box is only interested in searching the "current view". I mean, that's not likely to be the major requirement is it, to search a small list of files. I don't know what you think of your customers but i'm presuming not much. So for your information, i can manage to tell whether the file i need is in the current folder i'm viewing what i need is a search function that wiol check subfolders and files without requiring me to stand on one leg and stick bill gates up my arse.

I can't get "right click" in Windows Explorer to give an option for Agent Ransack on a Vista 64 bit PC.  I've looked in the registry and cannot find anything obvious to explain what might be missing/needed.  I've uninstalled and re-installed Agent Ransack several times and that didn't help.

I wanted to buy a new Windows XP machine but in a moment of weakness when the Vista machine had more memory and was cheaper, I agreed to buy Vista 64 bit. Now I vave a huge and powerful machine, but search is absolutely worthless from Microsoft, and crippled from Agent Ransack.

Maybe the next PC-Apple commercial could hightlight that Vista machines can store files, but they don't give reasonable ways to search for files.  THIS IS TOTALLY FRUSTRATING, MICROSOFT -- THE PROBLEM IS NOW ALMOST TWO YEARS OLD.  WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN TO PAYING CUSTOMERS?

Hi everyone,

I've had a lot of frustration with Vista's search capabilities as well.  What I've found makes search more reliable is, from the advanced search pane, to click Search Tools -> Search Options..., then select "Don't use the index when searching the file system (might be slow)."  It is indeed slow, but I'd rather wait for a good answer than get a bad answer quickly.

- Jimmy

Man, oh man oh man am I frustrated.

I'm trying to search simple strings on a networked folder. In XP, all I needed to do was search the filenames for "81-1" (for example, no quotes) and it would bring up all of the files which began with 81-1 (81-1.jpg, 81-1_1.jpg, 81-12.jpg, etc.). Worked beautifully.

In Vista, searching 81-1 (with quotes, without quotes, as filename:81-1, etc) brings up a ton of crap, including my 81-1 files:

The good:

81-1.jpg

81-1_1.jpg

The bad and ugly:

81-12-8_ARC3_ARC19.jpg

2007-0-81a_1.jpg

lib91-18-81_2.jpg

81-64-19.jpg

all of these filenames (along with many, many more) come up in my search.

How can I search for a simple string - and only a simple string - in a series of folders and subfolders in a non-indexed networked directory.

I've read many of the comments.  I agree that Vista serach is a step BACKWARDS from what we had in XP.

I have a simple question.  How, in Vista, can you search for a specific string. Simple enough.  Searching just in file NAMES, i have these files:

hello.txt

_hello.txt

hello_.txt

If i enter in serach - hello result-> finds all 3 (good)

if i enter in serach - hello_ result -> finds all 3 (wrong)

if i enter in serach - _hello result -> finds all 3 (wrong)

if i enter in search - (hello -result -> find all 3 (TOTALLY WRONG and PERPLEXING).

note, uisng "" around the search term does not help.

note using \ before characters does not help

SO HELP???

How do i simply use search to EXACTLY match text characters.

Does Vista search not do this???

CAN ANYBODY tell me how to do this?  Match only what i type in the serach box, not other random stuff?

Thanks,

tom

video klip izle chat yap sohbet et.

A couple of weeks ago we showed you some of the more popular keyboard shortcuts in Windows Vista. Now

Mit Windows Vista hat Microsoft auch eine mchtige Suchfunktion in das Betriebssystem integriert. Diese Suchfunktion bietet aber noch wesentlich mehr Funktionen, als man auf den ersten Blick vielleicht denken knnte. So lsst sich zum Beispiel durch ein

In my travels amongst ISVs, I find very technical folks who find search in Vista a little, well…, rudimentary

64-Bit Support Correct Disk Cleanup shortcut for Windows Vista 64-bit (Kristan M. Kenney, Canucky.net)

Searching for file content on your computer or server is a common task and one where you would expect

Pingback from  Worth noting today | Trader Eyal

Pingback from  search not finding partial phrases | keyongtech

Pingback from  Vista search anomalies | keyongtech

Pingback from  Advanced Search Terms — Operators to Help You to Create More Defined Searches « Computer help