Anybody else hate the search system?

[Doug Sanders]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

Thanks,

Doug Sanders

 

[Augustus]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

Thanks,

Doug Sanders

No. Since the Windows 7 search actually takes the trouble to categorize the
finds in separate headings (documents, music, programs, control panel, etc)
and narrows the search based on the details of search parameters provided
(by you) it's hard to see how this is viewed as a negative thing. It's
lightning fast and includes more useful hits. It's system overhead is
minimal plus it's vastly superior to the XP search which basically could
find next to nothing and in many cases would return zero results even with a
known file name or extension. It's vastly improved over Vista as well, fwiw.

 

[Speaking in silver]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

You may like Everything, which is freeware and works fine:
http://www.voidtools.com/

The best part is you can also disable the annoying Search an Indexing
Services running in the background of Windows 7. To disable these services,
type in the Run dialog box: services.msc > Select the service > Right-click
on properties and disable.

After testing that my system ran fine with these services disabled, I
decided to uninstall them completely: Control Panel> Programs> Programs and
features> Select Windows features on or off > Uncheck Windows Search and
Index Server.

I was surprised how much memory and CPU time was freed up. Now I have a good
searching tool and a faster system too.

 

[Allen]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

Thanks,

Doug Sanders

It's the worst search system I've ever used. Vista's search was far, far
superior--one of the few things I liked about Vista. The W7 search is
slow, slow, slow, sometimes doesn't find things that I know are
there--generally pathetic. Someone posted a link here to
FileSeek--forgot his name, unfortunately, plus the link--but look in
Google and try the free download. I think you'll like it.
Allen

 

[Augustus]

I was surprised how much memory and CPU time was freed up. Now I have a

good searching tool and a faster system too.

Yes, I'd be surprised too. In Windows 7 64 searchindexer.exe uses about
20Mb of kernel RAM for the process and what is basically an immeasurable
amount of CPU time. With the process killed there's no meaurable difference
in CPU usage. Your program uses 10Mb of kernel and is incapable of doing
most of what the Windows 7 search engine does. There's a whole lot of other
things this program can't and won't do. It's easy to be fast when you're
doing essentially nothing. But you save 0.5% of your RAM on a 2 Gig system
and a whopping .25% on a 4 gig system. You are a deliberate troll.

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

Thanks,

Doug Sanders

I hate it also. it never seems to be able to find any file that I
type in, the old system was much better, I need something better than this.

Regards, Rene

 

[SC Tom]

I bypassed the Vista OS, and stuck with XP til now.

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up all kinds of
mismatches and items when all I want is to find the file with the name I
typed into the 'Search' box.

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

Thanks,

Doug Sanders

I don't mind the Win7 search engine, but hated the Vista one. XP was OK, but
I wanted something better for it, too, so I got Agent Ransack.
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/
It works very well in all 3 OS's and is a freebie.

 

[DougS]

Hate? No, but I am disappointed with the Windows 7 desktop search system and
sometimes get fed up watching the green bar crawling from left to right that
seems to slow down even more beyond 90%.

I would would be tempted to use Copernic were it not that it does not appear
to support (or even acknowledge the existence of) Win 7 or Windows Live
mail.

If there is a way of speeding up the Win 7 search or a good replacement for
it I would be glad to hear of it.

DougS (not Sanders)

 

[Jeff Gaines]

Is there a better way or a fall back to the earlier versions?

I am trying File Seek:
http://www.binaryfortress.com/fileseek/

and Agent Ransack:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

both free and both very much better than the Win7 search.

 

[Speaking in silver]

Yes, I'd be surprised too.

Please stop lying and confusing people. Windows Search is slow, heavy and
malfunctioning. After hours and hours of indexing, it just won't find some
existing files, and will return some random results that don't match the
typed search string. It's really hard to do worse than that: A useless
waste of time and resources.

Here's an independent review of "Everything":
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/...-fast-desktop-search-program-for-ntfs-drives/
"fastest desktop search program (for files and folder names)"
"beats the pants off of Windows' default search function"

Pros: Fastest in the world. You get your results while you're typing.
Cons: Only works with NTFS drives. Only files and folder names.

For people who don't care so much about speed, but need some advanced
options (like searching inside files), these are good alternatives:
- Fileseek
- Agentransack
- Locate32

There's one for every user.
And of course, there's also Microsoft Lurch for people like you.
Happy to see that you're happy with what you have to be happy with

 

[Ato_Zee]

Windows Search is slow, heavy and
malfunctioning. After hours and hours of indexing, it just won't find some
existing files, and will return some random results that don't match the
typed search string. It's really hard to do worse than that: A useless
waste of time and resources.

That is why crap operating systems make commercial sense,
there will always be a better one in development, so we can
con the punters into buying it, an endless loop that generates
money.

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

That is why crap operating systems make commercial sense,
there will always be a better one in development, so we can
con the punters into buying it, an endless loop that generates
money.

Thanks, Speaking in silver, Downloaded and installed EVERYTHING and Wow!
this is exactly what I was looking for, Man this thing is fast and does
exactly what I want. Beats the Win 7 100 to 1 .

Thanks Again, Rene Lamontagne

 

[Michael Cecil]

Thanks, Speaking in silver, Downloaded and installed EVERYTHING and Wow!
this is exactly what I was looking for, Man this thing is fast and does
exactly what I want. Beats the Win 7 100 to 1 .

Thanks Again, Rene Lamontagne

I tried Everything a few days back but the fact it doesn't search inside
docs and wants to run all the time in the background turned me off. I had
Agent Ransack a few years ago on my Bart PE discs so I'm trying that out
again.

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

I tried Everything a few days back but the fact it doesn't search inside
docs and wants to run all the time in the background turned me off. I had
Agent Ransack a few years ago on my Bart PE discs so I'm trying that out
again.

You can turn off "run in background " in Tools>options,If that helps.

Regards, Rene

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

For people who don't care so much about speed, but need some advanced options
(like searching inside files), these are good alternatives:
- Fileseek
- Agentransack
- Locate32

I use and like SuperFinder XT, and it's reasonably fast.

Unlike Ransack, it lets me act on what it finds.

I haven't tried the other two.

Also, I still sometimes use WIndows Search.

Oh - I'm still in Vista. Haven't yet installed my W7 update

 

[Nil]

Unlike Ransack, it lets me act on what it finds.

I asked the Ransack guys about that, and it's a limitation of the free
version. The for-pay version gives you all the expected options for
manipulating the file. I especially missed the "Open containing folder"
option. Otherwise, their Find tool is very quick and thorough.

 

[genious]

I never even tried it until i read this post.

I have 5 drives in my system. The first thing I did is click on
start and typed *.mp3 in the search prompt. It found about 6 files.
I have over 400 gig of mp3's. Ok.. so being I am a "genious" I
noticed it only was looking at C:. That's not so helpful.

So now I redo the search again slecting "My Computer". Ok, seems
like it found them all. However, in all the finds I didn't show
what drive it found them on.

Ok,the first search you only returns hits on C: and takes you to
real search screen that it should go to in the first place. Searches
form this screen fails to show the drive for hits.

Once again, recognizing that I am a genious, I'm smart enough to
realize perhaps I'm doing it wrong, and in that case the other
geniouses here will inform me of my error. None the less I have to
agree, not too usefull.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Is this Search routine the only option? It brings up
all kinds of mismatches and items when all I want
is to find the file with the name I typed into the
'Search' box.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Super-Finder.shtml

Make sure to uncheck the box that says, "Smart Search"
and then you will be back to searching the old way,
with wildcards, etc., just getting the files you want!

Also check the options. It wants to start at bootup, etc..
You don't need that.

Here's what I personally recommend to do (and I do not
get the "XT" version):

1) Install Super Finder.

2) During install, get rid of the "FSL" in the folder
and Start Menu folder (so that it just goes into
the Program Files\Super Finder folder).

3) After install, tell it that you will reboot later
and then run the program.

4) Go to the "Search for..." tab and check the box
that says "and/or Folder".

5) Now go to the "Setup" tab and unselect the following,
in this order:

Start minimized to Tray
Load with Windows
Automatic Check at Program Startup
Close to Tray Bar

Reboot and enjoy!

This is the last version of it, so you don't need
to check for updates. It works great!

--

Pastor Dave

The following is part of my auto-rotating
sig file and not part of the message body.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you
is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

 

[rick]

Search for a file in Windows 7 is not easy for a beginer. You might have to search alot on the web to find out on just how to do the simplest test of finding files. Found this resource on the web: http://computing-tips.net/Find_file_Windows_7/