Windows search capability

[beamish]

Have a query concerning Windows7 search abilities.
I use a free search program.
Once in awhile I use Windows search.
Does Windows search need to be set up in order to
function beyond the basic ability?
Example, tried to locate Windows screen savers storage.
I know were it is, hoped that the search engine would be faster.
Placed .scr in search window, received 16 hits none were
Windows screen savers that came with the OS.
The 16 hits were links to screen saver sites that I saved in I.E.
and a folder I created for screen savers I downloaded.
The free search engine located 54 items including every .scr file.

 

[Fire cat]

Hum... I don't think you need to setup Windows Search, but you might have to index the entire drive.
By default, windows doesn't search the entire drive. It doesn't include all of the WINDOWS folder, if at all.

When you do a search IN WINDOWS EXPLORER , a yellow bar might ask you if you want to index a drive. Try that.

By the way, whats the software? Just curious.

Hope this helps.
Fire Cat

 

[clifford_cooley]

fire cat is correct, in order for windows search to work, the folders must first be indexed.

There is a freeware search program that works allot better than Windows Search. To be honest, it works better than the search feature of my Files Manager that I use. If you are interested here is the program. - Everything

 

[TrainableMan]

Start Menu \ Control Panel \ Programs and Features
select Turn Windows Features On and Off
5th selection from the bottom is search
if checked it provides some search functionality: indexing, mail search, etc

 

[davehc]

I use "everything". I have turned off the Windows 7 search facility. The latter means losing the search bar in the Start, but that does not worry me too much as I always use "run"
Everything is a little magical. I cannot figure how it can be so quick, but it sure works for me!

 

[Fire cat]

Ok. So the thing to do is to index the folders. Though, indexing a whole drive can dramaticly increase the search time, and seeing as Windows Search is allready bad enough, that will make it really slow.

I'm probably goingbto move on to "Everything" as well.

Cheers,
Fire Cat

 

[beamish]

Agent Ransack is a freeware "lite" version of FileLocator Pro.
On this computer I am using Agent Ransack 2010, build 762-2010.03.29.47911.
http://www.mythicsoft.com
The "lite" version is small, easy install, easy to use, small amount of resources and fast.
I uncheck indexing and several other items on Windows systems.
Thank all who provided information concerning this subject.

 

[TrainableMan]

Indexing should decrease search times, not increase them, because it only has to look at the index files rather than read all the files. And starting with Vista, Microsoft really worked on the indexing to keep it happening behind the scenes:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/10/13/windows-desktop-search.aspx

 

[missionman]

I use "everything". I have turned off the Windows 7 search facility. The latter means losing the search bar in the Start, but that does not worry me too much as I always use "run"
Everything is a little magical. I cannot figure how it can be so quick, but it sure works for me!

You may be able to change that and have Search Everything run from the start bar. I know that if you download Google Desktop it takes over from the Windows Index so that when you type a word in the search bar in the start menu it will give you the search results in a browser.

Some of you may want to consider trying Google Desktop, although I'll admit that search everything is the fastest i've tried. I just really can't go without the functionality of having the search function in my folders.

 

[TrainableMan]

A little late but I'm thinking it was because of the search settings...

In windows explorer, you might click Organize and select folder & search options. Under the search tab ...

What to search:
At the top I use "In Indexed locations ... In non-indexed just search filenames" -based on what you said it IS a filename you are trying to find so the first setting should work and will be faster than the second.

How to search:
be sure to select include subfolders

When searching non-indexed:
be sure to check Include system directories - if this isn't checked I don't think you will find the screensavers
and check Include compressed files if you want to find them in zips and cabs


You can also go to control panel\indexing options to choose where windows indexes and where it doesn't. Indexing can speed up searches and will limit matches to filenames only if the first setting mentioned above is used.

 

[Core]

Honestly, I think Everything looks great for XP or other pre-Vista versions of Windows, but for Windows 7, in my opinion, switching to it from Windows Search would be a downgrade.

I don't experience any lag whatsoever using Search. I got an email yesterday from my father-in-law, a joke about two brothers. If I hit the Win key and start typing his first name and the word "brother," Search has found it in my Outlook before I'm finished typing. You can index file contents, even on network drives, which is particularly useful since I store all my mp3s and other media on a network drive so that all machines in the network can access them. From what I can tell, Everything doesn't support any of those functions.

 

[kenmccor]

There have been a lot of these types of complaints with windows search. One in particular I have heard is that windows has a problem with words or phrases inside files. I haven't searched this way so I have no first hand info on that. Win-search is said to produce perfect results but doesn't work with the Index Server so it is much slower.