Get search working in Windows 7

[svrich]

"In Windows 7, you can find more things in more places—and do it faster."

If Bill Gates was standing here right now I would punch him in the face. What a lie!

I am looking at a file right now in windows explorer and the search tells me "no file found".

After months of using the search with no results I finally find out the Micro$oft has totally screwed it up and ruined it like they do to most things. Now you have to do some king of confusing BS indexing of stuff before search will even work. They just keep making things more and more confusing and frustrating. Now can anyone be kind enough to tell me how to get the search function back the way it used to be where you search for a file and find it? I have to constantly be using google to search for answers for every thing I try to do on windows and posting in forums for answers. It wastes so much of my time.

Rich

Hating Microsoft since 1985

 

[clifford_cooley]

Hi svrich

Have you considered a third party search tool?

"Everything" is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.
Unlike Windows search "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything").

Download Everything here > http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

 

[Fire cat]

If Bill Gates was standing here right now I would punch him in the face. What a lie!

Bill Gates isn't chief of Microsoft anymore. Steve Ballmer is.

Anyway, you could install Search Everything, as CC suggested. It's a great, lightning fast app that finds files everywhere (hidden files, system files...) in seconds.

Though, have you indexed the part of the HDD you searched? That might help.

 

[svrich]

Hi svrich

Have you considered a third party search tool?



Download Everything here > http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

Maybe I should look for a third party operating system. Why the hell should I buy third party software when I just spent money on an operating system that was always able to search for files in the past? Windows has a search feature. It just doesn't work unless you know the secret of how to get it to work like most microsoft things. They hid all the menus at the top of the window. It took me a long time to figure out you have to hit Alt to get then to show. They keep screwing up the operating system until my computer is almost unusable then claim how they make everything "easy" Grrrrr. I don't want to have to rely on unknown third party software that could have malware.

 

[svrich]

Though, have you indexed the part of the HDD you searched? That might help.

How do you do that? I've googled and can't figure it out.

It shouldn't be this difficult to do such a simple task as search for a file. It's always worked with previous versions of windows. If things were easy and user friendly we wouldn't have to post in these forums to do the most simple tasks.

 

[Fire cat]

This should explain pretty well:
http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-file-search-indexing-options/

 

[Digerati]

If Bill Gates was standing here right now I would punch him in the face.

What a lie!

Hating Microsoft since 1985

Wow svrich. As noted, BG is not the chief engineer, and punching someone in the face solves nothing, especially when you are wrong! The Win 7 search engine does what the statement claims. Is it perfect? No. But then Windows 7 is an operating system, not a search engine. And if you've hated something for 25 years, why keep using it? There have been able alternatives for all Microsoft products for years.

Why the hell should I buy third party software ...
I don't want to have to rely on unknown third party software that could have malware.

If you had bothered to look, you would have seen that Everything is free. But worse yet, I find it pretty sad you come here seeking advice, then when two respected members of the site, including a moderator come to your aid and suggest a suitable non-Microsoft, "free" alternative, you call it "unknown" and suggest they might recommend something containing malware! Once again, had you bothered to look, a simple Google search would have shown that Everything has received good reviews - hardly something full of malware would get.

Maybe I should look for a third party operating system.

Since it is clear you have a biased aversion for anything Microsoft, I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[catilley1092]

Maybe I should look for a third party operating system. Why the hell should I buy third party software when I just spent money on an operating system that was always able to search for files in the past? Windows has a search feature. It just doesn't work unless you know the secret of how to get it to work like most microsoft things. They hid all the menus at the top of the window. It took me a long time to figure out you have to hit Alt to get then to show. They keep screwing up the operating system until my computer is almost unusable then claim how they make everything "easy" Grrrrr. I don't want to have to rely on unknown third party software that could have malware.

svrich, it's obvious that you don't like MS, or at least Windows 7 anyway. You mention a "third party operating system", perhaps Linux Mint 9 would be of interest to you. It is the 4th most used OS in the world, and it's free. And a damn good OS at that, with a software portal of over 30,000 apps ready to download. But get ready for a learning curve.

Sorry that I can't help with the search feature, Clifford & Fire Cat has already made suggestions on that. But if you're considering a "third party OS", my suggestion may well be what you're looking for. I use it myself, but it's second to Windows.

But keep one thing in mind, no OS (paid or free) is perfect, and probably never will be. If they were, these forums wouldn't exist, as there would be no need for them.

Cat