Win 7 Searching?

[W8CCW]

In Win XP I could search files with several methods. Finding a file
with a specific phrase was one of the ways. Although it was pretty
slow, it was useful.

The current search is very fast and makes Agent Ransack redundent, but
it does not appear to be able to do anything other than a name search?

What am I missing?

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, W8CCW.

"W8CCW" wrote in message

In Win XP I could search files with several methods. Finding a file with a
specific phrase was one of the ways. Although it was pretty slow, it was
useful.

The current search is very fast and makes Agent Ransack redundent, but it
does not appear to be able to do anything other than a name search?

What am I missing?

Click Control Panel | Indexing Options.

This interface is pretty slow and clumsy, but if you stick with it, Win7's
Search function can be quite capable. I'm far from expert at this, but I've
been working on it since the early Vista beta and have finally managed to
get it working pretty well on my computer.

First, click Advanced, then the File Types tab. For many of the extensions,
you need to choose to Index Properties and File Contents, rather than the
default Index Properties Only. Then be sure that the proper "filter" is
installed to match the file type. For example, .txt files need the Plain
Text Filter. Also choose this filter for other plain text extensions, such
as .ini, .bas, .bat...and many others. For .eml and .nws files, use the
Windows Live MIME Filter. Most Office extensions use the Microsoft Office
Filter, but .pub files use the Microsoft Publisher Filter. Hundreds of
extensions are listed; I've left almost all of them at the default, which is
often the File Properties Filter and Index Properties Only.

Back at the Indexing Options screen, click Modify and choose which Locations
(files and folders) you want indexed.

Another option on the Advanced page lets us move the Index from Drive C:,
the default, to another location, on the same physical disk or a different
one. My system has 4 HDDs with plenty of space, so I created a volume on
the second disk, assigned the letter 'I" for Index, and had Win7 create my
Index there. Warning: This Index can grow quite large, so make sure you
have plenty of room on that volume. After running out of space the first
couple of times I tried this, my current Drive I: is 60 GB; the Index now
uses 15 GB, so I have room to grow. Indexing Options says that it currently
has 1,228,243 items indexed. (Before I trimmed it recently, it had over 3
million.)

Then, just give it plenty of background time to built the Index. In spite
of its efforts to stay out of your way, you will probably notice occasional
delays for a few days while it works in the background. But once the Index
is built, it should be almost unnoticeable. Unless you need to use the
Modify or Advanced buttons again, in which case it may have to completely
rebuild the Index.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1

 

[Big Steel]

In Win XP I could search files with several methods. Finding a file
with a specific phrase was one of the ways. Although it was pretty
slow, it was useful.

The current search is very fast and makes Agent Ransack redundent, but
it does not appear to be able to do anything other than a name search?

What am I missing?

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Windows-7-Search-File-Contents

 

[Jeff Layman]

In Win XP I could search files with several methods. Finding a file
with a specific phrase was one of the ways. Although it was pretty
slow, it was useful.

The current search is very fast and makes Agent Ransack redundent, but
it does not appear to be able to do anything other than a name search?

What am I missing?

Just remember that the Win7 search works fast because it indexes more or
less everything on your hard disk and stores that information in a
database. That includes anything confidential you have stored (unless
you have remembered to specifically exclude the folder containing those
files. You did remember, didn't you?), and also includes your Internet
Explorer History. (BTW, I understand that by default encrypted files
are not indexed, but does anyone know if those are files indexed prior
to encryption - eg during creation of a Word file which is saved several
times during its creation, but only encrypted when the final version is
saved?)

It is one of the first things I turned off completely (not as easy as
you might think) as I found it so invasive. I use Agent Ransack for
searching.

YMMV.

 

[Sunny Bard]

First, click Advanced, then the File Types tab. For many of the
extensions, you need to choose to Index Properties and File Contents,
rather than the default Index Properties Only.

the Index now uses 15 GB,

For me, having an index consume so much space, needing configuring in
advance and rebuilding the index when I change the configuration are all
heavy minus points, I can't predict exactly what I'll want to search
for, but I don't mind results taking a little longer.

 

[James Silverton]

For me, having an index consume so much space, needing configuring in
advance and rebuilding the index when I change the configuration are all
heavy minus points, I can't predict exactly what I'll want to search
for, but I don't mind results taking a little longer.

My normal approach to finding anything is a Google Desktop search. I
have a Google gadget set up for this.
--


James Silverton, Potomac

I'm *not* (e-mail address removed)

 

[W8CCW]

My normal approach to finding anything is a Google Desktop search. I
have a Google gadget set up for this.

I like this one best, especially if it works for me.

Between virus scanning and indexing I had become a low priority user
on my XP machine.