It appears that you favor protecting the user from him or herself by not
letting them search the content of their own files.
No, the problem is the database which is created. I can't remember the
webpage link now, as it was about 18 months ago I looked at it, but it
referred to the availability of programs to extract information from the
database file produced by indexing. The problem is that anyone with
access to an open computer could simply copy the database to a memory
stick, and extract the info at their leisure. Unless the location on
the disk been changed, it is always at the same place. Even if that
file was 100Mb, it would take only a few tens of seconds to copy it to
the stick. Contrast that with having to look through a C: drive trying
to find the "interesting" stuff. True, you could copy the "My
Documents" folder and hope for the best, but the database is a lot easier.
Far too much is indexed by default, IMHO. The vast majority of users
will have no idea that almost everything they do on their computer
(including browsing history?) is going into that database.
If you really want to
do that to yourself, simply disable content indexing.
I did as soon as I realised what all that disk activity was all about.
I turned off the service as well.
Secondly, even if you turn off the indexing (and just use it like XP's
search), it is pretty slow. I just asked it to search for *.doc in C:\.
It took 45 seconds before anything appeared on the screen, and then
about a dozen files appeared (why? Why not list files as it finds them).
It stopped after 145 seconds, having found 90 files.
[snip]
So why the difference? The W7 search found dozens of files called
HPAdvisor.MainFrame.Windows.DockViewWindow.User.Marketing.dock.
In other words, it found *.dock files as well as *.doc files. But it
failed to include any *.doc files in the recycle bin. Those are, of
course, still available for use if they are restored.
Unfortunately, this comparison is worthless because you (and the other
respondents in this thread) have not learned the basics of using Windows
Search 4. The query syntax has changed. The correct query to find files
with a given extension is to use the ext property, like this:
ext:doc
I couldn't find this within "Help" on my laptop. Why the change from
the asterisk which everyone has used for years? If they wanted to make
a new, more powerful search, it's a pity MS couldn't have used something
to equate an * to ext: (maybe equivalent to a junction point for
compatibility, if you see what I mean).
That searches *only* file extensions, not file names or contents. It is
fast, accurate, and does indeed include items in the recycle bin. The
query that you used searches all strings, including content and file
names, which of course is much slower and returns many unwanted results.
Didn't work for me. Still takes ages to come up with the first files it
finds. It still found all the *.dock files and no recycle bin files.
Also found 20 further files such as
/GetContent.aspx?assetID=0e88efcb-0f3f-4a37-8ccc-331c81b96adc&documentSet=en-US&Prod=WIN700&Market=GB.
I don't know where it got those from as everything other than "name"
was blank. I thought originally they might be from Firefox which I had
open at the time. I closed it and repeated the search and up they
popped again. From right-clicking on "Properties" it became apparent
these were jpg or xml files. In "General" the location of the file
above is given as:
http://content.windows.microsoft.co...96adc&documentSet=en-US&Prod=WIN700&Market=GB.
Then I realised I had copied the "ext:doc" you stated and used that to
search. From the link you gave to the advance search query syntax, I
see that it should be "ext:.doc". That made you difference! Exactly
the same result.
Using a property query on a file extension, my Vista PC took only 45
seconds to complete a search of all locations on C drive, including system
files. Excluding system files shortened the time to 20 seconds.
But we are talking about Win7, not Vista. I note that at the top of the
link you refer to below, it starts "Once you have Windows Search for
Windows Vista or Windows XP...". However, it didn't pop up a warning
that it didn't refer to the OS I am using, so maybe it does apply to
Win7 as well.
Wild card searches are rarely needed now and I almost never use them.
Then you have a lot better memory than me! IME, I almost never needed
to search the content of files.
You
