Windows search

[Dex]

I have somehow disables searching for file or folders on my drive. No
search box in the start menu and no search box next to the explorer
location box.

Cant see a search function in Services that was mistakenly disabled, or
one in control panel.

Any idea how to get it back?

Using 7 Home premium.

 

[Evelyn Woolston]

It's nicely hidden in Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features >
Turn Windows Features on of off.>Windows Search

Slightly surprising since you'd expect it be in the Toolbar option of
Windows Explorer or on the Start button Options
One of the first things I did after seeing how badly it worked was to find
an alternative to the horrible Win7 search.
I'm using FileLocator Lite.
http://www.mythicsoft.com/Page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=download
Choose the option to allow it to appear in the right click Windows context
menu when you install it.

Evi

 

[Jeff Layman]

It's nicely hidden in Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features >
Turn Windows Features on of off.>Windows Search

But if you persevere you can find it and turn it off. ;-))

I also stopped the search service WSearch from running.

Slightly surprising since you'd expect it be in the Toolbar option of
Windows Explorer or on the Start button Options
One of the first things I did after seeing how badly it worked was to
find an alternative to the horrible Win7 search.
I'm using FileLocator Lite.
http://www.mythicsoft.com/Page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=download
Choose the option to allow it to appear in the right click Windows
context menu when you install it.

I use Agent Ransack:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home

 

[croy]

It's nicely hidden in Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features >
Turn Windows Features on of off.>Windows Search

Thanks for that tip, Evelyn.

I did notice that when I turned it off, a related feature
dissappeared: the Start Button feature of finding/starting
an app simply by typing a portion of its name. Since that
feature seems to me like a sort of mitigation for MS's
ruination of the Start Menu system (somewhere between
WindowsXP and Windows 7), I elected to turn it back on. But
I still use Agent Ransack for file searches.

But I'm keeping your tip, in case, after getting to know the
new features in Windows 7, if I want to leave it alone, or
gut it and use one of the available after-market products to
return to the older way of doing things.

I'm tellin' ya, if it weren't for free and low-cost software
from other kind folks, Windows would be a word that would
never require an upper-case "W".

Thanks again for your tip.

 

[James Silverton]

I killed Windows Search over a year ago. I never lost the ability to
find a program or file in that Start Menu "Search" box. AFAIAA I just
stopped the indexing service from running, and that does not affect the
"Search" box.

I've been using Google Desktop for some months and, once it prepares its
index, it works very well.
--


James Silverton, Potomac

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