Simple file name search

Thsi started with Vista, but has continued in Windows 7.
999 times out of 1000 when I search, I search for a filename, often using only part of the filename.
In XP, provided you didn't install the Windows Search update, it was simple, and worked well. Even if you did install the search update, you could get back to the old search usinf the search companion.
Now, starting with Vista and now Windows 7 the searches take longer and display all sorts of unwanted files because it is searching contents too. I end up clciking to index everything and it is still slow.
At least Vista, after you've done one search, lets you go to advanced search and slect search filenames only. Of course, for that 1 in 1000, I had to do a search, then go to advanced and select to search contents too.

How can I get a simple, search filenames only?
BTW I do these search in computer, already at the desired file and folder, not in the search box from the start icon. That's a good way to get thousands of files selected.

after you've typed the details in the search box, click "See more options" - it's immediately above the box..

- on the next page at top right, you'll see the search box showing your entry..
here you can select some further search options, which may help to narrow it down a bit..

dougham said:

...it is searching contents too.

Click to expand...

Only in index locations.

I end up clciking to index everything and it is still slow.

Click to expand...

Don't do that....otherwise it won't search only file names.

dougham said:

...999 times out of 1000 when I search, I search for a filename, often using only part of the filename...How can I get a simple, search filenames only?...

Click to expand...

Win7 does allow searching filenames only. You can also restrict searching to a specific folder. However you cannot INDEX only filenames (at least not easily). The additional overhead of content indexing is why MS warns against indexing entire drives.

To search only filenames from the Start | Search box, just use "name: myfilename", where myfilename is your file. You can also use leading and trailing wild cards.

If you've already navigated to a folder in Windows Explorer, searches are done within that folder by default. E.g, navigate to My Documents, and in the upper right search box type "*.pdf", which searches within your current folder for pdf documents (by filename).

Note there is a powerful search syntax called Advanced Query Syntax. You can use this from the initial Start|Search box, or anywhere else. You can use Boolean modifications like NOT and OR, search only specific file types like folders, start searches in a specified folder from the original search box, etc. See: Advanced Query Syntax

If you want a fast, simple, filename-only indexer there are several available 3rd party tools. I use "Everything.exe", which is free and runs OK on Win7: Everything Search Engine

joema said:

...Win7 does allow searching filenames only....

Click to expand...

This is to correct the above wrong statement. Win7 does allow filename-only indexing, as discussed in this post: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/41607-search-file-names-only-2.html#post430861

However in the limited testing I did, restricting indexing to filenames only doesn't appear any faster than also doing content indexing.

Filename search

It is critical to our office to search by filename and rarely by content. Too bad MS made this change. Good to know that we are returning to DOS commands. I'm finding a lot of good things on Widows 7 but overall I am very disappointed with much of the changes from XP. It took me 20 minutes to figure out how display thumbnails instead of icons. XP was simple drop downs to get to all the info I needed, in a format that I could use.

tob said:

It took me 20 minutes to figure out how display thumbnails instead of icons.

Click to expand...

It took you 20 minutes to do that? Come on be real!

name: filename is the way to go.

However, no one should EVER need to search for filenames. Searching with file names is a very bad practice. It forces users to remember the names of hundreds of files. Searching by file contents is so much easier. That's why I think Windows 7's search feature is a million times better than XP's.

Wow! If I already know the file name, why should I search by context and get a list of all the files with the search argument, when I only want one, known, file.

I'm sorry. I don't normally like to argue with genuinely stated opinions in public forums but I really must take issue with this statement:

>>However, no one should EVER need to search for filenames. Searching with file names is a very bad practice. It forces users to remember the names of hundreds of files. Searching by file contents is so much easier.<<

Of course people need to search for filenames. This morning I wanted to check what folder a particular Windows component (MSCOMCT2.OCX in this instance) was installed in. I neither know nor care what actual data is contained within MSCOMCT2.OCX but I know the file name. I don't want to be told about the umpteen emails I might have that talk about the file, or any notes I may have made that mention it. I just want to find the file.

This is just one of many examples of instances where I know full well what the file is called and am not interested in any file's contents. Providing a search for file name facility (in addition to a content search) certainly does not force me, or anyone else, to remember file names.

It's horses for courses. Sometimes folk might want to search by file content. Curiously, I have yet to find much need for that facility myself but I don't begrudge it to those who do find it useful. I, on the other hand, frequently want to search for files by name. As a software developer these are, more often than not, executables and other binary files whose content (by which I mean the actual bit patterns contained in the file) isn't relevant to me.

So to say that no one ever needs to search for files by name is a very blinkered statement.

Having to Type "name:" is Hardly An Advance

It is very interesting that Microsoft dropped the option to search file names only during Beta testing. I think it is a big problem for Microsoft that beta testers tend to be power users/advanced users much more than the general population of users. The beta testing context does not provide a representative sasmple of users to Microsoft, so beta-based changes are skewed away from people like me: A scholar who is happy with Office 2003, doesn't use much else besides that and the internet, virtually never needs to do a content search, and just wishes that those who love and work in technology would better understand the needs and workday situations of other types of users. My bottom line take: Having to key in "name:" on all my searches is a step backwards, something like being forced to drive a manual transmission car because the auto company gearheads enjoy the feel of it. Faster searches? Right, like I need to shave off a fraction of a second while My Documents is being searched. There are many kinds of users. Wake up Microsoft, after all these years.

I do not understand

I have been using filename searches since Windows 3.11, yes I know it is a long time ago. In the eternal hope to know less and use better that Microsoft seems to have embraced, we shall know less, it will take us longer, and we will be more lost.

Why? I do not know.

The content search is powerfull and has helped me 10 times in 30 years of computing, from software development to software teaching, when I was looking for a file that I had not used in many years and I remembered some small particular word in it. In my day to day work I perform at least 10 searches a day.

That makes content seaches for me, based on an approximated percentage from above, usefull in 0.0001% of cases, and the name: filename search usefull in the 99.9999% of cases.

However, I as a software developer I am probably 1% of the Windows user community. It does note make sense to satisfy me since I do not represent the market.

I will try to fix the new OS to think that I am always typing name: ... or I will make it think that when I type name: it means I want a content search and when I do not type it a filename search...

Hope I did not bother anyone. I have been using Windows 7 for about ten minutes more than I took to write this, and needed to find a folder, which means I was quite sadenned by this yet other upgrade/downgrade.

I did find and download a program called "Search Everything", everything.exe. I am not a technical person, but it is simple and I have not had new problems attributable to it, as far as I know. I think I got it from CNET. I also redid my Index, indexing only doc files this time, so I can search on a file name with Everything or search on contents using native Windows search--without getting the fire hose of search returns and clutter. I am not likely to search on content in non-doc files, so this approach works for me, I think. Good luck.

Search Everything is a quicker and better choice provided you only search file names, not contents.

In the last 15 years, I have wanted to search for content exactly 0 (zero) times. I find files mostly by navigating into subfolders and looking for file names, but I use Search Everything fairly often.

I don't need to search for content because my file names are highly relevant to their content.

My folder structure has a lot of subfolders, so I don't have to look through 200 files names by eye. My folders very rarely contain more than 20 files--and the file names always describe the content.

I'd have long since gone crazy if I had hundreds of files in a single folder or if I had a spaghetti sauce recipe buried inside a file called "Visit To Grandma".

I’ve also have been using Windows forever and found totally confusing the changes in Search on Vista and now is much worst in Windows 7!

MS seams to try to outguess the user and limit their options (this remembers me of Apple).

Yes “content search” can be useful (in a very small number of cases) but why-o-why they don't make it optional !!!

They have also decided to hide the other options (called advance ) to which everyone was usen and the only way to find the "name:" option in searching in Google - certainly not in Windows help.

Really sub-standard!!!

The search tool in Win7 has more problems than the awkward filter based searching. It also often has trouble finding files you know are in a given directory which, after a failed search attempt, can be manually found with a few scrolls.


James

Here is a lot of information regarding the Windows search options.

The XP method was much more user friendly. Would it be that difficult for MS to create a native GUI offering a more simplistic manner of presenting the many possible queries indicated in the above link?

I like the Win 7 search.

I have found 100% of my searches.

XP I was lucky to get 60% of what I was searching for.

Hopalong X said:

I like the Win 7 search.

I have found 100% of my searches.

XP I was lucky to get 60% of what I was searching for.

Click to expand...

That's great, Mike.
Perhaps you are a touch typist that has memorized all of the available options offered in Win 7 advanced query syntax search?

Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax

I use it like I would a Google search most of the time.

I didn't know they had a name for doing this. Sometimes that is all I have to search by.
Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax

Sometimes just a file type.
Maybe a little luck thrown in.
It works for me.

Mike