Windows 7: Error message and search problems

I'm new to this site - hopefully someone can help.

As background - bought a new i5, gtx260, windows 7 x64 computer seven days ago.
Almost everthing I've tried to load has been a major headache - I am still not at a stage to do serious engineering work - main ones are Office, Autocad, etc - they seem to crash due to run-of-the-mill tasks.

But that's an aside.

1. I seem to get error messages in the background (randomly) - I've gone to shutdown numerous times due to no response, and then I find an error message after I close applications down - ie hidden in the background behind other open windows.

How can this be ?
Is there a setting for something as crucial as this ?

2. I have found that "search" sometimes goes for 20 minutes - and sometimes finds nothing. Whereas XP went for 2 minutes and found everything ???

I am not a novice - and find this (and many other things) incomprehensible.

welcome m8. wat exactly is ur problem wit Windows 7? First time the search would take some time, since it has to index all files for easier search. For the first problem, let us know the error message u receive. a snip wuld do.

Hi Milanl,

1) Can only be fixed by the developers of the software your using, Messagebox's showing in the background are the sole responsibility of the application developer to fix by passing the correct window handle and not Microsoft's or Windows responsibility to fix for them.

2) It depends where you search, how you search for it and weather or not your Windows 7 install is over a week old and had more than enough time to index your documents. A search for .txt will not always show the exact same results as ext:.txt because ext: is an explicit operand, the same is said for many symbols like <>?/:'"{}[]~!@#$%^&*()_- where a search will look for totally different files depending on these operands, also if you search solely from a folder (i.e. C:\Users\) then it will only search the current and sub folders, while searching from the start-menu, from pressing WinKey + F (Search Window), My Computer or the hidden 'Everywhere' and 'Indexed Locations' search folders in "C:\Users\<username>\Searches" are the only places configured to search multiple locations.

Explorer also allows you to add Tags to your files so they can be found more quickly and easily if you have an excessive amount of files indexed and it might help if you take a look at the documents on the Windows Search site for advanced query syntax and etc: Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax

Hope it helps.

Steven

Thanks for the replies - I have been away - I don't dislike Windows 7.
Although it may not have come across like that.

I can't send you anything - as the infuriation has over-whelmed everything.

1. Applications not showing error messages on top - no way - Windows error messages don't show on top - and I mean Windows.
I hear error message bells, but they don't show.
Sometimes error messages appear for a split second and then disappear.
I have even re-started Windows - and on re-start a messgae appears "you need to re-start Windows for changes to take effect" - they must be messages from prior to shut-down.

2. I have checked error logs - and they seem to indicate numerous messages were displayed and clicked - which they were not.

I have had 2 weeks of this stuff - out of 30 things I have loaded - 5 maybe have worked first time - 10 have worked after uninstall and re-install -the rest I am still struggling with.

Actually,
I'm seeing the same issue running Windows 7 x64.

It's not related to a particular program. It's really unbearable.

I have not seen many complaints on this. I'm not sure why.

I'm constantly rebooting. The odd thing is it usually ends up with a BSOD.

The foreground window or dialog box has another popup message looking for input behind the window and WILL NOT let you (and I can not alt/tab) answer the question. It's like the current foreground window or dialog box is consistently kept to the front not allowing you to see what's behind it... And worse yet, it will not allow you to move the foreground window to reveal the message box.

I usually will have to use task manager and close the program.
When this happens within Cakewalk Sonar 8.53, the application stops responding and usually ends up with a BSOD when shutting down the not responding in task manager.

This foum has a lot of experienced users and programmers.
Please help a brother out.


Win 7 x64
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R (12GB Corsair 1600)

I can sympathise with you. I have Win 7 x64.

I have not found a way to prevent this - but there are some things I have noticed just recently.

Maybe 30 % of the time I get error messages and dialogue boxes in the background - I've been working mainly with Excel and ACad.

In Excel I can minimise windows until I find the box.
In ACad it's generally the same - except just recently I got a box in the bakground and could not for the life of me get to it - just like you.

All I can remember is I clicked on the program icon 2 or 3 times (maybe double-clicked it ?) - more in contemplation of trying "close window" than anything else - and suddenly the box popped up on top.

It has not happened since, so I can't tell you any more. And when you are infuriated you don't tend to take many notes.

The other thing I noticed is that if I have Windows Explorer open somewhere, when I open a printer dialogue/settings box - the box opens - but Explorer appears over the top of it. (This seems to be random as well)

Maybe it's something to do with Windows Explorer being open - don't know yet.

There seems to be a lot of apologists out there in forum world for Windows 7.

I, for one, have had many more problems since.

The simplest one is - I rename a shortcut, then the shortcut dis-appears.
I search for the exe file to make a new short-cut - but according to Win 7 - it does not exist.

But I can find it myself.

Does some-one know of a search engine that will find a file on your own computer - like XP did.

Is this just too much to ask for ??

Microsoft talk about "computing experience".

I can say I have never done so much swearing ever in my life than since I got Win 7.

And this goes back to Win 3.1 - maybe even DOS 5.0.