Give me the old Search !!

hubmus said:

To McGyvr: Are you really reading these posts to be helpful, or do you just enjoy being negative? Why would you even spend time responding to horrible me?

Apologies, and welcome to the forums. Please don't believe that this is the usual reception new posters receive. Questions on search seem to be a hot button for some.

Best not to take what some of these posters have said personally . You can ignore them simply by clicking on their name and choosing that option if you so wish.


As to search, Many feel as you do, so you're not alone. You do have other choices. Many have opted to use 3rd party search tools (generally filename only search tools). These 3rd party tools are fast and efficient and may suit you better. A few choices that are widely recommended:

Everything Search -
Everything Search Engine

Agent Ransack -
Agent Ransack - Free File Searching Utility

Snowbird -
Snowbird - Download

That said, I do think it worth your time to investigate Win 7 Search (via links provided throughout this and other threads...check my earlier post for a few). It's not as simple as a filename only search engine, but it really is an excellent tool. Not perfect...certainly, it has it's issues, but I like it, and (after reading many articles and getting up to speed), have decided to 'keep it on' as my primary search engine.

The best advice I can give you is to educate yourself on Win 7, try it. Try out the 3rd party search tools. Then, use what works best for you.

Again, welcome to the forums!

James

Cato, it's not specific. I understand doing easy searches works. Anything semi complicated is a huge hassle. There is no reason why in this day and age, there isn't a proper GUI setup where I can adjust settings to my liking. Instead Microsoft wants to play "God" mode as I call it. Google does the same crap now... please the main 95%, who cares if the 1 in 20 that do something more complicated than check e-mails and watch youtube are annoyed at the reduced features. It's simple; the clutter of these "extra" features turns non-savvy users off, thus it's more profitable for them to simply not include these features.

The same concept applies elsewhere... say, the news. Simplify things for the ignorant so they aren't overwhelmed and turn away from your product. It's sad.

I have a friend who is annoyingly avid that pirating is the only way to send a message to these companies; "keep it simple for them, let it be advanced for us, or we ain't payin'." I find it rather hard to defend against his point (I do disagree...) none the less when he asks me to search for something of a specific nature and I have to crawl onto a forum, only to learn it's not possible and that I need third party software in order to do the search I want to.

I open a command window. Type CD \ to move to the root directlry. Type dir filename.EXT /s, or filename.* or something like that and hit ENTER. Make sure you add the /s switch - to search all directories. I've always used command to search for files so the new features in Windows 7 have never bothered me.

Best Wishes,
Rªnce

PS: I would echo James Colbert. Windows 7 is a great OS and if you want to get the most out of it, take the time to learn how to use some of the new features. You may have to modify your work flow, but I've found working with the tool rather than fighting it gives pretty good results.

One of my first reactions to Win7 search was "I want my doggie back!!" I've adapted, and find the new search quite usable.

My ONE complaint is that the format of the search result isn't what I'd prefer. I'd rather see the ENTIRE file path, in it's correct order. What it shows (for me at least) is something like:

filename.ext Lastsubfolder (C:\root\subfolder\anothersub\yetanothersub)

I would much rather it display:

C:\root\subfolder\anothersub\yetanothersub\Lastsubfolder\filename.ext