Windows search - is it useless or is it just me ?


  1. skint
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 64bit
       New #1

    Windows search - is it useless or is it just me ?


    I have a lot of files on my USB drive that i want indexed by windows search. I have
    added my drive to the list of locations to index (in "Change how windows searches"). I find that windows search will find NOTHING on my drive. I have a lot of ".doc" files and if i type "*.doc" it finds none.

    If i remove my drive from the list of locations to index it does find the files but takes a long time (as i would expect ). A few other things ...

    - My USB drive is formatted NTFS.

    - If I right click on the drive, the "allow files on this drive to have contents indexed" is checked

    - The indexing service is running

    - SYSTEM has full access to all files on the disk

    I have tried all sorts to get it working including ...

    - Rebuilding the index using the REBUILD button in the IndexingOptions->AdvancedOptions dialog

    - Manually removing the whole index, rebooting and then re-indexing

    - Stopping and restarting the indexing service

    - Leaving it turned on for the whole day with no user activity to give it a chance to build the index.


    Thanks for any help/pointers
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  3. 4wd
    Posts : 337
    W7, W8.1
       New #2

    is it useless
    yes
    is it just me
    no

    :O)

    According to some, windows search can be tamed, but...
    Am using Agent Ransack when I really need to find something.
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  4. DavidE
    Posts : 6,330
    Multi-Boot W7_Pro_x64 W8.1_Pro_x64 W10_Pro_x64 +Linux_VMs +Chromium_VM
       New #3

    It's not just you.
    Some people like Windows search, but it's not the best choice for me.

    Try FileLocator Lite (aka Agent Ransack).
    FileLocator Lite - Free File Searching Utility

    It's free, easy to use, and doesn't depend on indexing.
    I don't use USB drives, so I can't comment on that performance.

    I prefer a vanilla system as much as possible, but this is one utility i recommend.

    edit: 4wd beat me to it !:)
    Last edited by DavidE; 18 Sep 2012 at 05:30. Reason: edit
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  6. OvenMaster
    Posts : 757
    Win10 Pro 64-bit
       New #4

    I myself like Locate32. Locate32
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