Solved Vista Search doesn't fully work

M

Messaline

Member
Hi,

I have been wanting to address this problem for some time now but I have always felt that it is going to be difficult to understand and solve. Maybe, maybe not.

I just looked at some of the previous FAQs on this subject and I don't fully understand their fixes. One fix tells me to go to change the Indexing somehow by disabling it. But when I go there, that box is inactive and cannot be changed apparently.

So before I go further and not know what I am doing, I decided to post and ask for help.

To illustrate my problem, let's say I am trying to find a file in my Downloads folder. I open my Downloads folder and can see the file I want.

Yet when I do a Search for that file, the Search cannot locate it. It is as if the file doesn't exist. But I am looking right at it in Downloads!

I don't yet know how deep this problem goes, i.e. what if my file I wanted was a .dll file or something deep in the computer and I couldn't find it?

Is the fix to this problem simply to disable Indexing? Or is there something more sinister going on with Search not being able to find anything?

Thanks. I hope I can understand any technical replies about this problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv9810us Notebook laptop
I don't like the search feature in Vista/7 - but it's actually fairly easy once you've messed with it successfully for a while.

By default it only searches Indexed files - so if your Download folder isn't indexed, it won't find it. You have to check the little box that instructs it to "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" (Microsoft KB article about this: You cannot find files when you search a Windows Vista-based computer even though the files exist on the computer ).

Picture here:
windows_search_dialog.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

Thanks for the reply. Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

I will print out the Microsoft fact sheet and use it next time I need to use my Search function. Maybe I won't have any further trouble if I go by its' instructions.

Thanks and I guess we can close out this thread for now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv9810us Notebook laptop
Welcome

It is very easy to close the thread, just click on the triangle in the upper right of your screen. Once you do, however, you will have to start a new thread if you have further questions.
 

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Hi,

I may be crazy but I can't find the triangle you refer to. It wouldn't be the red Report Post triangle would it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv9810us Notebook laptop
Yes, Messaline, just type solved and the thread is closed. Have a Happy Memorial Day.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I know what's wrong with windows vista search. It took me awhile to figure it out, sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. I hope this is the only problem, it works fine now. The normal or non-advanced search always worked fine but it only searches indexed locations, and even then if you open the search program and type even one letter in the search box in the upper left corner it will start searching and display many files that don't even have the letter you typed in the name. This is because it is searching the file name and contents also, if you only want file names searched, click on search tools->search options, click the search tab then under "what to search" choose "Always search file names only", also the default is to check the first two boxes under how to search. That should take care of a normal non-Advanced search, which I never use anyway and only started experimenting with it because I couldn't make the Advanced Search work at first.


When doing an Advanced Search, in the Name box enter a search parameter, for example ex*.exe (which will search for all .exe files that begin with "ex".) You'll probably want to change Location from "indexed locations" to either "everywhere" or "Computer" or a disk drive. Also, check the "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files" box.
After clicking the Search button, "name:ex*.exe" and nothing else should appear in the search box(below the min/max/close buttons in the upper left corner of the window), if so the search should work fine. If there are characters or words before "name:ex*.exe" the search will result in "no matches found." I've found two ways in which this could happen.

1. You entered something in both the search box and the Name box and then clicked the Search button, the search box will now contain both of these entries. Example: enter xyz into search box and ex*.exe in the Name box, after clicking Search the search box will contain "xyz name:ex*.exe" and will result in no matches found.

2. The search box was auto filled when the Search program was started and you entered the search parameter in the Name box and then clicked the Search button. This is essentially equivalent to number 1. But you may not have realized that the search box was auto filled. This is what was happening to me.
To start the search program I was clicking on the start/windows button at the bottom left of the screen. Where it says "start search" I was typing in the word "search", then I would click on "Search Everywhere" to start the search program. Without my realizing it this would result in the word "search" I had typed in being auto filled into the search box in the search program. When I then entered my search parameter(example ex*.exe) in the Name box and clicked search,
"search name:ex*.exe" was appearing in the search box which always resulted in no matches found. It didn't dawn on me that the leading "search" part should not have been there. I only realized what was happening when I clicked on the Windows button and accidentally entered a few characters of garbage where it says Start Search. The "Search Everywhere" choice came up and I clicked it, I then realized the garbage I had entered had now been auto-filled into the search box when the search program started(duh, this is the way to do a quick search). After clicking on Advanced Search and entering my search parameter in the Name box and clicking the search button, the search box now contained the garbage I had entered followed by the search parameter (example "asds name:ex*.exe") which always results in no match found. All I had to do to fix this was click on the "x" to the right of the search box, directly below the "X" that closes the window in the upper left corner of the window. This resulted in "Search" appearing in the search box(nothing to do with the auto-fill "search" that had been appearing), when I clicked the search button again the "Search" disappeared and only "name:ex*.exe" appeared in the search box and everything worked fine.

I hope this is helpful to somebody.
 

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System One

Thanks. I printed out your comments and will try and use them the next time I need to do a Search.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv9810us Notebook laptop
Messaline said:
Thanks. I printed out your comments and will try and use them the next time I need to do a Search.
Click to expand...



just click the links and d/l the apps
 

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