How to Search files in Vista

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:43:19 -0500, "James Ivey" <nope.DeleteThis@nowhere.com>
wrote:

>I must be doing something wrong, cuz the Vista file Search doesn't find
>diddly squat.
>
>What happened to the helpful, handy Search Assistant?

Microsoft CHANGED how Search works. While it can be slow and clumsy it
does work. Most people don't understand that by default Vista excludes
most of your computer and NEVER looks outside a small area UNLESS you
tell it to.
>
>I can't seem to figure out how to search the "contents" of the files.

TELL Vista to do that. Be sure. Open Windows Explorer.

1. Tools, folder options.

2. Go to Search tab. Under WHAT to search make appropriate choices.

3. CRITICAL: When using advance search be sure you also check
what the field 'location' is set to. Should be Everywhere or
Computer UNLESS you are certain what you are looking for is for
sure on some hard drive or in some folder in which case you can
limit it to those areas.

4. Check non-indexed locations. For repeated system wide searches you
may wish to modify which drives and folders are automatically
indexed. The more you do that the slower any search will be.

The smart way is put ALL you data you'll ever search under ONE master
folder on some non system drive than build as many sub folders as
necessary for your needs then Vista will automatically only look in
this one place. The result will be all areas you files COULD BE in
will always be searched and you'll exclude areas on your computer they
never would be like in the Windows folder.

I know this method works. I have in excess of a million data files and
don't have trouble finding anything. Looking inside files however can
be a painfully slow process IF you don't limit where you're searching.
So doing a system wide search on a computer with many TB's of files
can take an hour or more to just complete one search. That's because
Vista need to open and search through so many files. Vista can confuse
you in that the progress bar at the top will make many, many passes
from full left to right building the results with some pauses so you
need to wait, not assume Vista is finished when likely it isn't.

tell that to the vista fanboys who insist that vista search is an
improvement.... lol



"James Ivey" <nope.DeleteThis@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:OZSYu$HGJHA.1020@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I must be doing something wrong, cuz the Vista file Search doesn't find
> diddly squat.
>
> What happened to the helpful, handy Search Assistant?
>
> I can't seem to figure out how to search the "contents" of the files.
>
> I search a directory on laptop/Vista for something I know is there, and it
> comes up with nothing. Walk over to my desktop/XP, and boom, there it is.
>
> Help?
>
> James

I followed your instructions but still couldn't find out how to find a
word or string of text contained in a file (but NOT in the title), or
how to find a file modified in a specific period, e.g. Jan to March
2007. Can you help, please.


--
Fat Doris

Fat Doris;852095 Wrote:
> I followed your instructions but still couldn't find out how to find a
> word or string of text contained in a file (but NOT in the title), or
> how to find a file modified in a specific period, e.g. Jan to March
> 2007. Can you help, please.


Hello Fat Doris,

You may need to check under Control Panel>System and
Maintenance>Indexing Options>Advanced to set it up how you want
7037

To find files modified by date, type Modified:9/12/2008 or whatever
date you choose. You can also use AND, OR, NOT, -, " ", ().

Hope this helps

SIW2


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|Download: http://www.vistax64.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7037 |
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--
SIW2

Fat Doris wrote:
> I followed your instructions but still couldn't find out how to find a
> word or string of text contained in a file (but NOT in the title), or
> how to find a file modified in a specific period, e.g. Jan to March
> 2007. Can you help, please.
>
>

Fat Doris, you can use the Advanced Search by using the Windows-key and
F-Key combination to get to ADV search. You can then use the Alt-key to
pull up the configuration menu.

You can go to the Tool menu. You can go to Folder Options, Search tab
and select "Always search file names and content. Then Vista search will
look for file content in files, even from the Search box of off the
Start button or when you do the search from Explore.

You can also set this by going to Control Panel and to the Folder
Options and to the Search tab.

If you're at Folder Options off of Control Panel, then you might want to
goto the View tab and check-mark on "Always show menus" so that the menu
is present when you go to Explore or to the Advanced Search.

"Fat Doris" <guest.TakeThisOut@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:f27e0c1c101ac47290f0d477693a0776@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> I followed your instructions but still couldn't find out how to find a
> word or string of text contained in a file (but NOT in the title), or
> how to find a file modified in a specific period, e.g. Jan to March
> 2007. Can you help, please.
>
>
> --
> Fat Doris

Vista is a nightmare. Everyone who uses the new computers here hates it.
The search feature is worthless unless you're a geek or program writer. None
of us were able to figure out how to use it. I downloaded AgentRansack to
find what I look for. Simple, fast easy to use and it's free. I've been
telling all my friends to order their new PCs with XP or have some geek make
them a PC and install XP. Vista really sucks.