does anyone know how to get it to consistently search for text within
a document like an email or notepad? i’ve been practicing trying this for hours playing with the index locations so i can find an email with text in it, etc and it still cannot even find a file that i put on the desktop! whereas in xp it takes like 3 seconds max. vista was still looking for the file 5 minutes later and appeared to lock up as this was a major task for it. i don’t see how this is any better. you don’t have to look very far to find fault with it - it just is. going from an obvious search of 3 seconds to well over 3 minutes and counting is not better, duh.
@tom on May 8, 2008 11:37 AM
right click on the menu bar and choose ‘Minimize the ribbon.’ Now only the menu bar is visible on top of the screen, giving you much more space to view your document. Click on a menu item to have the ribbon reppear, and then it disappears again after you have made your choice. Easy, simple, and much cleaner interface than before.
I held off installing Office 2007 for so long because of other ppl recommendation. I eventually installed it last month, and love it.
I’m hoping using Vista search is the same story.
So this is a response to the first question, because I was frustrated by the same problem (i.e. that Vista search by default treats .html, .aspx, .asp, .etc with either an HTML filter or a File Properties filter, but not a Plain Text filter–which is needed if you want to search through your code). In order to change the default search filters, just edit the registry so that the given file extension is associated with the filter you want. More specifically if you want to do HTML to plaintext , go to registry editor (regedit) and look under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*FILE EXTENSION YOU WANT TO BE TREATED WITH PLAIN TEXT FILTER HERE*\PersistentHandler. You should change the default value to whatever the value is in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.txt\PersistentHandler (e.g. change HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.aspx\PeristentHandler from {eec97550-47a9-11cf-b952-00aa0051fe20} to {5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}).
(Tom Roger Nelson says he uses the search to find c++ code. Isn’t this somewhere obvious, like in a folder called c++ code or programmes etc. Or am I missing something?
I have thousands of source and documentation files, hundreds of folders, and hundreds of thousands of lines of code, not to mention code and files from colleagues (as Noel well described); a fast reliable search facility is critical to my productivity [BTW, I did setup the search text filter (a ridiculous and IMHO unnecessary procedure). Vista Search is still slower than XP (often appears to hang as Mark mentioned) with very unreliable and unsatisfactory results].
For a year now I have been completely frustrated with Vista’s horrible search, frequent crashes of Windows Explorer, slow response, useless features, obfuscated system settings, poor network functioning, inability to work with my existing peripherals, huge demand on system resources, etc., etc., …
I just bought a new computer. Surprisingly (actually not) on this higher end machine, XP was the default preinstalled OS. Probably just to appease Microsoft the Vista disk was thrown in with the rest of the useless promotional software CDs.
I hope Windows 7 will not just look pretty but will have fixed all the problems that are in Vista by the time Microsoft ends the XP product cycle.
Someone please tell me how to do this in vista: Find all files ending in .txt, somewhere in c:/projects/work, and containing the text bike.
==================================
In Windows XP:
Right click directory name, choose search, *.txt, containing bike.
==================================
In Linux:
cd /home/csbear/projects/work
grep -lr bike .txt
and if i want the full file path:
grep -lr bike pwd/.txt
==================================
In Vista:
??? I don’t know how to do the search. I give up, i think Microsoft make it easier, i just haven’t figured it out yet. This may take a while…
Can someone show me how can Windows Vista search show image files that have no tags.
Something like hastag:false.
Microsoft has lost sight of the purpose of the GUI: To insulate the end user from the underlying code changes. After figuring out WHERE Search resides within Vista, using search, I cannot figure out how to search a folder for file names . for string 780G.
Does someone in Microsoft think this is progress?
Wouldn’t you like to know who that was?
Microsoft should think of all the end user knowledge, including coding knowledge, that just went down the tubes and the helpdesks that light up because of these types of changes.
Add/Remove programs is now called Programs and Features and for what purpose? Every existing user of add/remove programs USED TO KNOW where it was, what it was called and what it did. Jeez
Vistas capability of searching inside of files is crap just like it was in XP. This feature was one of the best things about 2000 because it actually worked.
For anyone that wants to search inside of files without having to open then one at a time I recommend you try agent ransack from agentransack.com
Sorry, but Vista ‘search’ seems to be less efficient than the DOS filters(and Norton Commander)that I was using TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO!
THIS IS NOT PROGRESS!!!
I’ve now found ‘Agent Rucksack’ which actually seems to be able to search specified locations only for any parameters I specify. I’m not an MS basher, but why, oh WHY do they keep breaking things that used to work OK?
Same with ‘Help’, hours finding and downloading programs and registry tweaking just to get to get to be able to open help files which worked well in NT, 2000, XP etc… (and the ‘new’ help system seems no improvment on the old one!)
MS really need to learn that IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT!!!
Although I’ve had Vista for some time and generally find it useable, the search is awful. If you want to learn the new syntax then great, I’m not opposed to the introduction of it per se, but don’t patronise me with a progress bar that takes 5 minutes to fill for a search that’s going to take half an hour. The new syntax must bring new functionality, or make it easier without losing functionality - I’m not an expert but I don’t think the Vista search is as powerful as grep.
I’ve got years’ worth of archives sitting in .zip, .rar, .arj and .7z files on my disks, including code as well as plenty of text formats (like LaTEX) and plenty with no file extension. The time taken to configure Windows to correctly index it would take forever - but grep’s always done it.
C’mon csbear, it’s not that hard: bike ext:(*.txt)
Thank God Mladen Mihajlovic - YOU answered the questions I have seen
asked by many and answerd by not one posters sin Oct 4, 2008: how to search a file type that contains a string. YOU have a future in tech support!
After 30 years in computers, I find it’s always easy when you already know how to do it!
find txt files containing a the string of letters: bike
bike ext:(*.txt)
Now what if I want to search for the string % if in *.ascx files?
% ext:(*.ascx)
does not work. Tried all manner of escaping the non-alpha characters.
I’d use the win32 version of grep if I wasn’t getting *.ascx: Invalid argument or (standard input): Not enough space.
I’ve developed for Windows systems all my life. I’m so glad I jumped ship and develop on a Mac (with underlying unix) at home. Now if only I could do so for my day job.
I know other devs who are doing the same. They’re sick tired of MS. MS faces a future of decline.
Hi Jeff,
The top of your page states:
Which means .vbproj;.csproj becomes ext:(*.vbproj OR *.csproj)
But ext in Windows Search Query Syntax denotes an extension so including . seems incorrect (.vbproj isn’t an extension; vjproj is). In other words, shouldn’t .vbproj;.csproj become ext:(vbproj OR csproj) ?
If you want to include *. then the Windows Search Query filename: should be used instead.
Regards,
Patrick
I’m not a microsoft basher, but I hate the search in Vista, and I hate a lot of other things in it to.
Why take the childish approach that anyone who disklikes the search must be a basher, or ignorant.
Vista is terrible in many ways. Search is at the top of the list. For starters, there’s so many limitations in it.
And then there’s the whole explorer interface. I’ve never once used a tag for anything, or a rating either, yet everything comes up with those fields, while omitting things like size or date. And yes, I know that the settings are supposed to be by file type, and stick once you pick them and apply them to all files of that type. Until they decide to reset, that is. Why can’t I just ban type and rating from my system. And why is it so difficult to make everything show size and date without having to reset it from time to time.
I could list 100 things that are really not up to par in Vista. It’s got to do with design by committe approaches, and a true arrogance on the part of Vista’s design team.
I do not have the time to read the entire post, but would like to know if MS eventually did something about this crappy Vista search? I just want to find files with for example a word like “flower” and it is not possible, just terrible. The UNIX command find exists for centuries and can do it.
Yes, it works for the usual .doc and .txt files, but I have hundred thousands of files with all type of extensions and many of them have no file exension at all. How can these files be indexed/searched?
The search engines have all been using booleans for years and they have to be written in capitals on search engines so what difference does it make that Vista requires “text OR text” to search for “text” or “text” where as if you type “text or text” it will just search for “text or text”
I don’t understand. You have given the screen shots for advanced search. But you are not clear, should i perform a search first and then I will get to see those advanced search options? Is there any short cut method to get access to the advanced search. e.g. I m trying to find the latest logs updated.
I hate this Vista, 1) because I m forced to use it. 2) It’s menus are complicated, e.g. search not available on right clicking any folder.
I really like the IDEA of advanced search features but after more than twenty minutes, the only way I can get to a screen that has an advanced search button on it, is to go through Help on search.
Why couldn’t they put a link to a search pane next to the Start search? It’s insanely complicated for no apparent reason.
There was nothing WRONG about the way things were presented in XP, WHY CHANGE EVERYTHING?
Accessiblity becomes “Ease of Access” Windows Explorer panes look like some bad copy of an old Apple interface. Yuck.