vista search doesn't work - is there a fix yet?

markrrowe

New Member
Is there any known fix for vista search yet?

I'm currently transfering files to a dongle, and plugging it into an old windows 98 machine to do searches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:sa:
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
That's a NO then I guess.

I've already tried all these options.

It's pretty simple. I have lots of php files with code in, and I want to find out which ones call a specific function. Vista CAN'T do it, and windows 98 CAN (as can XP, 3.1...)

A crazy state of affairs!
 

My Computer

Hopefully someone else will spot this who knows more about it than I.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    CPU
    Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
    Memory
    Crucial Ballistix 4x2GB PC2 6400
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Creative SB X-Fi
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2207 + HPvs15
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050 + 1024x768
    Hard Drives
    2-WD5000AAKS-500 GB
    WD 5000AAV-500 GB external
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve
    Mouse
    MX Revolution
    Other Info
    Wacom Intuos 2 Graphics Tablet
    Experience Index=5.5
That's a NO then I guess.

I've already tried all these options.

It's pretty simple. I have lots of php files with code in, and I want to find out which ones call a specific function. Vista CAN'T do it, and windows 98 CAN (as can XP, 3.1...)

A crazy state of affairs!

Sounds like you may not have tried conducting your search through "Advanced Search" -- it has some pretty amazing abilities to customize searching. Read through this tutorial: How to Use the Advanced Query Language to Improve Windows Search Results (especially where it relates to your search needs), and if you need additional search options, you can go to this tutorial from Microsoft: Windows Desktop Search: Advanced Query Reference.

Here are the general directions to (most advantageously) using Advanced Search:
From anywhere in Vista, press the Windows Key + F (or go into the Start Menu, and from inside the Search pane, press F3).
That brings up the Search page - click the Advanced Search button to the far top-right, to open the search Set Up page.
On the Set-Up page, check the 'Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files' option.
Under Location, select Computer, or Everywhere, and in the Name box, fill in the exact search term you’re looking for, or some text from within the file. Click on the Search button, and that's it. (For additional search options, see the Tutorials referred to above.)

(After this first search is completed, if it was only partially successful, do additional searches for any other key words you think might be associated with the files you're seeking.) Each search could take 10 seconds or 10 minutes, depending on how many files/folders there are to go through, but you'll eventually see extensive search results.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t (Gen. 1)
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz)
    Memory
    4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
    Keyboard
    built in - HP
    Mouse
    built in - Synaptics TouchPad V6.5 on PS/2 Port
    Internet Speed
    max
    Other Info
    ~ Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card w/Bluetooth ~ Blu-Ray ROM DVD+/-R/RW ~ Integ. HDTV Hybrid Tuner ~ 12 Cell Battery ~ MS Office (Home Premium) 2007 ~
No. Still didn't work.

I told it to index the contents of .php files, and it took hours to rebuild the index.

Yet searches STILL DO NOT WORK!
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq
    CPU
    intel core 2 duo T 5550 @ 1.83 MHz
    Motherboard
    intel 965 chipset family
    Memory
    2 GB DDR 2 SD RAM @ 667 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    On board upto 358 MB RAM
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15"
    Hard Drives
    160 GB WDC
"pretty amazing abilities" !!! - lol ! ! very funny!

It has a complete blindspot for .php files.

I've created a sample .txt file containing php code. the search finds it ok. I rename it back to a .php, and it no longer finds it.

If I rename one of my REAL .php files as a .txt it then finds it ok. When I rename it back to a .php, it then no longer finds it.

Starting to smell a bit fishy to me.
 

My Computer

How old is your computer and what's its model number?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq
    CPU
    intel core 2 duo T 5550 @ 1.83 MHz
    Motherboard
    intel 965 chipset family
    Memory
    2 GB DDR 2 SD RAM @ 667 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    On board upto 358 MB RAM
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15"
    Hard Drives
    160 GB WDC
Maybe the Windows Search service is disabled, check it:

Windows key + R > %SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc {ENTER} > search for Windows Search and check if it is disabled, if so than set it to automatic and start the service.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Intel Core2 Duo E4600
    Motherboard
    Asus P5KPL-VM
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce 8500 GT 1GB
    Sound Card
    Realtek integrated audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Iiyama Vision Master Pro 410
    Screen Resolution
    1600x1200
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech
The problem must be with your system markrrowe, because stew2's tutorial worked very easily for me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t (Gen. 1)
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz)
    Memory
    4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
    Keyboard
    built in - HP
    Mouse
    built in - Synaptics TouchPad V6.5 on PS/2 Port
    Internet Speed
    max
    Other Info
    ~ Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card w/Bluetooth ~ Blu-Ray ROM DVD+/-R/RW ~ Integ. HDTV Hybrid Tuner ~ 12 Cell Battery ~ MS Office (Home Premium) 2007 ~
Maybe the Windows Search service is disabled, check it:

Windows key + R > %SystemRoot%\system32\services.msc {ENTER} > search for Windows Search and check if it is disabled, if so than set it to automatic and start the service.

status=started
startup type=automatic
 

My Computer

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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