Vista - search options

First I would like the search bar in the start menu to always search everywhere. I have looked for various settings options and always chose search everywhere if it was an option. When I use search it only ever gives me results within my user files. I do not want to have to click on advanced search everytime I use it to change the setting to everywhere. Is this even possible to have it automatically search my entire drive and desktop as a default?

Second I was trying to search for a file on my hard drive called firefox_logo2. I typed in firefox into the search field. (at the time I wasn't sure about the _logo2 part). Why did search not check my drive or user files or anything for files and just launched Firefox. Why would it do this? I don't ever want the search field to launch a program. I want it to find files and directories and whatever that exist on my hard drive. How can I get search to actually give me a search of the drive and not launch applications????????

Buy a different operating system. I know it sounds like a brush off, but it
simply is not possible to make Vista or any operating system behave just
exactly as any particular person wants it to. The pop up window on the Orb
(Start button) is also a program launcher in much the same way the run box
was on earlier versions. However, whatever it finds it will not launch until
you hit enter, so if you don't want it to launch a program, just close it
without hitting enter.

As to what it searches, it is not a general search engine, it is an indexed
search engine, and it will only search those drives and folders that it has
indexed, which you can adjust at will in the control panel. If you want to
only search and never launch, though I can't see the slightest advantage to
that, you can use a freeware product like Agent Ransack which does a brute
force search of the whole selected drive or folder without benefit of an
index. The reason for indexing is speed. It is much faster to search an
index than to search the drive.

Good luck.


"Squa190" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:bfe2aa24c7a5d08c1b9caf183411e107@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Hello Squa,

To help with this, you can disable the search Index so Vista will default to always doing a non-indexed search.

Index - Enable or Disable


Next, set your Search settings to something similar to the screenshot in this tutorial below to always have a thorough search.

Search Options

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I suspect that you may have hit the "Enter" key after you typed Firefox. If so, the first item found would be launched. Just type and wait without hitting Enter.

First to the wandering guest I nee to say that search should be able to do what Find did which occurred in every windows OS I've used since 3.1 up to XP. I can certainly expect Microsoft not to kill a very useful function that it has always had.

Now, as to Brink who is always helpful. My indexing was already disabled and even if it hadnt been I had already indexed my entire c: drive. I made sure it was disabled using both methods listed in the tutorial and it still wont search for the file. Advanced settings are set to Everywhere and the box is checked to search index or not but is greyed out (im assuming because indexing is disabled) When I search anything it still only searches my user files. I then have to go into Advanced Search and research to get it to actually check everywhere even though everywhere is already the choice in the field. ???

Ifonlea if i dont hit enter only the two matches within the start menu show up.

Even if i try putting firef or some other shortened version of the file name inthe search field only firefox and firefox (safe mode) from the start menu appear and if i hit enter it still lauches firefox.

Even when I type in what I want to find and then without hitting enter move the mouse and click on the search everywhere link that shows up right above the search field in the start menu it still only searches my user files. Why wouldn't it seach everywhere like the link implies?????????????????????????????????

Vista is total frustration what were they thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the simplest task of all and it's not doable apparently.

Brink please help. I even just verified the location of the file and it is within the documents folder in my user files on the hard drive. Even without it searching everywhere it should have found it in the user files. All it ever does in show the search screen and then notify me yet again that I have turned indexing off.(which is annoying is there anyway to turn that crap off)

Squa,

You will also need to set your Search settings to something similar to the screenshot in this tutorial below to always have a thorough search for what you need.

Search Options


For some searching tips see:

Advanced Search

and

Tips for finding files - Windows Vista Help

and

Windows Vista Team Blog : Advanced search techniques

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks Brink but those links only tell me how to use different search options. None of them tell me why that even when I use the search everywhere link above the search field it still only searches the user files. Nor do they tell me why it won't find the file even though it is in the user files. Nor do they tell me why search everywhere won't remain the default option to search by. Nor do they tell me why if the file name is even remotely close to anything in your start menu it wont search beyond the start menu at all. "Find" in previous versions of windows was so much easier and better. So far all I have found is that "search" allows you to use boolean. La ti Da if it can't find a file without being told to go beyond the user files or even find a file that is in the user files. I can't win, Microsoft certainly won't refund my money that I paid to get this OS and I couldn't have found out it was a nightmare without buying it. And even if I end up going to Ubuntu or something else Microsoft business practices have made it impossible to find the same kind of software for those OS. Sorry, I've just had to spend so much time that I don't have trying to do the simplist things. I am grateful for the help but I'm starting to wonder cuz most of the answers I have found through this forum involve third party downloads to help fix a registry problem or something like that. Doesn't it strike you as odd that all these people can easily fix these things and yet microsoft won't just fix em and put them in an update.

Squa,

I find that clicking on the hard drive letter that you want to search through in Computer, then search using the Search box in Windows Explorer works better instead. You must set the Search Options though as described above.

Thanks Brink that works the most efficient. Starts searching the whole drive right away. It's funny. There are only so many uses or actions I do in Windows and it seems like I'm hitting every soar spot in the software for what I do with it. LOL. I'm in that mid spot where I know computers but I'm not super Tech so XP was great for me. You could tinker with your computer and have an easy point click interface all in one. Although since windows has always been a PC version of the MAC point-click interface it has been getting continually more restrictive to tinkerers with each new Version. I would have gotten XP 64 but then I heard the drivers wouldn't be updated after January. Thanks again.

Your welcome Squa. I'm happy that this will work for you.

Shawn