I have never seen a more complicated search area.......all I want to
do is search My C drive and anything that, with Vista, now falls under
my username (including, documents, pictures, etc.)
How could they make it so complicated...and why???????
What is the need for "Indexed Locations?" Why was it never needed
before.
Complicated is not necessarily better.
I tried to search for a file I KNEW was on my computer...a file called
Mom.doc.
I tried everything I could and changed search areas and went to
Advanced search............I NEVER did locate the file.
I went to My computer and found it iner my username/documents and
there it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing else in Vista has infuriated me as much as the Seach !!!!!!

On Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:23:56 -0700, Jim <jfk666@xxxxxx> wrote:

>I have never seen a more complicated search area.......all I want to
>do is search My C drive and anything that, with Vista, now falls under
>my username (including, documents, pictures, etc.)
>How could they make it so complicated...and why???????
>What is the need for "Indexed Locations?" Why was it never needed
>before.
>Complicated is not necessarily better.
>I tried to search for a file I KNEW was on my computer...a file called
>Mom.doc.
>I tried everything I could and changed search areas and went to
>Advanced search............I NEVER did locate the file.
>I went to My computer and found it iner my username/documents and
>there it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>Nothing else in Vista has infuriated me as much as the Seach !!!!!!

Search.. and [not responding]. My 2 biggest Vista gripes.
This might be of some use. I was fiddling with the search the other day, and
saw something I'd never noticed before. I set my search for DEFAULTS. Still no
happy searching.
Went back to change my search prefs, and saw it said
Drive Exclude
C: nothing actually here..
===============================================
I went in and went to change the search locations. It had 2 folders set to
search.. And I wonder why it can't find any thing...

I set it to search C:. hit advanced, and found just selecting C: wasn't enough.
It doesn't come with Expand all, so it may take you some time to SELECT the
entire C: drive.
I scrolled down, and the USERS section is NOT set to be searched. The section
of every drive where everything takes place.
Once I thought I'd toggled everything on C: to search
the screen looked like this

Drive
C: nothing actually here..
============================================
The exclude had disappeared. The machine has been rebuilding the search index
for 2 days now.
You do have to tell it to rebuild the index before quitting.
Then reboot to get the rebuild started.
Will it find what I'm looking for, can't tell you...But it now has access[I
assume] to the entire drive with nothing excluded.

I also made some other changes in explorers folder options.
I turned on the file check boxes, and turned on 'let me see system files'not
recommended. You just have to be extra careful about what you delete fromthis
point on.
the check boxes needed turning on since hover in Vista, no longer selectsa
file like it did with XP and I got tired of tabbing to select them.

I'm considering hide system files again, but I suspect that may hide the user
sections. Hmmm. looks like Vista doesn't listen to me. I don't need to turn off
'system and operating' files again. It didn't take when I toggled it the other
day.
I just hate a machine with a mind of it's own.

Well it found what it couldn't find with a seeing eye dog before I fixed it..
So I'd say use what I described above, and see if it works for you.
It actually found what it couldn't find the other day faster than I did and I
knew where to find it this time..
--
more pix @ http://members.toast.net/cbminfo/index.html

Thanks, gents, for all the help !! I really don't care how long it
takes to find the file for which I'm searching so I have it set for an
expansive search as you have suggested.
Perhaps in time, I will narrow it down!
Now I want to see if the areas I have chosen "stick" next time I do a
search !!
I'll let you know.............

It would be great if we could save defaults -- EVERYWHERE and
EVERYTHING.

Jim wrote:

> I have never seen a more complicated search area.......all I want to
> do is search My C drive and anything that, with Vista, now falls under
> my username (including, documents, pictures, etc.)
> How could they make it so complicated...and why???????
> What is the need for "Indexed Locations?" Why was it never needed
> before.
> Complicated is not necessarily better.
> I tried to search for a file I KNEW was on my computer...a file called
> Mom.doc.
> I tried everything I could and changed search areas and went to
> Advanced search............I NEVER did locate the file.
> I went to My computer and found it iner my username/documents and
> there it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Nothing else in Vista has infuriated me as much as the Seach !!!!!!
>

the search feature, when the Indexing service is turned on, does not
find files on either of 2 of my Vista laptops. Even after rebuilding
the index, it just PLAIN DOESN'T WORK. Out of 300+ files of one type,
it manages to find only 5 of them, and they are all in the same folder,
I impatiently waited more than 10 days for the index to rebuilt it's
pathetically useless self. Before i rebuilt the index, vista would find
the wrong files. for example, if I typed "*.d", it would find files
with extensions other than those with a d in them. after the index
rebuilt, that problem went away, BUT it still couldnt find many files on
my pcs. search works fine on my pcs AFTER I turned off the indexing
service. go figure. bill gates is too damn rich to give a flying crap
about how shoddy his latest fiasco is. we are so screwed....

Dave

My solution for Vista's broken Search feature? Google Desktop Search.
It finds my files quickly. I just wish the thumbnails it shows were
larger and had the correct aspect ratio.

Dave

On Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:38:42 GMT, Jim <jfk666@xxxxxx> wrote:

>Thanks, gents, for all the help !! I really don't care how long it
>takes to find the file for which I'm searching so I have it set for an
>expansive search as you have suggested.
>Perhaps in time, I will narrow it down!
>Now I want to see if the areas I have chosen "stick" next time I do a
>search !!
>I'll let you know.............

Since this is just something I found recently. and my search NOW works the way
it should. Re-read what I said about the 'EXCLUDE' then EXPAND whatever you
have selected to search. Chances are good the SYSTEM section of your drive is
EXCLUDED, but you won't know till you expand it and see what's excluded.
--
more pix @ http://members.toast.net/cbminfo/index.html