Source: Windows Secrets
By Woody Leonhard
Searching in Windows used to be a frustrating, error-prone exercise in which you depended on slow, space-hog programs to bring you dubious results. In Windows 7, search has improved enormously. But there are tricks that make it work even better — some of which are applicable to earlier versions of Windows, too. Simple settings changes improve searches Windows XP performs searches but often misses things that should be found. Vista's a little bit better but still suffers from a faltering memory.
You can try one of the old, stalwart alternatives to get decent searches in XP or Vista — Copernic Desktop Search (info page), for example — as a stopgap, but your choices for reliable searching in XP and Vista have dwindled as both OSes fade into the sunset. Google Desktop (page), long one of my favorites, was discontinued two weeks ago. (XP fading, he says? Yes, indeed. As of last week, according to Microsoft, more consumers now use Windows 7 than XP. MS hasn't published numbers, so it's hard to say exactly how it came to that conclusion. But the evidence of Win7's ascendancy is everywhere — including among Windows Secrets subscribers.) So, better search capabilities are one of the more compelling reasons for upgrading to Windows 7.
have Windows always show you filename extensions — the short, typically three-letter suffix on every filename that identifies its type (such as .doc, .xls, .jpg, and so on). If you let Windows hide filename extensions from you, it's impossible to figure out how and why some searches go wrong. Force Windows to show filename extensions by clicking Start and Documents (or My Documents). If you can't see the toolbar (File, Edit, View, Tools, Help), tap the Alt key and it will appear. Click Tools/Folder Options and then select the View tab. Uncheck the box that says Hide extensions for known file types. While you're here, you might also want to have Windows show you hidden files. Simply click the radio button that says Show hidden files, folders and drives. Click OK. Now you're ready to search.
Indexing significantly speeds up searching There are two different ways to look for things on a computer. First, Windows can do a simple scan — the dumb, sequential, brute-force approach. When Windows Search scans a folder or a drive, it looks at every file, one a time, searching for whatever you seek. There are no sign posts, no indices, no shortcuts; the scan runs file by file. Think of leafing through the Encyclopedia Britannica, one sentence at a time.
It's a tough, slow way to look. If you're smart, you'll let Windows index your files first. Windows 7 creates an index of the most common file types, in the most commonly searched locations, then keeps the index updated on the fly. (It doesn't index all files in all places.) That way, when you're looking for a specific term, Windows needs only to look in the index. Bang! If you frequently search for items outside of Windows' preordained locations, it'll make searches much faster if you tell Windows to index those other locations, too. More about that in my next column.
Indexing has long been the Achilles' heel of search technology. Earlier add-on programs took forever to compile and update the indices. The indexing software would also take over the machine from time to time, slowing everything else you were trying to do to a crawl or a stall. In Windows 7, indexing takes place reasonably effectively while the machine's idling. Although you may have to wait for initial indices to be built, once they're in place the updates go through with a minimum of fuss and bother. The way to search — wisely and sparingly Windows 7 puts search boxes everywhere, most noticeably at the bottom of the Start menu and in the upper-right corner of every Windows Explorer window. There are also search boxes in many major applications' File/Open dialog boxes. Microsoft's Office applications use the Windows search engine. If you type a word or phrase into a search box, Windows 7 checks against the index, looking for matches in the current folder and in all the folders underneath the current folder. It searches for all kinds of files — documents and text files, naturally, but also the metadata tags in pictures and music, e-mail messages (if you use one of the Microsoft mail programs), and even the contents of webpages. So the trick is to go to the right folder — one likely to contain the information you want — and start the search there. If you search from the Start menu, Windows looks in all indexed locations, and that can take much longer than a search of a specific folder. For example, if you're looking for an e-mail message, fire up your e-mail program and start your search there. If you're looking for a song, use Windows Media Player. (Some other media players have search capabilities, but many of them — including iTunes — don't use the Windows search routines.) Looking for a tag on a picture? Try going into the Pictures Library (click Start/Pictures) and search from there.
Most people who can't find what they're looking for get tripped up by one of Windows' idiosyncrasies. Its search engine simply doesn't work like searches in the dinosaur DOS days. So it's important that you understand exactly what the search tool looks for — and what it skips.
Unfortunately, Windows Search doesn't use the same search criteria you're probably accustomed to — it's quite different from searching in DOS, say, or searching inside Word, or searching
with just about any search engine you've ever used. Windows Search will find a match in only two cases: When looking at the text inside a file, Windows Search will get a match if the text you've entered appears at the beginning of a word inside a file. Unlike any search
engine you've ever used, it doesn't even try to match text inside the words. For
example, if you search for the word Secrets, Windows will come up with a match on
a file that contains the text My secrets, but it won't find files that contain the
text WindowsSecrets.
When looking at file names, Windows Search will trigger a match if the text you're
looking for appears at the beginning of a file name — just as with text searches.
It will also match a filename when the text appears immediately after a space or
a period. For example, searching for Secrets won't match WindowsSecrets.doc, but
it will match SecretSummary.xls (beginnin of filename), Windows Secrets.doc (follows
the space in the filename) and Windows.Secrets (follows the period).
Those two gotchas, which are more or less undocumented, account for about 90 percent of the confusion I see with Windows searches. Extended indexing, wildcards, Boolean operators In "Getting the most from Windows Search — Part 2,"
I'll explain how to index unusual folders folders outside of the normal places —
how, for example, to index files that aren't in My Documents or the Windows libraries.
I'll also talk about using wildcards such as * and ? (which don't work like DOS or
Word, either), and Boolean operators such as OR and NOT (which don't … well, you
get the idea). Getting the most out of Windows searches requires understanding the
rules.
http://windowssecrets.com/woodys-windows/getting-the-most-from-windows-search-part-1/
Updated on ... February 23, 2015