Someone help me fix my Windows Explorer Search Please!

[Guest]

I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you read it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I might
already have tried.

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel => Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's, *.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I can find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all of them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70 euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

 

[Guest]

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this before or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff on it.

I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you read it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel =>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


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*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
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*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Guest]

Ok Thank you. I will try that at the weekend.

It looks like you tried everything else. You might try doing a Repair
Install. This will allow you to repair your Vista installation without
loosing your files, settings, and programs. You may have to reinstall
your drivers afterwards. This tutorial wil show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

Shawn


--
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*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Guest]

It does the same thing on my brother's pc which has Vista as well. I just
checked. It can't find the same files mine can't find. Stupid Vista. I like
it better than XP but the search is buggy. Unlike other companies I doubt
Microsoft will ever listen to me when I tell them there's a problem with the
search.
Is there any way to tell them? Even dishing out €70 for support they'll
probably just tell me to reinstall Vista. But me and my brother have the OEM
Vista on our Dell PCs so it'll destroy all our files. Ugh.

 

[Guest]

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches for some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this before or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff on it.

I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you read it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel =>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Dave Wood [MS]]

Windows Search does search the contents of excel and other files. If
possible, can you send me one of the Excel or other files you are having
trouble with {and the terms you are searching for and not finding and I will
take a look}? Send to "davewood at microsoft dot com" and I will see if I
can track anything down ...

Dave

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches for
some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this before
or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too
long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff on
it.

IllNeverHaveYouAgain;497827 Wrote:
I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you read
it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I
might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel =>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I
can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Guest]

Yes !!! I would most certainly do this - Thank you for your time - this
thing is driving me crazy !!!

2 ideas that might be causing glitches -

1) I am searching on network drives (network not really properly designed
but it does work - I can open files so shouldn't be security issue)

2) I am using Vista to search old (in this case excel) files - do I need to
do something to the filetype to make it properly search older (.xls)
files???????? (stranger things have happened

Windows Search does search the contents of excel and other files. If
possible, can you send me one of the Excel or other files you are having
trouble with {and the terms you are searching for and not finding and I will
take a look}? Send to "davewood at microsoft dot com" and I will see if I
can track anything down ...

Dave

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches for
some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this before
or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too
long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff on
it.

:


IllNeverHaveYouAgain;497827 Wrote:
I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you read
it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I
might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel =>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I
can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Dave Wood [MS]]

<from an email thread Teri and I had>

Teri

I tried searching for a term in the Excel file you sent me on various of my
Vista boxes and I could find the file. I think the problem you are hitting
is that by default we only search the contents of files in indexed
locations. But on network shares etc. we only search file names, to make
searches faster and reduce load on servers etc.

However, there should be a really easy way to make the search for file
contents happen in any location. If you search on a network location and don’t
find the results you want, you should see a little button in the search
results window that says “Search File Contentsâ€. If you click this we will
redo the search across the full contents.

You can also change the defaults and make it so that searches ALWAYS search
file contents. If you go to Folder Options -> Search, there’s an option
“Always search filenames and contents {might be slow}â€. If you select this
then all searches over any location will search file contents.

Let me know if this gets your searches working again,

Dave

Yes !!! I would most certainly do this - Thank you for your time - this
thing is driving me crazy !!!

2 ideas that might be causing glitches -

1) I am searching on network drives (network not really properly designed
but it does work - I can open files so shouldn't be security issue)

2) I am using Vista to search old (in this case excel) files - do I need
to
do something to the filetype to make it properly search older (.xls)
files???????? (stranger things have happened

Windows Search does search the contents of excel and other files. If
possible, can you send me one of the Excel or other files you are having
trouble with {and the terms you are searching for and not finding and I
will
take a look}? Send to "davewood at microsoft dot com" and I will see if I
can track anything down ...

Dave

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that
contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches for
some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

:

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this
before
or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave
turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too
long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff
on
it.

:


IllNeverHaveYouAgain;497827 Wrote:
I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you
read
it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I
might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or *.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel
=>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for *.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help. I
can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the
files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all
of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft 70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this
tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Dave

Thanks a bunch for posting this information. I wish that everyone who takes
an incident to email would this.

Regards,

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

<from an email thread Teri and I had>

Teri

I tried searching for a term in the Excel file you sent me on various of
my Vista boxes and I could find the file. I think the problem you are
hitting is that by default we only search the contents of files in indexed
locations. But on network shares etc. we only search file names, to make
searches faster and reduce load on servers etc.

However, there should be a really easy way to make the search for file
contents happen in any location. If you search on a network location and
don’t find the results you want, you should see a little button in the
search results window that says “Search File Contentsâ€. If you click this
we will redo the search across the full contents.

You can also change the defaults and make it so that searches ALWAYS
search file contents. If you go to Folder Options -> Search, there’s an
option “Always search filenames and contents {might be slow}â€. If you
select this then all searches over any location will search file contents.

Let me know if this gets your searches working again,

Dave

Yes !!! I would most certainly do this - Thank you for your time - this
thing is driving me crazy !!!

2 ideas that might be causing glitches -

1) I am searching on network drives (network not really properly
designed
but it does work - I can open files so shouldn't be security issue)

2) I am using Vista to search old (in this case excel) files - do I need
to
do something to the filetype to make it properly search older (.xls)
files???????? (stranger things have happened

Windows Search does search the contents of excel and other files. If
possible, can you send me one of the Excel or other files you are having
trouble with {and the terms you are searching for and not finding and I
will
take a look}? Send to "davewood at microsoft dot com" and I will see if
I
can track anything down ...

Dave

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that
contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches
for
some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

:

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this
before
or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave
turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too
long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff
on
it.

:


IllNeverHaveYouAgain;497827 Wrote:
I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you
read
it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I
might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right
hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I
am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or
*.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel
=>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for
*.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help.
I
can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the
files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all
of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft
70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to
using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this
tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Guest]

I found out the solution to my problem. I'm not sure about the problem you
guys are having with finding a file through words in it's contents.

Anyway to solve the one I explained you have to go into the properties of
the files you can't find and in General > Advanced > File Attributes you must
check the box "Index this file for faster searching". It seems to be off by
default for almost all my*.rar's and *.zip's and most of my *.exe's in
"C:\Users\[me]\Downloads". Checking the box in the Folder's General >
Advanced > File Attributes section won't work. It seems to only work if you
individually set it for the files.

But what I just do is for the folder you're having trouble with just
highlight all it's contents and check the box in the General > Advanced >
File Attributes for the whole group of Files. Make sure it's checked with a
tick not a Blue Square. A Blue Square just means only SOME of them are
selected for Faster Searching (Search using the index). I hope this helped.

Dave

Thanks a bunch for posting this information. I wish that everyone who takes
an incident to email would this.

Regards,

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

<from an email thread Teri and I had>

Teri

I tried searching for a term in the Excel file you sent me on various of
my Vista boxes and I could find the file. I think the problem you are
hitting is that by default we only search the contents of files in indexed
locations. But on network shares etc. we only search file names, to make
searches faster and reduce load on servers etc.

However, there should be a really easy way to make the search for file
contents happen in any location. If you search on a network location and
don’t find the results you want, you should see a little button in the
search results window that says “Search File Contentsâ€. If you click this
we will redo the search across the full contents.

You can also change the defaults and make it so that searches ALWAYS
search file contents. If you go to Folder Options -> Search, there’s an
option “Always search filenames and contents {might be slow}â€. If you
select this then all searches over any location will search file contents.

Let me know if this gets your searches working again,

Dave

Yes !!! I would most certainly do this - Thank you for your time - this
thing is driving me crazy !!!

2 ideas that might be causing glitches -

1) I am searching on network drives (network not really properly
designed
but it does work - I can open files so shouldn't be security issue)

2) I am using Vista to search old (in this case excel) files - do I need
to
do something to the filetype to make it properly search older (.xls)
files???????? (stranger things have happened

:

Windows Search does search the contents of excel and other files. If
possible, can you send me one of the Excel or other files you are having
trouble with {and the terms you are searching for and not finding and I
will
take a look}? Send to "davewood at microsoft dot com" and I will see if
I
can track anything down ...

Dave

I am having same issue, as are many others - so we are not alone

However, I have checked the box to run search on both indexed and
non-indexed files - it does NOT NOT NOT find all the files that
contain
certain words - bottom line Vista has trouble with context searches
for
some
reason - either that or we are all missing some trick to it.

:

Thanks but I was just wondering whether you've ever heard of this
before
or
could hazard a guess to why it's doing this. Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial but I hope you understand I want to leave
turning
off the index until all other options are exhausted. It takes way too
long
without the index to find files on my pc. There's like 300GB of stuff
on
it.

:


IllNeverHaveYouAgain;497827 Wrote:
I made a post on the MSDN forums but I received no help. If you
read
it
though it will detail the steps I've already taken to correct the
problem,
none of which worked. It'll help when you make suggestions that I
might
already have tried.

'Please help! Desktop search is completely broken - MSDN Forums'
(http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2309384&siteid=1)

Anyway. A brief synopsis of my problem:

Using either the Windows Explorer Search box at the top right
hand
corner of
a Windows Explorer Folder or the Search box in the Start Menu I
am
unable to
find certain files. They are usually *.exe's or *.rar's or
*.zip's
which I
have downloaded. I can find some but not others.

Rebuilding the Index or restoring the defaults, in Control Panel
=>
Indexing
Options => Advanced, does nothing to help. My setting for
*.zip's,
*.exe's
and *.rar's are "Index Properties Only" and yet it doesn't help.
I
can
find
SOME *.exe's but not others. The same goes for the rest of the
files.

I can't tell why it can find some and not others when it has all
of
them
indexed. It doesn't seem to matter what directory it's in but the
majority of
the time I notice this problem in "C:\Users\[me]\Downloads".

Please will someone help! I don't want to have to pay Microsoft
70
euros for
customer support because of their defective product!

Hi,

I would just disable the Search Index and let Vista default to
using
the non-indexed search. It is accurate. Method One in this
tutorial
will show you how.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

Shawn


--
brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
WWW.VISTAX64.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.VISTAX64.COM\")
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Guest]

From your post I can't tell if you're trying to search for a filename, or the
textual content of a file. Vista defaults to searching for files' content
and not their names or extensions. Try searching for ext:.rar or
filename:NAME and you may have better luck. Check
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/addresources/advanced.mspx>
for the full syntax.

I hope this helps. My search hasn't worked at all for a few days, and
nothing seems to fix, trying to avoid a reinstall & saw your Q.

Good luck.