Windows 7 search?

[biff]

Yes I am ashamed to have to ask this but....

Where the F*** is the search for Windows 7?! I've looked for it a bunch of times then just get fed up and go find my files manually. I've tried googling it but all I can find is references to the stupid little search tabs at the bottom of the start menu and the one to the right of the address bar in windows explorer, which don't seem to ever find anything. I'm looking for the full blown search like what XP has.

Thanks.

[MacJunky]

I am also curious about this. The one in the explorer windows is a pain in the ass.

[enaberif]

Click "Start"

Enter search criteria.

If the drive is indexed it will find it.

[Desiato]

The Windows 7 search is pretty powerful, but takes some learning to use advanced functions:

Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax

Here's a pretty good article about it:

Mastering Windows Search using Advanced Query Syntax

[biff]

Here's a search showing two windows explorers. On the top right I've typed in that I'm looking for *.mpls files and below it you can see it didn't find any. In the window on the left you can see there is indeed a whole bunch of 'em there. The search in the start menu has the same results, errr... no results. Not much of a search tool.

[Desiato]

That's weird. Your example would work for me. What happens when you type *.mpls in the Playlist folder searchbox?

You can try typing "find and fix problems with windows search" in the start menu search for a troubleshooter that may assist...

[biff]

Originally Posted by Desiato

That's weird. Your example would work for me. What happens when you type *.mpls in the Playlist folder searchbox?

Still nothing found - see attached image. FWIW I've had to reinstall Win7 a few times over the past year and it's done this everytime from a fresh install. TBH I'm really not impressed with win7 as a whole - usual M$ garbage, they add more eyecandy and functionality gets worse than the previous version. Anyway sorry for the rant.

Originally Posted by Desiato

You can try typing "find and fix problems with windows search" in the start menu search for a troubleshooter that may assist...

I'll try this and see what turns up.

[Shadowmeph]

I never used the search in windows, I have always used "everything" Download Everything
it is allot faster and works great for me
edit
I just remembered something, there is a setting in folder options that sometimes gets missed its called "hide extentions of non file types" . I have no idea why anyone would want that setting but on my pc it somehow was turned on and I couldn't find allot of things thats when I downloaded everything and found all of these hidden files and then discovered that the setting "hide extentions" was on.

[LarkStarr]

Now that is definitely weird. That should work. I've done extension searches many times like that without fail.

can you search for just a filename? i.e. "00251"

[Desiato]

Originally Posted by biff

Still nothing found - see attached image. FWIW I've had to reinstall Win7 a few times over the past year and it's done this everytime from a fresh install. TBH I'm really not impressed with win7 as a whole - usual M$ garbage, they add more eyecandy and functionality gets worse than the previous version. Anyway sorry for the rant.

My experience with Windows 7 and its search has been the opposite of yours.

When I perform a search like you are in a non-indexed location a yellow bar will appear under the toolbar explaining that searching might be slow in non-indexed locations. Because I don't see that bar in your screenshots, it's possible that location is indexed but the index is broken, resulting in your issue. If that is the case, rebuilding your index may solve the issue. You can rebuild the index in the advanced section of Indexing Options.

I limit indexed locations for performance.