Windows 7 search from desktop

Thanks for your feedback. When you do a search, choose Show more results, they will appear in an explorer window and you can turn on the Preview pane which will allow you to view the contents of the file. Additionally, using the search result window allows you to filter the results in variety of ways such as what kind of file it is photo, document, email, contact, etc. Using the Windows 7 Search Feature. Windows Search a short video with related links on the page. DOS still works at least.

Hope they aren't planning to break that too. Guess I wrote this question eight years ago - no one listened then either. These "inventions" ruin the excitement of getting a new OS for sure. I did hit F3 and was able to type in a value and have the search locate the file or folder. I also found there is a button that allows me to look at the details by button, I mean a not very obvious icon [at least to me] and once I had the details listed, I could click the columns and sort by date, or by size or by name or whatever column I choose.

Since this is the functionality I was looking for, I would say that I am satisfied mapped drives aside with the newer search capability.

It took waaaay to long to figure this out. Having icons instead of menus IMHO is a method of disguising functionality rather than exposing it and it is a trend that I wish future versions of Microsoft OS systems would avoid. Sunday, August 30, PM. At the risk of repeating myself, I should point out that I no longer even try to perform searches in W7.

With the shining exception of the start menu now THAT's what a search tool can do! In other words, that does what the W7 search should have done from the start. Gee I wish I'd been involved in the betas, I could have annoyed the cr p out of MS and maybe the search wouldn't have been so badly neutered. If wishes were fishes, etc. I'd still be really interested to know if anyone familiar with the RTM codebase can comment on any search improvements added at the last minute?

Monday, August 31, AM. I agree. The Original Post was " How to do a simple search in Windows 7??? That document is not simple. Wednesday, December 2, AM. Plenty of folks scratched their heads over Windows Search 4. Its predecessor in Vista was already a step in the wrong direction. Computers are not fuzzy things, they don't give approximations of results unless specifically programmed to do so. What they ARE is hyper fast and incredibly accurate - when properly programmed.

And so we can imagine searching through gigabytes of data in real time, and getting perfectly accurate results. Why Microsoft has implemented a "search" facility that's so complex that it can't be reliably used to do simple searches is way beyond my imagination, and I've got a good imagination. I hate to say it, but there have been versions of searches in past Windows versions from which I would bank on the results.

Not now. Would you stake your career on the output of Windows Search 4. Let's say your boss said, "I need all the documents in the Documents folder that list our SuperWidget updated. I agree, it's much easier to search for something than to find it algorithmically speaking, anyway. Since the advent of file property fields in NT I think , I've been waiting for a MS search tool that clearly and simply searches those fields, and since none did, I tend to embed my metadata in the filename and keep my fingers crossed that content-based searches will fine-tune the results from filename filters.

Search 3. The GrepWin tool is powerful, no doubt about it! But although I cut my teeth on SCO Unix and Xenix, if anyone remembers and only moved to DOS and then Windows when my then employer HP did, grep was then and still is a pretty intimidating tool - and for newcomers it can be a nightmare to get their heads around.

Sadly, there has been no improvement between the RC and the full release of W7 in the search department, so that's a dead end not that I expected much anyway. So I'm sticking with Opus searches, they're hideously slow but at least I can match meaningful results to my metadata.

Fingers crossed someone anyone comes up with an elegant, CHEAP, search tool that works within the W7 metadata paradigm. I'm not holding my breath though. The advanced query syntax article is very helpful. It is very funny though. The advanced query syntax provides exactly what you need to do a search to find exactly what you are looking for and exclude what you don't. What's funny is the developers of the Windows 7 search function, which they provide for the use of their users, know that the Windows 7 search function is worthless if you don't use the advanced query syntax.

I bet the developers use the advanced query syntax all the time. I mean why would anyone want to sort through all those meaningless search results when you can actually construct a query that finds exactly what you want? I also wonder what the search developers think of performing a search and not finding what they are looking for because it wasn't indexed. Maye it was was a "hidden" file or an excluded file type or what ever. I personally find that beyond annoying.

When I search I actually want to search everything under a given file system location. Of course I tailor the query using constructs similar to the advanced query syntax. Why Microsoft doesn't provide an advanced search tool which allows a user to graphically construct and save queries which are implemented via the advanced query syntax is a mystery to me. Maybe they could also add a "don't treat me like the idiot you think I am and really really really search everything" option.

There are a bunch of Search Connectors online you just need to do a search, and in fact you can make them yourself. To get you started download our Search Connector for this site. Use Google Fonts in Word.

Customize the Taskbar in Windows What Is svchost. Best Home Theater Systems. Best Smartwatches. Best Gaming Laptops. Best Smart Displays. Best Home Security Systems. Best External Solid State Drives. Best Portable Chargers. Best Phone Chargers. Best Wi-Fi Range Extenders. Best Oculus Quest 2 Accessories. The Windows desktop search in Windows 7 will search within the content of your files by default.

This means that desktop search will find if your search terms actually appear within a file on your computer. Right-click on the Start Menu button and then select Properties. Now within the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window you will click on the Start Menu tab and then click the button that says Customize. These will reset all options including the search feature.

This will open a brand new window called Indexing Options. Click on the Advanced button. In the Advanced Options , click on the File Types tab.

At the very bottom you will see How should this file be indexed. Now click OK. You might want the rebuild to run when you are not using the computer, as it could slow down your PC a bit while the process is taking place. Windows desktop search in Windows 7 has a general idea of which locations and folders need to be indexed.

It will go through your Start Menu, the User Folder, and any of your offline files. If you moved something around or have some things stored in another location on your drive, then you will want to add folders to your index so that the desktop search will go looking within those folders as well. There are two easy ways to do this, adding a folder to a library or adding one directly to the index. When you add a folder to one of your libraries, it will instantly make it part of the index because Windows Explorer automatically indexes all of your libraries.