Anybody having trouble w/ Windows Explorer search?

In summary, a lot of people are having problems with the search function in Windows 10, but people's problems are never addressed in the discussion. People are saying that the only "fix" is to reset the computer, which is inconvenient. Google is said to be more effective than Windows 10's search function.
  • #36
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  • #37
@symbolipoint I see in an email that you had a comment (now deleted from the thread) about not being satisfied with Explorer's ability to find things. I want to be clear to everyone that I have NEVER had that problem. When search works it always does exactly what I need for it to do.
 
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  • #38
symbolipoint said:
This feeling is understandable. Nobody wants to constantly SEARCH for something (through Windows Explorer), the search fail, and then restart the computer - every single time.

https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/whats_new/

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html
Already got Explorer++ since this problem came up but I find it useless for my needs plus being somewhat unfriendly. I'll take a look at the other one.

OK, took a look at it, very unfriendly, won't even search just the folder I want to search. Useless.

I appreciate your attempts to help but those 2 aren't doing it for me. I'd rather reset the computer than use either one of them.
 
  • #39
phinds, about #37 & #38
I rarely enough use either of those I quoted. I myself am now glad to have it, but Windows search feature itself usually finds for me what I look for when necessary. I forgot all about searching for folder or directory. Maybe soon I'll take the chance to look in the application to see if there is a way to do a search for a folder.
 
  • #40
phinds said:
Already got Explorer++ since this problem came up but I find it useless for my needs plus being somewhat unfriendly. I'll take a look at the other one.

OK, took a look at it, very unfriendly, won't even search just the folder I want to search. Useless.

I appreciate your attempts to help but those 2 aren't doing it for me. I'd rather reset the computer than use either one of them.
You are I assume, satisfied with what you have now for searching on your computer, but in case anyone is still interested in more alternatives for search-utilities, read this: https://listoffreeware.com/list-of-best-free-desktop-file-search-software/
 
  • #41
symbolipoint said:
You are I assume, satisfied with what you have now for searching on your computer ...
I am more than satisfied with Windows Explorer, I just want the damned thing to WORK (all of the time --- the way it has for decades up 'til recently)
 
  • #42
russ_watters said:
There is no drop-down list when this happens. When you click the search box, literally nothing happens. No cursor, no drop-down list, nothing. It's like the box isn't even there.

I've experienced this, on and off, for about a year. It is mostly okay, but every now and then, search just goes AWOL. After a few days, it comes back. I've looked at what patches are applied in the period, and there is never anything obvious to cause the behavior. Indeed, sometimes, there are no patches applied at all. Rebooting does not fix it, resetting the indexing does not fix it, so I just have to live with it, which is irritating but not life threatening at least.

The other annoying search 'feature' is with OneDrive. Possibly because files live in the cloud, Windows Search does not index their contents, so I can be looking for work files that I know I has some useful text or diagram, and it won't find them. I've started using Dropbox as my WIP directory and have forced OneDrive to keep all files resident on my big PC so files can be indexed. That's not possible on the laptop though, as the SSD is too small, so it is not an ideal solution.
 
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  • #43
I always keep Windows Update and its re-enablers disabled -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it; I probably don't need or want the newest and greatest -- if I need or want something newer or somehow more worthy, I'll go find it -- don't push it on me -- I think that it's best practice to back up your stuff on your own devices -- make at least 3 copies; at least 1 copy on each of 3 different devices.
 
  • #44
sysprog said:
I think that it's best practice to back up your stuff on your own devices -- make at least 3 copies; at least 1 copy on each of 3 different devices.

Backup is vital. I use Crashplan because your files go to their cloud automatically and it can cope with intermittent backup locations like a USB disk drive that you only occasionally plug in. But however it's done, it's got to be done!

sysprog said:
I always keep Windows Update and its re-enablers disabled

I won't push you but I will conclude you like to live dangerously, @sysprog :biggrin:
 
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  • #45
sysprog said:
I always keep Windows Update and its re-enablers disabled
So you don't want to get security updates?
 
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  • #46
phinds said:
So you don't want to get security updates?
No -- I decide what programs my computers run -- if I didn't order the pizza, I don't want it, and if it arrives at my door, I'll be nice to the nice delivery person, and call my lawyer to get on the case of that person's boss . . .
 
  • #47
sysprog said:
I always keep Windows Update and its re-enablers disabled -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it; I probably don't need or want the newest and greatest -- if I need or want something newer or somehow more worthy, I'll go find it -- don't push it on me -- I think that it's best practice to back up your stuff on your own devices -- make at least 3 copies; at least 1 copy on each of 3 different devices.
If updates are still being distributed for the operating system, then they are USUALLY important. If person is on a current operating system or I mean fully modern, the present day thing the company (Microsoft for Windows) wants it users to be using, then disabling the updating is a bad thing.
 
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  • #48
sysprog said:
No -- I decide what programs my computers run
And I take it you don't use a browser and so don't log on to forums such as this one or use the interenet in any other way?
 
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  • #49
phinds said:
And I take it you don't use a browser and so don't log on to forums such as this one or use the interenet in any other way?
That's a non sequitur.
 
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  • #50
sysprog said:
No -- I decide what programs my computers run -- if I didn't order the pizza, I don't want it, and if it arrives at my door, I'll be nice to the nice delivery person, and call my lawyer to get on the case of that person's boss . . .
phinds said:
And I take it you don't use a browser and so don't log on to forums such as this one or use the interenet in any other way?
sysprog said:
That's a non sequitur.
The "sequitur" of @phinds ' statement can be logically explained.
 
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  • #51
symbolipoint said:
If updates are still being distributed for the operating system, then they are USUALLY important. If person is on a current operating system or I mean fully modern, the present day thing the company (Microsoft for Windows) wants it users to be using, then disabling the updating is a bad thing.
I disagree at least for my part. I will allow nothing to automatically update any of my systems or any of those of any of my clients unless a client insists on the allowing of that for that client. Deciding whether and how to implement a suggested system update is an important part of my job.
 
  • #52
sysprog said:
Deciding whether and how to implement a suggested system update is an important part of my job.

We're some distance from the OP, but yours is an interesting position, @sysprog. I know of systems that run apps that need to be tested prior to updates being applied. My uncle manages some old lab equipment that fits this category. But it is also a very dependent position your clients end up in. If you are not around to make the decisions, say you're on holidays, they may be unnecessarily exposed. I expect that's their assumed risk though. With business apps being increasingly SaaS and your on-premise equipment is restricted to local services like printing, it is also a risk that is reducing.
 
  • #53
sysprog said:
That's a non sequitur.
So you don't allow updates, and you don't recognize sarcasm.

If you use the internet and you don't allow Windows security updates, you are seriously opening yourself up to a virus.
 
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  • #54
phinds said:
So you don't allow updates, and you don't recognize sarcasm.

If you use the internet and you don't allow Windows security updates, you are seriously opening yourself up to a virus.
I think that allowing automatic updates would be for me less than vigilant . . .
 
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  • #55
Tghu Verd said:
We're some distance from the OP, but yours is an interesting position, @sysprog. I know of systems that run apps that need to be tested prior to updates being applied. My uncle manages some old lab equipment that fits this category. But it is also a very dependent position your clients end up in. If you are not around to make the decisions, say you're on holidays, they may be unnecessarily exposed. I expect that's their assumed risk though. With business apps being increasingly SaaS and your on-premise equipment is restricted to local services like printing, it is also a risk that is reducing.
(emphasis by underling added) My client knows where to go and what to do if I'm not there. There are programs that I wrote decades ago that still function errorlessly and don't require updates. If you've signed in (logged on) to a mainframe, you've (if your system includes CA-ACF2) possibly used a few lines of my code, but I didn't write the module, and it's not modifiable by an automatic update -- we don't do auto-updates on the mainframe -- updating things is a thought-through process.
 
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  • #56
sysprog said:
we don't do auto-updates on the mainframe

Fair enough, that's a whole other can of worms to Windows, which is what most PF'ers seemed to think the system was, myself included. I needed an IBM ZSeries admin a couple of years ago for a banking project and eventually found a guy in is his mid 60s who was happy to take the job. The hardware is venerable, and the people tending them even more so! Big iron, it's still running the world, just behind the scenes :biggrin:
 
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  • #57
Tghu Verd said:
The hardware is venerable
The current version hardware is very advanced and up to date.
 
  • #58
venerable
/ˈvɛn(ə)rəb(ə)l/

adjective
accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character.

Nothing to suggest it's not advanced and up to date. ZSeries is a computing work of art!

(And now we're seriously off topic, so lest we lock the thread up for it, rest assured, I think IBMs mainframes are terrific systems and that's all I'll say on that.)
 
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  • #59
Tghu Verd said:
venerable
/ˈvɛn(ə)rəb(ə)l/

adjective
accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character.

Nothing to suggest it's not advanced and up to date. ZSeries is a computing work of art!

(And now we're seriously off topic, so lest we lock the thread up for it, rest assured, I think IBMs mainframes are terrific systems and that's all I'll say on that.)
MVS (and its successors) = in my opinion the best OS.
 
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  • #60
sysprog said:
MVS (and its successors) = in my opinion the best OS.
True enough, just that I preferred DEC DCL control language to JCL and -- ugh -- DOS commands. Of course Sun Microsystems obsoleted PDP and VAX platforms in favor of Solaris and UNIX; so, moot point.

Back to MS Explorer search functions: my brother-in-law installed Mozilla Firefox browser on my laptop years ago. Functions much better than Explorer on several levels. Chrome OK if clunky.
 
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  • #61
Klystron said:
True enough, just that I preferred DEC DCL control language to JCL and -- ugh -- DOS commands. Of course Sun Microsystems obsoleted PDP and VAX platforms in favor of Solaris and UNIX; so, moot point.
Back in the day (early '70s -- I was 12 or 13) a DEC 10 for time-sharing and an IBM OS/VS2 (later -> MVS) machine for batch was a system manager's dream -- later, the manager whom I'm thinking of went to work for Cray . . .

In the late '80s some people were running DOS/VSE (which has different JCL) under VM --

CICS (a transaction processing subsystem) still runs everywhere.
Back to MS Explorer search functions: my brother-in-law installed Mozilla Firefox browser on my laptop years ago. Functions much better than Explorer on several levels. Chrome OK if clunky.
In my opinion, Windows XP search is better than Windows 7 or 8 or 10 search.
 
  • #62
sysprog said:
In my opinion, Windows XP search is better than Windows 7 or 8 or 10 search.
RIGHT! If someone wants a searching program nearly as good on a modern Windows today, he must download something and install it. One possibility, SearchMyFiles.
 
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  • #63
sysprog said:
In my opinion, Windows XP search is better than Windows 7 or 8 or 10 search.
Not sure I ever even had XP but what are the features there that are not in 7 and 10? I find that 7/10 search is excellent. What am I missing?
 
  • #64
phinds said:
Not sure I ever even had XP but what are the features there that are not in 7 and 10? I find that 7/10 search is excellent. What am I missing?
XP searching allowed the user to specify some details about the file to be searched. W10 allows user to just open a text field from taskbar and write some text for the file or filename user wants.
 
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  • #65
In XP search, we could easily specify content inside files, as well as wildcard file names and dates, and other 'details' (as @symbolipoint said it), and we could easily exclude results that were not what we were seeking.
 
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  • #66
@phinds , are you talking about searching for a file by name? Like, "I had a file called mycurrentproject.docx, but I'm not sure where it is saved?"

When I need to do that, I use the command prompt window and the "dir" command,
C: dir /s mycurrentproject*

or

dir /s *current*

I have never had much luck with the Windows Explorer searches, so I started doing it this way years ago.In win 10 the command prompt is hiding in PowerShell; you have to type "cmd" there.
 
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  • #67
gmax137 said:
@phinds , are you talking about searching for a file by name? Like, "I had a file called mycurrentproject.docx, but I'm not sure where it is saved?"

When I need to do that, I use the command prompt window and the "dir" command,
C: dir /s mycurrentproject*

or

dir /s *current*

I have never had much luck with the Windows Explorer searches, so I started doing it this way years ago.In win 10 the command prompt is hiding in PowerShell; you have to type "cmd" there.
The problem with that is that you can't cut/paste into and out of the command prompt, nor can you just click on the result, both of which make it a pain to use for this purpose.

Besides which, explorer is an EXCELLENT tool.
 
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  • #70
It has done this (losing the ability to search) to me once, after a Windows update. A reboot or two later and it was fine, and it hasn't happened since. If it recurs my plan is to reinstall Windows from scratch; it's about 18 months since I last did that which is about the median interval for my main PC.
 
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