How do I search for files in Windows Vista?

Better?
Its a load of rubbish, its the clumsiest interface I have ever known, and this Vista search facility cannot even distinguish between [square] and (round) brackets, and the most annoying thing is that I can figure out how to remove the search box from the windows as it impedes the address bar.
Sheesh!

Thank you for finally explaining where they hid what is now called 'advanced search' in Vista. It is now a few more clicks to get to, but at least I have a reasonable search capability to use.

That (aside from the crashes) was my biggest problem with Vista. Now if I could only learn how to tell where all of those shortcuts in the file results are pointing. I don't want to know where the shortcut is, I want to know where the FILE is!!! And if I could figure out how to set 'shut down' and not 'sleep' as the default, I might find Vista less of a continual annoyance.

I can not figure out how to find a file in a directory with Vista. For example, how can I find files that contains the word 'Hi' in a directory? It is very frustrating.

WINDOWS VISTA SEARCH CANNOT FIND ANYTHING. This software is awful.

Windows Vista Search engine apparently is not full proof... this is what i found out recently... i not sure why but one of my word documents cannot be found by my search engine despite me typing the excat same name of the document or that the search engine can find the other document next to it... what makes it even weird is that i remember being able to search for it a few weeks ago...

do you have any idea of what is happening? and how to fix this problem?

is there no help on the menu bar?
how can i get help with some of the basic functions in word (using vista) and not have to go to the internet to find it? i haven't gotten any help within ms office.
thanks.

Check out the following link for searching for strings within a file, it seems to work

http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/17/how-to-search-files-by-content-data/

Vista search is abysmal compared to Win2k - can't find anything - for example, tried searching for *.mdb - nothing found (despite the fact I have lots of db files on the pc), removed the *. just in case, nothing found. It's awful and I wish I had the option of reverting back to a decent search tool on this PC!

Whoever wrote this is smoking crack. The vista search function is the worst it has ever been. Nightmare in XP? Are you crazy? As with everything else, MS has added more clicks to get to what you want and a confusing interface to boot. XP search was slower than in 2k, but at least it worked the same. Does anyone know a trick to get the old search back?

Sadly I bought Windows Vista. XP Search was terrible. Vista is worse. For example, I need to edit some HTML and ASP files containing the characters "user.dob" ... nah! No can do! Only to realise that aka girlgeek had the same issue back in May ...

Vista file search is useless. It seems that everytime Microsuck 'improves' something it only gets worse. "FIND" in Win9x was far superior to any "SEARCH" that has come since. I am looking at dozens of files that Vista cannot find with "search". I have been using computers since the 70's, so I'm not new to this. Vista sucks and it's file search engine does too.

And one other thing: Dave, you must be a Microsoft lackey, because nobody could try Vista Search who has ever used Win98 Find and say ANYTHING good about it.

Bob, if I'm a Microsoft lackey they have a serious problem because I've been a vocal proponent of the Macintosh platform for almost twenty years now! :-)

What the heck was wrong with the search function on XP? How was it a nightmare? Inquiring minds want to know, because Vista search sucks! I search for things I KNOW are on my computer, NOTHING shows up.

With the old search, If I searched for something, uhm..it found it. They should not have fooled around with it, it's crap now.

I am at the moment trying to find a replacement for the Vista Search utility or how to revert it to the old version. It does not find what you can find from the command line. The index fails to build properly. Microsoft seriously screwed up on this part of Vista.

"what used to be a nightmare is now an easily accomplished task using Vista’s powerful new Search features."

????

Who paid you to distort reality? What used to be the ability to search file contents is now a product that hides file contents. It has far less search power -- so much less as to be worthless as a productivity tool, and the manufacturer did not disclose to consumers in detail at the point of purchase the standard, usual features it withheld from its latest version.

It's time for Justice to pay another visit to Microsoft. When a company provides a downgraded product based on claims that it is an upgrade, consumer interests are damaged. Rebates, repairs and perhaps compensation for lost productivity might be due.

It does search file contents. The interface is just all mucked up. There's no easy access to advanced search, and the browse-folders link for narrowing searches is buried deep in the set of search options.

When it comes to searching file contents in Vista you can FORGET IT!!!!

I have to seriously question you Dave about praising the VISTA Search facility.

Vista search is truly the most irritating new feature in Vista. What the H ell were they thinking? Those dumb a sses.

http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/17/how-to-search-files-by-content-data/

(Posted by: spaceman at September 21, 2007 8:14 AM)
Go here there it WORKS but i had to click the box “Don’t use the Idex when searching the file system (might be slow)”

I have to agree that the search function is the worst I have ever seen, and I desperately need a replacement. XP was bad enough because it left out certain hidden directories, but the Vista Search function just seems to be plain brain dead. I did an advanced search for files that had changed since a certain date, and it came up with only 2 in the %windows% directory, and none in the %system% directory. Now anyone who knows how Windows operates knows that is impossible. It is just more of Microsoft trying to hide things from the user because they won't understand it anyway. Fortunately the command line "dir" functions still work with the /a and /o:d options. It is slow work, but without it I would not be able to operate at all.

J.A. Coutts

And I thought it was just me.

Does anyone know what windows search is actually designed to do because it finds some pretty unrelated items but it has yet to find what I need, even though I know its there.

If it does indeed work, the user shouldnt need a degree to turn on/off obscure options to do a proper full search.

Customers who may have lost an important file would give up and assume there hard work had been lost, when it porbably has not.

A file search should be thorough, by default.

I wouldnt hold out much hope if the emergency services conducted searches for stranded campers this way. Only when the ice melts in spring would they be have any chance of being found (dead).

NTFS is quite a robust file system, it rarely misplaces files.

It shouldnt be like searching for a piece of hay in a huge pile needles.

Tried finding all *.exe's on drive C: - it came up with a dozen. A dozen?

I tried to find "FileExists" in any .BAS file inside a specific folder. Should have been 15 occurances instead it only found 6. To make matters worse, I had to spend an additional 20 minutes attempting to decipher if I was using the Vista search utility correctly.

Why can't MS create a patch to replace the Vista search utility with the one from XP? This could be a separate download and only if the user elected to download it.

I have to add my voice of protest! XP was far from perfect, but one of the great things its search function could do was find files based on the content - I write a lot, and I'm often looking for a Word doc where I can't recall what I called it, but I know it'll contain certain words. Vista just won't do that - I followed the link that It WORKED posted earier, and changed the settings, I tested it out with a few search terms and it still looks right through files as if they're not there.

Just wanted to add my two cents that I have had the same frustration with search. Ever since Windows XP tried to get "user friendlier" by searching for "documents" or "music" or "pictures and video" the search has become harder and harder to use. I can't even find an option to search with the old wildcards of * and ? in a filename. Intensely frustrating. Making the experience easier for idiots is commendable, but not at a huge cost for those who used to know what they were doing.

Another flaw: you can't search by a bracketed date (e.g., "I know I created this between 3-1 and 3-7"). Instead you can only do before or after a single date.

XP's routine was very useful and very flexible. This one is utterly worthless. I want XP's version back.

Guys Guys... I too was mad at first for the search in vista.. but after that it seems more easy.. just go to my computer and on the top right corner there is a search. Just type in the word.. the search starts automatically and files get listed.

Good luck.

these instructions:
http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/17/how-to-search-files-by-content-data/

Do not work. I have all of that set to search contents, and it *still* returns no results. A simple "grep" in cygwin, or in TextPad always succeeds. I have tried every variant of palying iwth those options and the find syntax and can't find a simple substring in a .css file!

The vista search facility is totally useless. I have spent an entire afternoon trying to get it to work, and it cannot find a single document or file! The sooner Vista is dead and buried the better.

In my opinion, the opposite is true - what used to be easily accomplished XP is now a nightmare in Vista!

I've seen myself almost reduced to tears with frustration trying to do simple things like searching for a text file with specific content. Why the hell did they think removing the box for entering the file contents was a good idea? I know you can optionally tell it to look for content matches, but that's useless if have different criteria for the filename and the contents as there's only one box! Oh boy I could scream, it's so brain dead stupid!

Admittedly, the search box on the start menu is handy for quickly getting to apps (since All Programs is now so cumbersome), but for finding files it's useless.

Worse still, the search option (not the box) has been removed in SP1. What a fantastic idea to annoy the hell out of users - that is the aim of Vista isn't it?

It's like MS made up a list of the most terrible ideas that must be avoided at all costs, but then accidentally handed it to their developers to be implemented!

I know I'm really late to this article but just wanted to add my 2 cents. Windows Vista file search sucks! It does not find files that I know for a fact are on my computer. I've messed around with it just to see how bad it is - and it's really really bad. I'll put a file on my desktop "test.txt" and do a search for "test". Nothing. And yes I've made sure the settings are in place to search the whole computer.

What in the hell was so wrong with the find that came with XP? It's search for crying out loud, it's not rocket science.

I'm so happy to have found this page and other souls to cope along with my intense anger and hatred with the Vista search. I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to search through a folder of text files by content because I knew the text existed somewhere in the files but didn't know the filename.

With XP this would have been a breeze. With Vista, I had to Google for help and ended up having to edit group policy to enable the hidden folder options (why it was hidden I have no idea) from the Tools menu, then tell Vista to search for files AND content. I enabled this and STILL Vista is not finding key words that are clearly in the text files I'm searching through. What a steaming pile of garbage I want to murder Vista in cold blood...

Hi! Do any of you know how to search for multiple items in vista? In XP you could for example do: "*.bmp;bin" XP then listed all files with "*.bmp" in its name, AND all files/folders with "bin" in its name?