indexed search

since upgrading to IE8, my "search companion" has been replaced by some sort of "pre-indexed search" routine. which actually sounds BETTER to me...but for the fact that i can't figure out how to USE it!

oh well. at least it gives me the option of bailing out and using the search companion. which i've ended up doing EVERY SINGLE TIME. so how do i lose the "indexing" one and just restore the normal (search companion) one once and for all?

i should note that the indexer also fills up my task manager with lots and lots of processes, btw. just one more reason to lose it.

 

Depends on the sort of thing you mostly search for, but if it's finding files rather than text within files then try Everything. I have never used Windows own search facility since discovering it, and have turned off the indexing service it uses, to significant benefit I may add

 

You can disable this and other wasteful services following the advice on Black Viper;
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Very useful, esp. for systems with limited/challenged resources.:wave:wave

 

Black Viper - I shuda known!

Been spending half my LIFE on that page lately.....

Funny, the name "search companion" would normally scare me off (I like barebones approaches), but in this case that actually seems to be the simpler (bareboner?) of the two.

@Earthling: text within files?! Is that even possible?!

I'm just grateful to be able to find files by their filenames. Sometimes that alone takes a minute or two -- how many CENTURIES must it take to find one based on text within...?!

:eek

 

Then get Everything. There's nothing faster in the etherverse

 

Even your old friend the Search Companion can do it!

 

It's worthwhile turning off drive indexing now plodr.

 

Yeah, I knew that, actually. I was commenting on the TIME it must take!

And I'd had np with windows search function (companion version) other than that. Why did you ever need to go looking manually plodr?

 

The "indexing service" which BV recommends unchecking via CP/windows components is ALREADY unchecked. Plus it is refering to some "cisvc.exe" process, which I am not seeing anyways.

But I am seeing "searchindexer.exe" and at times "searchprotocolhost.exe", and "searchfilterhost.exe". More importantly, when I click "search..." through any of various methods, up comes this newfangled "Windows Search" thing. Search companion still works if I bail out and take that link, but how do I make this PERMANENT?

I have, gratefully, lost it from my systray, but with that, any chance of reaching the "preferences" page BV describes. Oh well, I suspect that was for this "cisvc" anyways.

Windows Help tells me in various places to "Click Change preferences....Click Change Internet search behavior....Click With classic Internet search" or the like, but there's no "Change Preferences" in the first place!

There is an "Options" link, but it has nothing relevent. At some point I did see (and click on) a "Stop Indexing" option in the search companion itself, but...A) it didn't seem to apply to the Windows Search version, B) I can't even find it in the COMPANION anymore, and C) "search..." still defaults to the new one, whether indexing is on or not.

I give up! How do I lose this $%*@^&ing thing!!

BTW, I should clarify that this all began AROUND THE TIME that I upgraded to IE8. Now that I think about it, I see no reason to suspect that it is in any way related. Prolly some other "critical update" around the same time. Maybe SP3?

---------------
EDIT: Note to self -- google first; ask questions later: http://www.johnsadventures.com/archives/2006/11/how_to_default_to_search_companion_with_windows_de/

One of a ZILLION such pages popping up....

 

All that has happened is that at some point you were offered Windows Desktop Search as, I believe, an optional update, and you accepted it. Big mistake Anyway, all you need to do is uninstall it via Control Panel and the Search Companion will again become the default. Then hide the update next time it rears its ugly head.

You should also reinstate drive indexing if you don't want to use Everything.

 

... or it may have been Windows Search 4, but whichever, just uninstall it.

 

Yes, I'm sure I am to blame for having accepted w/e "Search" they offered me. And MS officially says to uninstall it in their own "solution". However, I don't actually HAVE either of those in my installed proggy list!

Seriously. Perhaps it could be done via an UPDATE uninstall somehow, but as visible entries in the "Add or Remove Programs" list, they just ain't there!!

:confused

Anyway, the registry kludge offered in that johnsadventures link worked swimmingly. So I'm one happy camper.

Elsewhere I found another kludge to blow past Search Companion and go straight to "Classic Search", sans dog. Straining to recall what that WAS, actually, but several blogs refer to it as the best of the three.

 

Bit academic now you've sorted it, but it might be in add/remove updates?