partial searches

w7 can't find "taxes.txt" (say) if i search on "tax". worse yet, it can't find "taxes93.txt" if i search on "taxes". good luck finding anything if you have a zillion similarly-named/related files ("taxes93schedA", "tax93overview", "taxprep93" etc).

i don't recall this being an issue in prior windows incarnations.

is there some setting to tweak somewhere?

i should mention that it does seem to recognize underscores and hyphens, so "taxes" can find "taxes_93" and "taxes-93". but not "taxes93".

 

Some 'free' info regarding the W7 Search is available at the cost of signing up for a (sometimes useful) free weekly newsletter at Windows Secrets. No need to fill in any CC info, the free subscription is enough to get this.

I use W7's 'search' never - always been disabled here; on the very rare occasions I need to search, Agent Ransack (64-bit currently) is my go-to, has been for many years.

 

>> I use W7's 'search' never - always been disabled here. satrow <<

I agree with satrow... I never use Windows 7 built-in 'search' engine either. My favorite search tool is a freeware product called "Everything" search engine.

I don't think it is available here at MajorGeeks but it can be found here: Everything Search Engine from Voidtools.

Good Luck! - COMP

 

I also have this problem, and the "Search Programs and Files" feature at the Start Button DID work on this Windows 7 machine just last week. Is there any kind of toggle that might be flipped? Could the "God Mode" fix it?

 

My Search Programs and Files seems to turn off by itself. After a period of time, about 3 minutes, all a query will get are references to PROGRAMS and CONTROL PANEL. When Search works correctly, it will go in depth to identify WORD, MUSIC, VIDEOs that have the search query term.

There are some additional symptoms that may give more knowledgeable people here a clue:

When the Search function IS WORKING and I click on a suggestion under the WORD heading, it will take me to a file with the query term. Furthermore, if I click on the See More Results, a full size screen will come up with every Document it can find that has the search term.

When the Search function is NOT working, the PROGRAMS and CONTROL PANEL headings are only open for the first few letters entered. When I finish typing the entire four letter query, the suggestions dry up.

As a test after opening a Word document, I went back to the Search function, and kept trying to search for some test four letter query. Initially it worked fine , however after a period of time, Search did stop working on its own, giving me only the PROGRAMS and CONTROL PANEL suggestions only.

I did another test startup, this time not going into ANY programs, just checking the Search function approximately every 30 seconds, and after about 3 minutes, the Search stopped working.

On another test start up, I went online and purposely went back to check the Search function as I tried each step: Upon normal login, OK, upon accessing the web via Firefox, OK, upon google searching for a web page, OK, upon opening the search connection, Search stopped at the PROGRAMS and CONTROL PANEL. This process was about 2 minutes in length.

I tried using the troubleshooter, checking the box that says "files don't appear in search results." The system checked, but couldn't find anything.

Is it possible some kind of background program could be running that shuts down the Search function? I am familiar with Task Manager, but am very unfamiliar with what shows as running and what should be running. When I have run Spybot, it has come up clean and when I have run Panda Antivirus it also came up clean.

Up until about 2 weeks ago, Search worked fine. The Recovery function in God Mode doesn't seem to have any recovery points that go back 2 weeks

Any other ideas?

 

i think the last couple of replies are dealing w something entirely different. my searches are not missing files or folders per se, it's that they don't recognize subsets of strings. that is, "dog" is only found if it falls between spaces or underscores or a few other delineating characters. it is not found if it appears in "dogs" or "dogged" or "hotdog", as any normal(?) search would do.

is this the influence of google? it has bugged me that partial/wildcard searches on the web went away about a decade ago, but it has always been possible in windows itself until now.

who wants a search engine that can't find the files "taxes" or "tax2012" for someone searching "tax"?! what good is that?!