How do I find a computer on the network in windows 7 ?
I am working from home with a VPN link to my office network and want to find a 2003 server on that. In XP it is a piece of cake. Start up the VPN connection, about 15 seconds. Select the standard XP search (not the useless SearchBar 4 that never finds anything) and select computer on network. Type in the name of the server and search. about 10-20 seconds later the server pops-up and when I doubble click it it asks for user and password and then I can use it. In Windows 7 it is a nigthmare (aka it does not work at all) Start the VPN connection (where do I find that) after some struggle (about 30 minutes). Up and running. Ok how to search for the server the extreamly good search in XP is gone and you are stuck with the useless SearchBar 4 (at least it looks as it). Well lets test it i may be fixed. Type in server name in the bar and now where do I click ? - well lets try the blue X button........nothing happens. Ok click once more........nothing happens. Thinking.......... What suddenly (in about 20 seconds) the adress field turns into a graphic progress indicator lets wait and see.............. 1 minute later surprise-surprise "no match found". "SearchBar 4" is obviously as bad as before. 1 hour later of browsing the internet for some clues manual clicking (because SearchBar 4 never finds anything ) still not able to hook on to the server. God what I hate these graphic development that gives you nothing at all except loss of hours. XP - Windows 7 1000-0 Can anyone tell me how to find the server ? Or must I download some freeware Search tool on the internet. Right now I can not afford to loose more working time so I shut down Windows 7 and boot in XP instead. I need to get some work done thats what my customer pays me for. PS I am not a novice I have worked with PCs since -84.
October 22nd, 2010 4:55am

sTf_paPs wrote: I am working from home with a VPN link to my office network and want to find a 2003 server on that. In XP it is a piece of cake. 1. Start up the VPN connection, about 15 seconds. 2. Select the standard XP search (not the useless SearchBar 4 that never finds anything) and select computer on network. Type in the name of the server and search. about 10-20 seconds later the server pops-up and when I doubble click it it asks for user and password and then I can use it. In Windows 7 it is a nigthmare (aka it does not work at all) 1. Start the VPN connection (where do I find that) after some struggle (about 30 minutes). Up and running. 2. Ok how to search for the server the extreamly good search in XP is gone and you are stuck with the useless SearchBar 4  (at least it looks as it). Well lets test it i may be fixed. Type in server name in the bar and now where do I click ? - well lets try the blue X button........nothing happens. Ok click once more........nothing happens. Thinking.......... What suddenly (in about 20 seconds) the adress field turns into a graphic progress indicator lets wait and see.............. 1 minute later surprise-surprise "no match found". "SearchBar 4" is obviously as bad as before. 3. 1 hour later of browsing the internet for some clues manual clicking (because SearchBar 4 never finds anything ) still not able to hook on to the server. God what I hate these graphic development that gives you nothing at all except loss of hours. XP - Windows 7   1000-0 Can anyone tell me how to find the server ? Or must I download some freeware Search tool on the internet. Right now I can not afford to loose more working time so I shut down Windows 7 and boot in XP instead. I need to get some work done thats what my customer pays me for. PS I am not a novice I have worked with PCs since -84. The Windows 7 search only works if you are connected to the network you are searching and yes it is much less configurable than the old simple search. And VPN client connections are not always seen as local network. If the computer, you are searching for, is part of AD there is the search in AD search function available. Otherwise if you know name or IP-address you can directly type \\servername or \\ip-address into the explorer address field. In any other case you can only use external search programs to accomplish your goal. BTW also under WinXP if using an IPSEC VPN client, you could not really search the VPN net for computers. Personally I always remember one server in the VPN net and connect to that server (via RDP,VNC, ...) to search for anything else on that net from the local server. Wolfgang
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October 22nd, 2010 12:16pm

Hi Wolfgang Thanks for your answer. As I all ready know the new Search in Vista/7 and also XP if you by mistake "upgrades" to it really sucks. The server I am trying to hook up with is a virtual Windows 2003 server within an AD and I use VPN IPSEC. My home computer is not in the work AD only in my home network. I am living on an island of my own in the archipelago of Stockholm. In winter time or when it is really bad weather I work from home so I must be able to connect through VPN directly from my home PC. I have never had any problems with it during several years of using XP and it still works terrific with XP both x32 and x64, I only use the XP search for computers on the network type in the name and click search and about 5-10 seconds later it pops up. Unfortunately our customers are starting to use Win7 and we develop software so in order to be able to support our customers I must get used to Win7. If it was only for my use I would never consider to go from XP to 7, what would the purpose of that be. The only thing I so far have got by using 7 is XP with a messed up graphic interface Not able to work from home Endless hours of clicking through pointless "graphic artifacts" only to find the XP att the bottom An almost none usable Windows explorer that keeps shrinking folders by itself all the time Application windows that turns fullscreen by itself when you want to move them Not possible to play bougth DVD movies due to some "graphic card security thing" So far I have only seen three good things with 7 It is faster than VISTA (but what is not) and it is almost as fast as XP (comparising on the same PC) You can set it to classic and get almost XP back. (Except for the good search and Windows Explorer) With BOOT disk on a 2 x SSD in a Raid0 it boots really fast. Using Remote desktop on my Office PC works also in Win7 but that PC is much slower (its a HP with all the HP ____ on it and on top of that Norton Antivirus) so actually working by remote desktop is not an option except for real emergency situations. Still I am a Windows fan. Stupid ......... maybee :) /MikaelsTf_paPs
October 27th, 2010 6:27am

sTf_paPs wrote: Hi Wolfgang Thanks for your answer. As I all ready know the new Search in Vista/7 and also XP if you by mistake "upgrades" to it really sucks. The server I am trying to hook up with is a virtual Windows 2003 server within an AD and I use VPN IPSEC. My home computer is not in the work AD only in my home network. I am living on an island of my own in the archipelago of Stockholm. In winter time or when it is really bad weather I work from home so I must be able to connect through VPN directly from my home PC. I have never had any problems with it during several years of using XP and it still works terrific with XP both x32 and x64, I only use the XP search for computers on the network type in the name and click search and about 5-10 seconds later it pops up. Unfortunately our customers are starting to use Win7 and we develop software so in order to be able to support our customers I must get used to Win7. If it was only for my use I would never consider to go from XP to 7, what would the purpose of that be. The only thing I so far have got by using 7 is  XP with a messed up graphic interface  Not able to work from home  Endless hours of clicking through pointless "graphic artifacts" only to find the XP att the bottom  An almost none usable Windows explorer that keeps shrinking folders by itself all the time  Application windows that turns fullscreen by itself when you want to move them  Not possible to play bougth DVD movies due to some "graphic card security thing" So far I have only seen three good things with 7    It is faster than VISTA (but what is not) and it is almost as fast as XP (comparising on the same PC)    You can set it to classic and get almost XP back. (Except for the good search and Windows Explorer)    With BOOT disk on a 2 x SSD in a Raid0 it boots really fast. Using Remote desktop on my Office PC works also in Win7 but that PC is much slower (its a HP with all the HP __ on it and on top of that Norton Antivirus) so actually working by remote desktop is not an option except for real emergency situations.   Still I am a Windows fan. Stupid ......... maybee :) /Mikael I can't say, that I dislike Win7. The graphical interface does not hurt me, but my Workstation is a quite decent HP Z400, so handles graphics without any major issues. Your explorer problem I do not see (but before I had quite annoying explorer hangs on drives mapped to non MS servers). Same for application windows. DVD movies I don't play, so no real experiences there. I am now running on one Win7 64-bit host 2-5 vmware guests simultaneously, without major performance hits. Before I used XP 64-bit, which unfortunately had very little HW and software support, so Win7 is a real improvement for me. Of course there are still several things, which can only be done in WinXP 32-bit, but for these I just use a virtual machine. Wolfgang
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October 27th, 2010 11:41am

Good news I think I have solved my problem with hooking up with my work servers over a VPN connection when using Win7 x64. I am not exactly sure about what i did but now i can search for them and find them. I used your input and tried searching by \\SeverName, MACaddress, IPaddress,...... and suddenly a window popped up telling me that "my intranet was disabled due to .........bla-bla-bla". I enabled it and it responded with something like "It could not be done because the server did not have a homepage".........ehh......Ok.......What?. Then I got really pissed and thought WTF, used Windows explorer and browsed to my WinXP x64 BOOT array and looked under "Document and Settings" (Praise the cyber god for XP) "MyUsername" -> "NetHood". There were my Links to the servers. Mark them ->Copy browse to Win7 x64 Boot array (Stupid me) to the storage array ->users->"My UserName" ->.................WTF no "NetHood" in Win7, well "Create New" -> Folder-> My NetHood-> Paste. Start->UserName->..............Where are "My NetHood" that I just created ? Everything else that I have in my profile on the storage array is there. ...Windows Explorer -> Browse .......... "My NetHood" is still there, strange. Double click one of the server links.....2 seconds...Heureka, contact, type UserName and pw, finally I am in ! Ok I must try. Type servername in Search bar (you know the thing that never works) . My god it now works for the server from above. Lets try another server..........."No match found". Double click a "XP-Link" for that server, works fine. Now type that servername in the search bar, now that works to. Hopefully it stay after restart. What can I say, it seems as if you need XP (or at least XP network links) to make Win7 work in a network. PS. I also have a decent PC Core 2 Quad (9550S) @3GHz with 8Gb RAM, Corsair 2x32Gb SSD in Raid0 array as BOOT disk. Adaptec 3805 SAS with Seagate 15k rpm SAS disks as work storage. And a ATI HD 5970 2Gb memory dual core graphic. Still I would really prefer to use the hardware for my work not for unneccesary graphic junk. As an example; If you click on a menue I would assume that you click it because you want to use something in it, not look at an 3D animation in 65535 color shades of the opening. It is a little like. Wife: Should we take a walk in the nice weather. Husband: In a minute, I must look at my shoes for a while first. Wife: Have you finished looking ? Husband. Yes but they are top notch and lightweight so I must put on a lead heal so I do not walk easier. sTf_paPs
November 10th, 2010 6:19am

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