If I uninstall windows search then I can't even right click on a folder and search against the disc rather than some index that doesn't work well anyway. Why was it decided to cripple the search features? I'm constantly forced to go to third party methods for the simplest tasks.

If you're that unhappy with Windows then you might try Apple or Linux. Personally I don't have any problems with Windows search.

This article would help on this. It is also applied in Windows 7. How to add right click search menu in Windows Vista Important Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.Arthur Xie - MSFT

My experience with Windows Search is as follows: On a critical system if someone (me or otherwise) bumps the keyboard, it opens the search window and starts doing God knows what in whatever window or application it so chooses. Seems like a path to destruction. So I disable it to secure the system against that. So here I am with a critical system and no search capability. I would have no problem if it had the same interface as before. But no, some brainiac had to ruin what worked fine before. And now they want to search your drives and bounce your search to a server in Redmond even when searching a local drive. Seems pretty intrusive to me not to mention unlawful.