classic search
Is there any way to revert to the classic search, the one that was in xp, w2k3 etc. I'm unable to find stuff with the current new search. Notes on this: - I want to find files first. when i want to search for things wicht might be in a file i'll opt in. otherwise i always search for files. - search in windows 7 doesn't work (indexed locations or not) it won't find files wich have special characters in them. or have a decent way of finding system files. - it slow... really slow on networks. I'm a sysadmin and i visit a lot of different clients. W7 is a nightmare to use for finding files on network shares. (booting a xp vm login and start searching is faster then windows 7) I've tried.. i've really tried using the new search. But is really useless for my needs. Can i at least have the old search back!
September 30th, 2009 3:04pm

Hi, Please try this: 1. Go to Control Panel 2. Select “Large icons” in “View by” and then click Folder Options. 3. Switch to the Search tab, select the item “Always search file names and contents (this might take several times.)”. 4. Click OK to apply the setting. Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT
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October 5th, 2009 1:14pm

Here is what you need: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspxHope this helpsDoc
October 5th, 2009 1:47pm

Yes, those are interesting...Doc
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October 5th, 2009 5:43pm

Already tried that.. doesn't help.
October 5th, 2009 10:16pm

Expand Searches in Windows 7Carey Frisch
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October 5th, 2009 10:19pm

The link is very usefull! thanks but it doesn't filx the speed, and i did not find any option for searching for special characters. (wich is a real pain in the ....) I'm unable to find files with special characters in them using ws4, w7search or w2k8 search. I'm able to find them using the dir /s *"$'*>results.txt but you cannot search for ".." in cmd. Also WS4 and others searches are unable to find it in filenames. This is REALLY irritating when migrating 100k+ documents to sharepoint as .. is not allowed in a file name. sigh.... it's the same thing i hated in osX spotlight... spotlight is NOT good for being used by sysadmins.
October 5th, 2009 10:26pm

it's a nice example of search for external sources. What you're saying is that i have to implement federal search first and then i can search? I'd love to! if they would pay me to do it ;)
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October 5th, 2009 10:51pm

I know... but have you ever noticed that every directory starts with . for current folder and .. for the parent folder? tripple ... works in cmd. the problem is with .. I haven't found a switch/option to ignore the . and ..
October 5th, 2009 10:54pm

I have been fighting the same issue! Finally there is something cool that address this. Check out FileSearchEX by a company named goff concepts.
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March 14th, 2010 6:46am

I have been fighting the same issue! Finally there is something cool that address this. Check out FileSearchEX by a company named goff concepts. Thanks a lot on this! Brilliant search utility, microsoft should learn from that!
March 20th, 2010 12:46pm

You can also try Locate32 (http://locate32.net/) or Everything (http://www.voidtools.com/) if you don't like the Windows search. André"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
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March 20th, 2010 2:57pm

I am in the same dilemma as the OP. I just recently migrated from XP to Windows 7 (new system) and I hate the search feature. The sluggish has ALWAYS been present with XP but at least it found your files. That cannot be said about Windows 7 or even Vista (using wife's notebook). Changing the search parameters above is no help. Microsoft really de-evolved the search feature. I just did a search for PDF files created within the last month on a particular partition on another drive. At first W7 searched indexed files only. I am disabling indexed files bc it uses up storage space. No results were shown at all because W7 by default wants to search INDEXED files only. That's complete rubbish. I then selected search EVERYTHING. In doing so, it searches every single partition and drive. The user has absoltely no say on what area (partition) he wants to search. It's either indexed files or EVERYTHING. I have used Total commander (http://www.ghisler.com/) that does a fast search but it often misses a lot of files and it is poor in many other aspects, but it's at least free. I often use this to search first. In any event, Windows 7 Search is really pathetic. I don't know how power users can stand do use it. There must be something at least like XP that is free!?
June 2nd, 2010 7:40am

Yes, it is amazing how all over the OS, they dumb it down to make it easier, and then they make it devilishly complicated to do a simple file search. Or rather almost impossible. No wildcards? ????? What the... I've reverted to an exellent free utility I've been using since I had problems with XP searching file contents. Agent Ransack. It is FREE. And it works excellent. Really is a shame though that the native search was botched so spectacularly. Like, no one at MS noticed?
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August 23rd, 2010 9:14pm

I too am greatly disappointed in Windows 7 Search - I have Windows 7 at home - in the box - not installed – there’s no benefit for me – other than security improvements they are claiming. I suffer with seraching in Windows 7 at work. The "Windows Advanced Search" seems to be a step backward from the search in XP. If it was as good as DT Search, that would be a benefit, and perhaps it is, and I just have not figured out how to use it. My plan is to try Virtual XP Desktop on Windows 7 – and see if I can search with that. Has anyone tried this? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx?runGenuineCheck=true&system=5&lang=1&buttonClicked=winXpMode
August 25th, 2010 6:48pm

My plan is to try Virtual XP Desktop on Windows 7 – and see if I can search with that. Have you tried this? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx?runGenuineCheck=true&system=5&lang=1&buttonClicked=winXpMode
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August 25th, 2010 7:02pm

I installed: Virtual XP Desktop on Windows 7 and it works great - just using XP search.
August 27th, 2010 11:12pm

well... to look on the bright side of things... i've gotten a lot better at using for /f loops in combination with dir /s. it's faster than the integrated search in W7 even with the typing. This isn't what i would call progress though.
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September 23rd, 2010 6:35am

Thanks a lot, I have been suffering with that stupid complicated search in Windows 7....also if any one can help me to delete unwanted fonts, to delete hiberfil.sys, to delete pagefile.sys.....which is consuming lot of RAM..
October 7th, 2010 5:04pm

Thanks a lot, I have been suffering with that stupid complicated search in Windows 7....also if any one can help me to delete unwanted fonts, to delete hiberfil.sys, to delete pagefile.sys.....which is consuming lot of RAM.. Certainly, a proper Windows 7 install will only be 8GB in size, meaning a fast 40GB SSD drive is still plently of space. What I do after install is the following: * Disable Hibernation: - Open command line using administrator privileges - powercfg -h off - reboot * Disable pagefile.sys - Right click on "Computer" - Goto to "Advanced system settings" then "Advanced" tab - Choose "settings", then "Advanced" tab then "Change..." - Disable page file, reboot - delete C:\pagefile.sys
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January 3rd, 2011 5:14pm

YOu have it backward. Don't look at the file size, look at why the file exists. You don't want to delete pagefile.sys. This is your virtual memory swap file and is needed for good performance. hiberfil.sys is required if you want to use the sleep / hibernation feature. Turn that feature off if you don't want it.
May 11th, 2011 10:17am

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