Any good search utils for Win 7?

B

BBA

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 25, 2003
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The built in search is crap, I have no idea why MS went to it but would love the old Win XP type search tool. Does anyone make a utility like that to integrate into Win 7? (I'm tired of searching via CMD prompt.)
 
This comes up from time to time and the built in search is excellent for most, works great for me . It's really neat be able to search for stuff on various machines across my network.

What specifically are you having issues with? As for alternatives there's Google Desktop Search.
 
All of the answers, opinions and comments of this thread apply. Please read it. To sum it if up for you though, either you disabled Indexing which means you created your own issue, or your not using it right.

If you want help then we will help you figure out how to use it right but the first step in that is to admit your doing it wrong and ask for help, rather that some blanket statement that the built in feature 'sucks' when it's obvious to 99% of the planet it's the best search tool Microsoft has ever shipped. Vista/7 search tool is 10-20x faster than XP; 9 times out of 10 you get instant search results (as long as you didn't disable services/indexing like most people who create their own problems do) How can XP be better than that?

Did you tweak/edit services?
Did you disable indexing?
Did you go to Windows Features and uncheck Windows Search?

Thanks.
 
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If you absolutely must "break" Windows 7 for whatever reasons (none really valid once it's properly indexed and configured, however), this is the only search tool that matters:

Everything

I gotta ask: who the hell searches for anything from the Command Prompt? My word...
 
Created a file called test.xml in the wwwroot. Put 123456 inside it.

I pressed WinKey+F, entered 123456 in the box with the magnifying glass

0 results

No i did not disable indexing
 
searchm.jpg


Created two files with the same content, one is txt, the other is xml.

XML didn't show up in the search even tho they were right next to each other

What did i miss in the config?
 
Your main hard drive(s) are not indexed by default in Windows 7. They have to be added manually - this is part of the change from Vista which had it ON by default and people bitched about the indexing taking place and "thrashing my hard drive" which was never truly as bad as most people tried to make it out to be.

Indexing options need to be configured properly to get the full benefit of Windows 7. I enable it on my installation after a clean install and it takes about 2 days to fully index the whole thing. After that, all I do is hit the Windows key and type a few letters and I find what I'm looking for, be it a word in a text/document file, a word in a metatag in an image file, a word in a text file inside an archive (not password protected ones), it doesn't matter - it shows up in a few moments.

Just after I typed that last sentence above I hit Win+F and typed test and hit Enter - it took about 2 seconds flat to show me 278 results from all over my system, and only 4 of those were files with the word the letters t-e-s-t in the filename - the rest are documents/images/videos that have the letters t-e-s-t in them someplace.

Works for me, not sure why so many other people have so many issues with it.

You may need to make this alteration:

indexingproperties.png


Alter it so it indexes the file properties and the contents too.
 
That's what's in my screenie, so why isn't XML showing up? The text.txt is right next to it with the same content. In fact, i just copied the test.xml and renamed it to test.txt.

If the directory isn't properly indexed, the test.txt shouldn't be showing up at all in the search result.
 
You just created the file, perhaps it's not actually indexed yet. That does have to happen to get it indexed, you know. ;)

Give it time, it'll get there. It ain't perfect, nothing is...
 
The TXT was made *AFTER* the XML.

And i just did another search (About an hour since i created those), same result.

Can you try making an XML file with a unique string in it and see if it gets found?
 
The pic above shows the text.xml file open in Notepad - the fact that it was or still is open could be hampering the indexing (you know, typically can't access the same file open with two applications at the same time - but with Windows 7 shadow copies sometimes allow for that anyway, doesn't mean the indexing service would use the shadow copy as the indexed file because it's open and subject to alterations in real-time.

If you just created a file, logic would probably dictate it doesn't need to be indexed because you just created it, you know where it is, you should know what it contains, etc. I'm just a Devil's Advocate here - it ain't perfect.

If you're not happy with the Indexing and Search in Windows 7, I provided you with an alternative option in the post above that has reviews and they all say it kicks ass, maybe giving it a run to see what it can do might make it useful to you.

And by definition, a text file called test.xml is not an XML file - XML files have a proper form and syntax, that too could be an issue here because the extension says it's a given file type and when it goes to load it it's not matching the form and syntax of a proper XML file layout. That's akin to creating a test.html file with the 123456test content in it - you're sure as hell not going to load that in a browser because it's not a proper HTML file with the form and syntax a browser is expecting to find.

Everything is relative with this...
 
I just downloaded this file to my Desktop:

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/note.xml

I looked inside it immediately afterwards to find a unique word that I could search for, which turned out to be Jani. The file is a proper XML file that follows the form, parsing, and syntax of an XML file as it should.

I closed Metapad (I replaced Notepad long ago), hit Win+F and typed jani and hit Enter. It took about 1 second to find it inside that file, and in a few others as well, surprisingly:

resultst.png


It also comes up on my Start Menu if I just hit the Win key and type jani - the list of files appeared in under a second:

results2.png


I really can't say why you're having issues. The test.txt is a proper text file; the test.xml file isn't a proper XML file - that's what I'd suspect is the problem.

Download that file above, the note.xml file to your Desktop, and don't even open it. Wait 10 seconds after the download is done, then hit Win and type jani and see what comes up, if anything. If nothing comes up, open the note.xml file in Notepad (since you seem to be using it) and then close it, do the search again, same method, and see what happens.

I bet it turns up...
 
Unfortunately, i use XML's a lot. The web sites i make uses them for storing content. I have a ton of text files with various extensions (Web sites are just regular text files afterall), and i can't use the search function when i need a particular code, or a variable being referenced. Right now i'm stuck with opening any of the dozens of files one by one because the search function can't find them.

Try this

Go here

http://www.google.com

Save it as an html file and put it in any of your indexed directories

The try searching for "doctype"

See if it (or any html page on your harddrive for that matter) shows up in the search results.
 
17 files showed up, but not that google.html (and I did save it as .html, not the default .htm). I would hazard to guess that because doctype exists inside HTML tags it may be such a common tag (duh) that it's ignored in indexing, I really don't know.

But it did turn up in other .html and .html pages that I'd saved in various locations, as noted.

I can't imagine why someone would go searching for tags inside HTML or XML files; they'd be looking for data those tags are designed to encapsulate or specify, wouldn't they? Smart indexing? Not indexing stuff that doesn't need indexing? It would be like indexing "html" itself.

So I hit Win and typed html and got 669 hits in under a second flat - even the google.html file on the Desktop showed up. I decided to try doctype again and still got nothing from that google.html file. And almost all the hits for html are from inside indexed files, like PDFs, etc. I only have a small number of actual *.html files saved - I print webpages to PDF if I choose to save them, not do "Save webpage as..." stuff.
 
Tried it on note.xml (Just another XML to add to all the others i regularly use). Nada.

search2k.jpg


Looks like i'll have to resort to the Everything tool.
 
Bahamut said:
I can't imagine why someone would go searching for tags inside HTML or XML files
Click to expand...

I would :p It's part of my job :)

You might want to try searching for "google.fade", it's not a tag, and a typical random word that you'd want to look for when working on websites. I still get 0 matches even tho it's actually inside google.html.
 
Wanna know something truly ironic? I was going to suggest uninstalling the Indexing Service and then reinstalling it in "Add/Remove Programs - Turn Windows features on and off" and was going to do a step-by-step just in case when I noticed something quite odd.

Check this out:

indexingoff.png


Funny. Windows 7 tells me I don't even have it installed and yet I do, and I've been using it at length today and on other days for some items. Weird, eh? :)

Anyway, the suggestion still holds: uninstall it, reboot if required, reinstall it, reboot again if required, then set the options again (if it doesn't remember them) and see what happens.

For general purpose indexing I don't have any issues with it in Windows 7. It ain't Google, man... ;)
 
K, gonna try that.

The worst case was whenever they send me a site to be modified, it was a nightmare! It had a ton of database calls and cross referencing and i had to hunt down which PHP was using what.

Man, i miss the Win98 search.
 
I remember in Vista if you didn’t find what you searched for you can click advanced the check an option to search through non-indexed files. not sure if Windows 7 can do this. give this a try. I check the option “treat files as UTF8” so when I search throw the contents of doc files it tells me the line number and the paragraph the text was mentioned in. if I don’t check it just says “binary”.
 
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Sly said:
Tried it on note.xml (Just another XML to add to all the others i regularly use). Nada.
Click to expand...
I verified what you've done. It seems Windows 7 search can find the title name of xml documents but it can not search inside them as they can with standard text. It can though search inside html documents which is weird.

I did find this on Microsoft but the MSFT person had nothing to say other than it is the wrong forum.

Here is another one and MIcrosoft has no response other than a generic one and then never replies again.

Microsoft is in as much denial about this as they are the folder reset bug in Vista.
 
heatlesssun said:
XML file searches work fine for me. Check on this:

XML%20Indexing%20Options.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes, it's in the screenie :( I tried reinstalling indexing service and rebuilding. Still doesn't work.

BTW, The Everything utility only searches the filenames, it doesn't help my case.
 
So I am not alone...I don't know if that's good or bad.
 
heatlesssun said:
XML file searches work fine for me. Check on this:
Click to expand...
Yes, that is selected. However, can you search for items INSIDE the xml.

For example, I created an xml file called test1234 then inside that put testabcd. When I search test1234 it finds the xml document, but when I type testabcd it does not find it. I tried the same test with HTML and it works for both searches.

Now you try.
 
BBA said:
So I am not alone...I don't know if that's good or bad.
Click to expand...
You have yet to explain what issue you are having. This person we're helping actually gave a specific example of what's not working.
 
Bahamut said:
Wanna know something truly ironic? I was going to suggest uninstalling the Indexing Service and then reinstalling it in "Add/Remove Programs - Turn Windows features on and off" and was going to do a step-by-step just in case when I noticed something quite odd.
Click to expand...
That's the legacy indexing service. If you had scrolled down, you would have seen Windows Search.
 
Snowknight26 said:
That's the legacy indexing service. If you had scrolled down, you would have seen Windows Search.
Click to expand...

No, I knew that much, hence my post expressly discussing the Indexing Service which is directly tied to Windows Search - if I try and disable the actual indexing service itself it won't go without complaining that it's a dependency for Windows Search.

Still a bit odd that some items do get picked up and others just left out.
 
bigdogchris said:
Yes, that is selected. However, can you search for items INSIDE the xml.

For example, I created an xml file called test1234 then inside that put testabcd. When I search test1234 it finds the xml document, but when I type testabcd it does not find it. I tried the same test with HTML and it works for both searches.

Now you try.
Click to expand...

Tried this verbatim and it worked PERFECTLY, the contents are being searched. Hmmm....:confused:
 
Bahamut said:
No, I knew that much, hence my post expressly discussing the Indexing Service which is directly tied to Windows Search
Click to expand...
Neither service depends on the other. They're two separate indexing platforms and shouldn't be used together. You shouldn't be using Indexing Service anymore as its obsolete - Windows Search replaces its functionality entirely.
 
bigdogchris said:
You have yet to explain what issue you are having. This person we're helping actually gave a specific example of what's not working.
Click to expand...

Funny thing here is I dont recall asking for help with a specific issue. I asked for alternative utilities.

You have yet to provide anything of value to answer that question.
 
BBA said:
Funny thing here is I dont recall asking for help with a specific issue. I asked for alternative utilities.

You have yet to provide anything of value to answer that question.
Click to expand...
We can't provide alternate utilities without knowing what shortcoming you're looking to address with them. You're being agitative, elusive, and not at all conducive to people trying to help you.
 
You can't provide any alternative search utilities...or don't want to?

You have no reason to care about what shortcoming I am looking to address and you probably would not understand the details of it if I tried to educate you on it either.

Stop being a troll, answer the question asked or don't reply. It's pretty simple and requires very little effort on your part.
 
I use PowerDesk as my Explorer replacement, and it comes with a utility called File Finder. I like it better than any version of Windows Search.
 
Sly, did you ever solve your problem?
Fantastic troubleshooting by folks here... Looks like Windows Search flat out doesn't index everything. Appears it does filenames OK though, but not contents in some files. The fact it failed to find google.fade in an HTML file seems worrisome.

Snowknight26 said:
Neither service depends on the other. They're two separate indexing platforms and shouldn't be used together. You shouldn't be using Indexing Service anymore as its obsolete - Windows Search replaces its functionality entirely.
Click to expand...
QFT. I was wondering if someone else had caught that...

BBA said:
You can't provide any alternative search utilities...or don't want to?

You have no reason to care about what shortcoming I am looking to address and you probably would not understand the details of it if I tried to educate you on it either.

Stop being a troll, answer the question asked or don't reply. It's pretty simple and requires very little effort on your part.
Click to expand...
If you'd actually read the thread (you know, the one you created asking for help)... You would've seen one already suggested:

Bahamut said:
If you absolutely must "break" Windows 7 for whatever reasons (none really valid once it's properly indexed and configured, however), this is the only search tool that matters:

Everything

I gotta ask: who the hell searches for anything from the Command Prompt? My word...
Click to expand...
 
heatlesssun said:
Tried this verbatim and it worked PERFECTLY, the contents are being searched. Hmmm....:confused:
Click to expand...
I found some XML documents on my system and viewed contents, then searched and it worked as it should. It doesn't work when I create a new document. Maybe the Windows Search service indexes the name first, then over time contents.

Maybe the XML files have to sit on your system for awhile before it names them?
 
I just played around with this a little bit... Have you considered that the reason it's not working is that the xml file isn't actually an XML file, but a plain text file?

By that, I mean that you lack this at the beginning of the file:
Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO8859-1" ?>
and your file is not formatted right.

Try making an xml file like this:
Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO8859-1" ?>
<content>123456</content>

Put it there, and then try your search. It will suddenly work ;)

If you want plain text search instead of using the windows xml filter (which allows for more advanced searches, but seems to choke on malformed xml, possibly due to defense in depth), I'm going to have to do some more playing around. Right now, though, I'm prepping for a presentation tomorrow, so this will have to wait.
 
Actually, it's hard to get the XML wrong because if it's not formatted properly (including the header), you'll get an error when you try loading it in IE.
 
Tawnos said:
I just played around with this a little bit... Have you considered that the reason it's not working is that the xml file isn't actually an XML file, but a plain text file?
Click to expand...

Way ahead of you:

Bahamut said:
And by definition, a text file called test.xml is not an XML file - XML files have a proper form and syntax, that too could be an issue here because the extension says it's a given file type and when it goes to load it it's not matching the form and syntax of a proper XML file layout. That's akin to creating a test.html file with the 123456test content in it - you're sure as hell not going to load that in a browser because it's not a proper HTML file with the form and syntax a browser is expecting to find.
Click to expand...
 
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