Windows Search functionality

[jdhurst]

Within Windows XP Pro, the basic search engine works pretty well, except that it is slow. Specifically, it will find *anything* if it was properly specified, and will also find OCR text in a graphic .TIF file. This latter feature is a wonderful feature if you really believe in the "paperless office". I do so believe, and scan a lot of data that I keep in .TIF files for ready access.

So I was miffed when I was offered a search update for XP, installed it on my laptop (not my Desktop) and found that it was "Search function for Vista" and severely hampered searching:
1. Dog slow to index (although very fast to find, once indexed).
2. Cannot find anything not indexed (95 percent of the machine contents is not indexed).
3. Cannot find OCR text even if indexed.

So yesterday, when looking for ntdll.dll to respond to a post here, I looked for it and knew it would not be found. But somehow, the link to Search Companion came up (I had never seen this before {no, I had not looked, either}). Voila - the old search is back.

So I now have the best of both worlds: Vista search to quickly find the little bits I need, and XP search to do the heavy lifting.

Question: Is Search Companion available in a Vista machine? And if so, does it find non-indexed data (say filenames in System32)?

Thanks, .... JDH

[mgo]

Within Windows XP Pro, the basic search engine works pretty well, except that it is slow. Specifically, it will find *anything* if it was properly specified, and will also find OCR text in a graphic .TIF file. This latter feature is a wonderful feature if you really believe in the "paperless office". I do so believe, and scan a lot of data that I keep in .TIF files for ready access.

So I was miffed when I was offered a search update for XP, installed it on my laptop (not my Desktop) and found that it was "Search function for Vista" and severely hampered searching:
1. Dog slow to index (although very fast to find, once indexed).
2. Cannot find anything not indexed (95 percent of the machine contents is not indexed).
3. Cannot find OCR text even if indexed.

So yesterday, when looking for ntdll.dll to respond to a post here, I looked for it and knew it would not be found. But somehow, the link to Search Companion came up (I had never seen this before {no, I had not looked, either}). Voila - the old search is back.

So I now have the best of both worlds: Vista search to quickly find the little bits I need, and XP search to do the heavy lifting.

Question: Is Search Companion available in a Vista machine? And if so, does it find non-indexed data (say filenames in System32)?

Thanks, .... JDH

I think the Vista search GUI is rather confusing and yes, it can be slower than heck.
I notice that since installing Vista SP1 RC search runs a little better and by using the "advanced search" dropdown and "search in non indexed locations" I seem to find things more quickly, even if they are not indexed. (for example a .dll of some sort) My point is, perhaps Microsft improved search over the past few months.

I use OneNote (part of Office 2007 Student) and it will easily find OCR, provided I use the OneNote search to find it. Why Vista left out OCR in the orther search if beyond me.

Yes, indexing still thrashes the hard drive upon boot-up. It seems that indexing needs to re-scan everything three times (why, for pete sake?!) before it finally settles down. My solution is to hibernate or sleep, rather than a cold shut down and start. The thrashing does not happen out of hibernate or sleep.

In XP, I am sort of forced to run the Windows Desktop Search because I also have OneNote, which -insists- on that "feature".
Yes, the search companion "doggie" is at the bottom of the menu, and yes, it's the same old search that we know and love.

I have about 23,000 items indexed, but 19,000 of those are pictures that don't really need to be indexed. So, I de-selected that folder in search options to reduce disk thrashing.

Now, I can find articles that I want, but don't have the slowness.

I am also making more use of folders instead of having scattered files, and that reduces the amount of results in search. (all medical related files go into a medical folder, etc.)

[jdhurst]

Thanks for the post - very informative. I would really like to know:

In Vista only, when you run Desktop Search, down at the bottom left:
Is "Click here to use Search Companion" available?

Then if it is: Will Search Companion in Vista find OCR text?

Thanks, ... JDH

[mgo]

Thanks for the post - very informative. I would really like to know:

In Vista only, when you run Desktop Search, down at the bottom left:
Is "Click here to use Search Companion" available?

Then if it is: Will Search Companion in Vista find OCR text?

Thanks, ... JDH

No, the little doggie search companion is not present in Vista's search. Instead they offer a checkbox for quote:
"Include non-indexed, hidden and system files (might be slow)"

And, no, there is no OCR find capability in Vista's search. I tried to find "lipids" which is on a photo that I took from a lab report. OneNote search (where that photo resides) found the word, "lipids" within the photo just fine. But Vista's regular search did not.

Since I am running Office 2007 I would assume that would somehow enable search to find a word within a photo (OCR) but that doesn't seem to be the case.

If I look for the word, "lipids" within my regular medical folder which would link to Office, the search still does not suceed.

So it seems OneNote has exclusive abilities for OCR, but not Office. A major shortcoming, I think. The OneNote search engine seems to be a different one from Vista's search.

My only suggestion is to get OneNote (free if you are a TechNet subscriber)

It's a really good program, and it plays well with the rest of Office, including Outlook.