Comments on: Using operators in Search : Hacking Windows Vista

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:17:23 +0000

Try to find a string in a bunch of files. I am looking at a unique string in a text file and trying to get WDS to find it – impossible.

I cannot believe I will have to develop a Powershell script to get this basic functionality that existed since Win 2000.

By: meh!

meh! — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:28:13 +0000

I truly hate this search approach, well at least it would be better if the user could decide the way a search should be performed (vista style or XP style).
Why I hate it? because when I was looking for something that I couldn’t reckon the name I would just type *.whatever and bahm! I got results, and sometimes I would use it with the file size attribute and badabang I got what I was looking for.

Now, after reading a lot about “how to search in vista” I get misleading results, looking for files I get folders in the mix (and I see the same folder listed 3 times each), some known files are completely missed… 100% my fault most likely but I can’t spent time studying a new system just so I can make a simple search.

I understand the power of the new search but often I don’t need it, just the simple xp search worked for me.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:33:15 +0000

Years ago, the only way you could search with a search engine effectively was to use their special “lanaguage” of characters that would taylor your search parameters, like the ones you demonstrating for a search of the vista system.

Do web search engines still do this? Is there still a way to find this out for say Google?

By: Colin Sewell

Colin Sewell — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:03:27 +0000

This type of free form search also works in Windows XP with Windows Desktop Search installed, although the syntax is slightly different:

size:5100
size:> 2000 kb < 3000 kb
date:20-mar-2009
kind:folder
kind:folder system32