"Gene E. Bloch" <not-me@other.invalid> wrote in message
news:13e9oeglao5v7$.t6f8nz3xb261$.dlg@40tude.net...[color=blue]
> Just about a half hour ago, I needed a file or two with 'laptop' in the
> name. I used Vista search and I found them! Quickly, too.
>[/color]


That's the way I see it. I don't subscribe to the 'you're only allowed one
search tool' philosophy. Vista's Search certainly has its uses, as well its
shortfalls.

--
Jon

On Mon, 4 May 2009 22:06:57 +0100, "Jon"
<Email_Address@SomewhereOrOther.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>
>
>That's the way I see it. I don't subscribe to the 'you're only allowed one
>search tool' philosophy. Vista's Search certainly has its uses, as well its
>shortfalls.
>
>--
>Jon[/color]

While Vista search might occasionally produce the correct results, I
don't risk it. The one time it fails to find a file you should have
paid attention to you will regret it. No sense taking a risk you don't
need to take.

(There's also no sense spending system cycles to index every file you
ever save when you only search a very low percentage of the time...
but that's another issue! )

On May 1, 5:59*am, "Dave" <D...@beepbeepbeepbeep.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> Well, WDS doesn't quite work as well as it should... but
>
> Only certain folders are indexed. *To add others, go to
> Start - Control Panel - Indexing Options
> click on "Modify" to change or add locations..
> Then click on "Advanced" and "Rebuild" to rebuild the index.
>
> [url]http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69581-indexing-options.htmlhttp://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/75451-advanced-search.htmlhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/tec[/url]...[/color]

I've done this many times
[color=blue]
>
> Also, the search program needs an ifilter to search within a particular file
> type.
> Most of the common ones come with Vista. *If you have files with an uncommon
> extension, then you may have to add the extension to the search index.
> Start - Control Panel - Indexing Options - Advanced - File Types
>
> If you install a modern program that uses a certain file type, then the
> appropriate ifilter should get installed by that program.[url]http://www.ifilter.org/faq.htm[/url][/color]

I only search docs and excels mostly. The thing is the folder
(indexed) is open right in front of me with the list of files. To
test, I search the filename of the first file on the list but there is
no results!! really boggles me

On May 4, 4:11*pm, Gizzzo <gbacar...******.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> Ok guys. Thanks for the help. I will give it a try and hope it works
> also for PSTs when I do outlook searches. let you guys know the results[/color]

I gave Agent ransack a try and here are my first impressions:

1. It doesn't seem like it indexes (or maybe i just haven't configured
it because I haven't. just did a quick search.) and i found it slow as
it had to go thru all the folders.
2. It cannot search thru pst files or maybe i just don't know how.

On Tue, 5 May 2009 22:53:06 -0700 (PDT), Gizzzo wrote:
[color=blue]
> On May 4, 4:11*pm, Gizzzo <gbacar...******.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> Ok guys. Thanks for the help. I will give it a try and hope it works
>> also for PSTs when I do outlook searches. let you guys know the results[/color]
>
> I gave Agent ransack a try and here are my first impressions:
>
> 1. It doesn't seem like it indexes (or maybe i just haven't configured
> it because I haven't. just did a quick search.) and i found it slow as
> it had to go thru all the folders.
> 2. It cannot search thru pst files or maybe i just don't know how.[/color]

My experience is that Ransack doesn't index, and that it is slow.

That said, it frequently finds things that Vista Search missed. That's
gotta be worth something :-)

I don't know about AR and pst files, sorry.

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom

On Wed, 6 May 2009 11:34:52 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
<not-me@other.invalid> wrote:
[color=blue]
>My experience is that Ransack doesn't index, and that it is slow.
>
>That said, it frequently finds things that Vista Search missed. That's
>gotta be worth something :-)
>
>I don't know about AR and pst files, sorry.
>
>--
>Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom[/color]

No, AR does not index. Neither does any other third party tool that I
am aware of or any previous version of Windows.

Indexing avoids having to do a sequential search through the data and
that makes the search faster. However, there are serious issues with
an indexing strategy in any application design - that is, the index
gets out of sync with the data. In addition, you have to spend CPU
cycles maintaining the index on a regular basis as data moves in and
out of the store, even after an initial build.

Index can speed up searches in a volume situation (e.g. Google's store
of web page content or Ebay's product) or in lower volume situations
where you might want to look inside the date store (searching in
Windows for content in files [slow] vs. for file names [fast]).

Vista adds another dimension to the search issues and only indexes
selected items in its store.

The advantage to a non-indexed search is that it is comprehensive. The
disadvantage is that it takes longer since it has to work
sequentially.

Since searching for content in files is something that most of us do
rarely, it hardly makes sense to index all the (Vista selected) files
on your hard drive. You spend so little time searching in the overall
scheme, it's not worth wasting the time (CPU/disk) to constantly index
every files you change or add to your system.

If you find that you are constantly searching for files, perhaps
Vista's scheme is better for you. If you go that route, you need to
keep in mind Vista's file type limitations and its inherent
inaccuracy. For me, accuracy is of utmost importance and I can find
other things to do for the minute it takes to search an entire drive -
and I can't tolerate the slowdowns in Vista on a daily basis.