Windows 7 search

[sdm]

Windows 7 search (and MS Outlook 2007 instant search) by default are searching for whole word match only rather than character string search. I thought default was character string search which happens to include whole word search.

Example of problem: Search on string "123" will return "123" as standalone string, but if embedded, eg. "ABC123" or "XYZ123UVW", the search does not return hits.

I have searched in vane for Search options or configuration and have rebuilt Outlook index all to no avail.

Any ideas?

[Medico]

Has your HD been indexed properly? This might help with your searches.

[JoeP517]

You need to use Advanced Find. See if search partial string helps.

Joe

[sdm]

Thanks Joe & Ted,

I had already tried the rebuild index and also followed more comprehensive instructions found via Joe's link re search partial string. I was certainly aware of advanced find features. All efforts have been fruitless and I can only conclude that the search behaves differently between XP and W7.

Thanks for your help, unless someone has any other ideas.

[oddgeezer]

My Win 7 search returns strings in the middle of file names (or where ever). For example, I just did a search on the string "nurs" . . . with no quotes of course. One of the hits I got back was nursing_le.txt, no problem there. Another hit was ku_nurses.dbx and that is what you can't do, I think. I don't do anything special.

I run Home Premium, ver. 6.1

[sdm]

That's exactly how all my other PCs work at home. For some reason that I cannot work out our corporate version of W7 does it's searches differently. Thanks for the update.

[JoeP517]

Which Windows 7 SKU is it?

Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

Is service pack 1 installed?

Is it up-to-date with patches?

Joe

[Quasar_wpg]

I signed up to ask this same question because if the word is mixed among other words, this doesn't work. It finds 01_nurse because it looks at the underscore as a space. If the word nurse is in a file name like this, DoctorNursPatient, and you search doct, it will find it. However, if you search nurs, that file will not be listed. After some experimenting, though, if I put an asterisk before nurs, it will find the file. That ended up working for me anyway.

[curiousclive]

I find that the program called 'Everything' does a far better and faster search than win7. and finds Quasar's nurs instantlyand displays the location and any other files with that combination inside.

[kathyzjim]

When searching from the explorer, embedded strings are not displayed. However, click Start, then use the search box on the Start menu, and embedded strings are valid. Then click More Results, and an explorer window will open, for complete display of search results.

[mart44]

I stopped using Windows 7 search when I couldn't get it to find a file based on words that I knew were contained within it. I tried the options to no avail. I had a look round for an alternative search utility for Windows 7 and eventually installed Agent Ransack. This found the file containing the text with no trouble. I've come to much prefer searching with Agent Ransack rather than Windows 7's own search.

http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?...e=agentransack

[jwitalka]

Another vote for Everything Search. Much faster than Windows search and more complete for file searches. Does not have the capability to search within files if you need that.

Jerry

[Dick-Y]

I use Everything Search (portable) also, and agree with what jwitalka said. Rather than disable Windows search, I have customized Windows search to the bare minimum. I currently have 172 items indexed by Windows search, so there's minimal overhead involved with keeping it around, even though I don't use it.

Dick