Windows 7 and the death of search
Posted on 15. Feb, 2009 by Mike Halsey in windows 7
As we all collect more and more files, photos and media on our computers, sorting through it all becomes increasingly important. With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced tags (metadata) and ratings to any type of file. Adding these tags can be a difficult and time-consuming process. I can assure you all however that nothing I’ve ever done on my PC has been more rewarding long-term.
They also introduced the fabulously useful saved searches, virtual folders capable of storing any content on your PC you like, and displaying it in a context that’s good for you. For instance, all PDFs and office files containing your home address.
With Windows 7 they’ve taken things a step further with Libraries, single simple to use locations in which you can find all your files, regardless of which folder or drive you have them stored on.
But in the midst of all this came a court case from Google in the US that resulted in Microsoft removing the search option from the Start Menu in Vista Service Pack 1. Search was still there, on the Windows key + F, but unless you knew where to look contextualised searches, by which I mean searching by clause rather than just title, became much more difficult.
With Windows 7 Microsoft are aiming, and rightly so, to a system whereby it’s easier than ever to find our files and documents, through features like saved searches and the libraries. However, at the same time they’re making it almost impossible to do a detailed search. Take a look at the three screenshots below (click to view them full size).
These represent the search capabilities of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
You’ll see that with Windows 7 it’s immediately considerably more difficult to do a contextualised search. It’s still possible but you need to type text commands, and who is going to remember those? I’ll publish a complete list in my Windows 7 Power Users Guide.
So what are the solutions to get a simple, easy to use contextualised search facility back into Windows? The obvious answer, Microsoft Desktop Search won’t do it, that leaves Google Desktop Search and Copernic Search. These will provide all the contextualised search facilities you need, but they won’t (at least not yet) integrate with the saved search or Library facilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Worse, they also have their own indexing facilities, and having just one indexer running on your PC can affect performance if it’s busy.
Sadly I feel my dream of having a Library of documents relating to my household bills and receipts and another Library for exclusively work-related files are an increasingly distant way off.
Microsoft need to do something about this, and very quickly, to stop the search facility itself completely undermining all the good work they’ve done with aggregated search elsewhere.
it with others, or 
Leonardo
Feb 15th, 2009
If i’m not mistaken I think you can’t tag every file in Vista. Just the ones that accept that metadata on their filetype, like JPG images or office documents.
But what is you want to tag a TXT file? You can’t do that.
vincent
Feb 15th, 2009
I am happy with Copernic’s new 3.1 version. I bought the PRO edition which indexes and searches calendars, tasks, and notes. It also has a free mobile plug in to search and view files from your home or work pc using your cellphone, blackberry, or iphone.
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/mobile/index.html
IMO, Copernic is far better than windows desktop search and definately better than google desktop search.
Dan Plastina (Microsoft)
Feb 16th, 2009
Hi Mike,
I’m the group manager for the ‘Find & Organize’ features in Windows 7. Our team is responsible for start menu search as well as the Explorer.
You are perceptive to have noticed that we have made search more approachable by most users. It was a key focus in Win7. For the masses, the biggest issue is one of users not discovering search features at all. In addition, the telemetry data we have indicates that keywords search is — by an extreme margin — the dominant type of search. Saved searches are not used that much (by the masses). This brings me to the point of your posting: “What has the Win7 team done for the advanced users?”
For the more sophisticated user we offer our ‘Advanced Query Syntax’ or AQS for short. Here is a link for more on how to extract all the power that it provides: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965711.aspx. Go ahead and give a few a try. Once you see results you like, you can (still) save searches using the button we provide. The new search box builds on AQS by offering auto-complete behavior. The suggested filters teach you the AQS syntax as you select them. Some of the AQS filters are best added with the filters (try the date filters). As a tip for your readers, as you make the search box larger, we add more search filters. Libraries are nice, clean scopes of indexed storage that makes for fast ‘Arrange By’ views and AQS searches. If you have XP / Vista / Home Server PCs in your home, put Windows Desktop Search 4 on them and they can then be added to Libraries too!
I can go on for a long time more… If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at the email I provided.
Cheers,
Dan Plastina
The Long Climb » Windows 7 and the death of search - Microsoft reply
Feb 16th, 2009
[...] I posted an article entitled Windows 7 and the death of search, in which I said that the removal of contextualised searching, ie. searching by clause, in Windows [...]
bodydetox
Jul 30th, 2009
the interface of Windows 7 is great but in my opinion Windows XP is still a very solid and stable operating system. Right now, I would never give up XP for Windows 7.
Matt Linder
Aug 5th, 2009
I totally agree that the search is now dead. Just one more 3rd party app I need for win7 that I could do with anything from 95-XP!!! Way to go team!
Red
Nov 2nd, 2009
Great job – W7 search won’t find text in files (yes, i’ve set Tools/Folder Options/Search to look inside files).
Not to worry, though, NotePad++ can search – and replace – inside files.
Jared Pickerell
Nov 11th, 2009
I’ve just come to realize over the last few weeks how bad the search in Windows 7 really is (interface wise). I’m a power user and have been using Windows Search 4 in XP for quite a while and have come to depend on it. I can choose where I want to search, including email or files on the local machine. That is an imporant one for me. Another HUGE plus is the abilty to search network shares from other desktops or servers that have Windows Search installed. I don’t have to know the proper text synax to use these very usefull features. All of this is gone with Windows 7 search!!! And up until this issue with search, I was loving Windows 7. In this area, Windows XP with Windows Search 4, does a better job and provides a much more feature rich search than Windows 7!
Please bring back the ability to use some of the more advanced drill-down and ability to choose search locations (email, files, network shares) to the GUI in Windows 7!
SearchIsPainful
Nov 15th, 2009
Why do the most nice features in the XP search have to be thrown away. When new features are being added, why can’t the old ones be kept along? I don’t understand some of the changes MSFT is making. XP search had bugs, you can still work around it. the windows 7 search has been very painful.
Greg
Nov 18th, 2009
What the heck happened with Windows 7 search? I mean, it was so easy in XP! Just right-click on a folder and hit Search! Now we gotta go through the Library business and then it doesn’t even work right. Good grief, the search in Windows 7 sucks. Please fix it in the next inevitable service pack.
Steve
Nov 23rd, 2009
Greg said it best. So I’ll just cut-and-paste his comment below.
What the heck happened with Windows 7 search? I mean, it was so easy in XP! Just right-click on a folder and hit Search! Now we gotta go through the Library business and then it doesn’t even work right. Good grief, the search in Windows 7 sucks. Please fix it in the next inevitable service pack.
Grant
Dec 1st, 2009
Call me traditional, however I find that Windows 7 search is utterly unacceptable. It is an absolute key feature for me and on my computers.
You took an excellent feature and attempted to simplify it for the masses, I don’t know why – it was perfect as it was. If anything it should of being a clickable option somewhere. Either way, unacceptable and it makes using Windows 7 just frustrating, I feel helpless and powerless – why Microsoft?
BTW I am a datacenter admin, MCSE and MCSA – please fix this.
Scott
Dec 4th, 2009
I was getting so frustrated with the search feature on Windows 7 I decided to see if others are having the same issues and look what I find. Misery loves company and I am glad others are as pissed about this as I. I want the old Windows XP search back, I loved it, Windows 7 search is the most worthless search I have ever used. Kind of sad that I am going to download and use Googles desktop search. With Microsoft forcing me to use Googles search I might just have to try their OS when it comes out too.
Michael Forster
Dec 9th, 2009
Yup, Windows 7 Search SUX big time…
W7 really made me go: WOW! This is great!!!
And then I found (no pun intended
) Search…
Ughhh…
Daygon
Dec 13th, 2009
The search feature in Vista was pathetic. I had hoped it would be fixed with win 7 but no it’s just as bad. Who decided that users just want to search for documents, emails pictures etc. I’m a developer and need to search for all different file types. EG XP I can type in *.js and it will find every file with that extension in the chosen folder. Win 7 finds emails and documents and other crap all except files with the actual extension js. It’s ridiculous and so frustrating. Even 3rd party desktop searches are the same. What about us users that don’t want to search the file types. I don’t want to memorize specific syntax just so I can find a bloody file. You can’t index the whole c drive cause it’s too slow and still doesn’t find you need. I’m going back to linux and xp. Get your shit together microsoft and listen to what people want for a change instead of force feeding us useless crap.
Matt
Dec 28th, 2009
I am so frustrated with trying to find files in Windows 7. So far, I love everything else about W7. Today I am trying to find files by filename and not by content. I can’t figure out how to search for just filenames. I have 45,000+ documents in my index. I know that the file name contains the word “numbers”. The result I get is huge because it searches for the word inside of all my files. I also tried to search by date range but find it much more difficult than it used to be. It took me 10 minutes of reading help files to figure out where to go and then I had to use the mouse to select a range inside of one month, then the keyboard to change the dates in the box to be what I actually wanted them to be. I am willing to learn a new system if I can get what I want/need, but right now, I sure miss the much easier to use winxp search. Does the new search have the functionality of the old search, or has been been dumbed down so much that we can’t be specific about what we are looking for? This is all very ironic, because search should make things easier, not harder. I know the filename and I know the drive and folder where it is located, but I have a hard time finding the file using search.
Jim
Jan 8th, 2010
Agreed, Win 7 search is incredibly clunky and confusing. I consider myself a pretty knowledgable computer guy, and I know good software from bad. Win 7 has some nice new features, and I like Vista as well. But the search feature, as mentioned above, is unacceptable.
Dan from Microsoft, notice you are the only one who likes it on this blog!
Merit Computer Services
Jan 14th, 2010
This lack of search features in Windows 7 is a routine question I get from customers. The only explanation I have is that Microsoft did not do end user testing of the search engine. It is truly a half-hearted effort to find anything.
Copernic is OK; however, it is only 32-bit and not certified for Windows 7. Google misses much information and does not include most metadata.
Microsoft is way behind. ALthough I am no Apple fan, Apple is rolling over Microsoft. Microsoft needs to set its goals higher then over achieve. The customers expect more for their money.
paddy
Jan 15th, 2010
Copernic is not just “OK”, it is superb. It is THE paradigm for desktop search. They will soon have their 64-bit version for W7 out and then W7 users’ search needs will be met. Period.
Kristian
Feb 2nd, 2010
As was said – misery loves company – Glad it’s not just me that hates the new search. Hopefully it’s more reliable than Vista’s search which just lied half the time forcing me to resort to DOS Find of all things
Why Win 7 search is the way it is, and what lies ahead? | The Long Climb
Feb 23rd, 2010
[...] year ago I published an article entitled “Windows 7 and the Death of Search” in which I criticised the new search facility in the then forthcoming Windows 7. There are [...]
Why Win 7 search is the way it is, and what lies ahead? | Windows 7 News
Feb 23rd, 2010
[...] for common PC errorsA year ago, before I joined Windows 7 News, I published an article entitled “Windows 7 and the Death of Search” in which I criticised the new search facility in the then forthcoming Windows 7. There are [...]