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Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

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Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#101

Post by kranner »

qalmakka wrote: post #78
nmfisher wrote: post #63

It's amusing (and infuriating) that file search - IMO, one of the most important features for a desktop O/S - has been utterly broken in Windows since Vista. On Windows 10, half the time it just hangs with "Searching files", displaying zero results. The other half, search simply says "Nothing found", even when I know there is a match. I just tested it with %USERPROFILE%/.docker - open up File Explorer and search for…

I personally never use search tools; at least, not with files I've created myself. IMHO organising correctly your files using aptly named directories and sticking to that is much more effective than dumping stuff around the filesystem and then having to rely on search in order to untangle the mess. That's why I tend to disable desktop icons; in this way I always have to force myself into opening a file manager and ac…

> IMHO organising correctly your files using aptly named directories

I have a lot of ebooks on my computer (> 10000). One problem with organising books and other PDFs is that sometimes they fall into multiple categories. (Should a new scientific article on lucid dreaming go into 'brain and cognitive science' or 'meditation' or 'hypnosis' or 'sleep' or 'self improvement'?) I could dump each new file into the directory representing the first category that comes to mind and make symbolic links from directories referring to other categories, but in the end the number of categories is practically endless. Search is in practice the only workable solution.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#102

Post by mattmanser »

desc wrote: post #49
tanseydavid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks to both of you for mentioning this. Every time I encounter this strange behavior in WIN10 -- I am so dumbstruck by it each time it still feels like it must have been a "glitch-in-the-matrix". I mean, because no one would really release software like that, would they? At least not a multi-billion software behemoth like MS? Right?

I know why this happens. It happens because someone doesn't understand that search rankings vs. queries have to have a 'smooth' solution, and thinks they can tweak a few weightings here and there to get the results they think are 'correct' for the very specific cases they have in mind, without realising that this has a knock-on effect on the entire scoring space and you get odd singularities and stuff popping up as a…

I try not to say things like that anymore, you've never met the person and have no idea of the context or their skills.

Could be that they were forced to change it at the 11th hour just before Windows 10 was being demo'd and it was never changed back. Could be a committee decision. Could be the programmer hated the surveillance installed by MS and so deliberately made the search bad.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#103

Post by CathedralBorrow »

makecheck wrote: post #33

The search behaves “as if” it’s using randomly-ordered keys in a random source dictionary, and it’s maddening. If I type what seems to be the same 3 letters a few times in a row, the result is always different: one time it acts like the app isn’t even installed, another time it finds the app (first choice), another time it finds some other random sub-component instead of the app with a weird file extension. Oh, and m…

My favorite part of Windows 10 search is how when I enter "bittorrent" it has absolutely no idea what I mean. The program is called qbittorrent.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#104

Post by jimnotgym »

I have an easier fix than most people on here.

I would like the start menu search to be confined to the programs installed on the computer. To search settings make me click the 'cog' first. To search for files there is Explorer, which is already better at the job. To search the web I will use Firefox to access a search engine.

Wouldn't that be simpler?

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#105

Post by Santosh83 »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #103
makecheck wrote: post #33

The search behaves “as if” it’s using randomly-ordered keys in a random source dictionary, and it’s maddening. If I type what seems to be the same 3 letters a few times in a row, the result is always different: one time it acts like the app isn’t even installed, another time it finds the app (first choice), another time it finds some other random sub-component instead of the app with a weird file extension. Oh, and m…

My favorite part of Windows 10 search is how when I enter "bittorrent" it has absolutely no idea what I mean. The program is called qbittorrent.

Weird. I too have qBittorent installed and the Start menu search finds it as first option when I type 'bitt' ('bit' gives 64-bit Python launcher)... not too shabby.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#106

Post by thegeekpirate »

Santosh83 wrote: post #105
CathedralBorrow wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of Windows 10 search is how when I enter "bittorrent" it has absolutely no idea what I mean. The program is called qbittorrent.

Weird. I too have qBittorent installed and the Start menu search finds it as first option when I type 'bitt' ('bit' gives 64-bit Python launcher)... not too shabby.

"bitt" shows me zero results, but "bitto" (all the way to "bittorrent") works. It's beyond b0rked!

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#108

Post by boudin »

crispinb wrote: post #21

Every time one of the many irritations I have with Linux makes me consider reinstalling Windows to give it another try, this kind of thing is just what comes to mind and stops me.

In my opinion, there's issues with all OS, but Linux is the only one that is documented enough, can be customized enough and as enough of an ecosystem to fix my problems or at least find workarounds. With Windows or Macos the only solution is too often to live with the ecosystem as thought by Apple or Microsoft, liking it or not, which I just can't stand personnally...

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#109

Post by tjoff »

caspper69 wrote: post #100
tjoff wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time? Searching everything takes lots of time, searching through an indexed database takes less than a second. When in windows I use a locate-port[1] that I use to index any local disks as well as remote network shares of interest. It would take about an hour to search everything. But an hour wouldn't be that bad, the problem arises when you are not quite sure what you are looking for. Getting the response back…

And your use case makes sense; but your use case is not typical for 99% of desktop OS users. And instantaneous results mean nothing if they're worthless. I'd rather let you turn on indexing because you need it and it matches your use case. Leave the other 99% alone.

Indexing benefits the other 99% as well.

Windows default was ok but slow in XP and absolutely unusable since. Any benefit to search would be a massive benefit to millions of people.

Doesn't have to be indexed but would certainly help. I guess SSDs are quick enough many times but it is absolutely essential if a regular hard drive is in the picture.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#110

Post by meddlepal »

manderley wrote: post #90
meddlepal wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I was thinking about this and I never use OS search either. I suspect the reason it's "broken" is because Microsoft has the data that says most people don't use the feature and therefore it's not worth the improvement cost.

But they've just recently, with 1903, revamped Explorer as well as taskbar search. In general, I find it very hard to believe this is a people few users rely on. It's the primary way to launch programs for me.

Do you have a neat and organized desktop? Most people just have a mess of shortcuts and that's how they launch programs. But also consider that most people use maybe 2 or 3 apps all the time and rarely explore outside of that.
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