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Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

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Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#161

Post by e12e »

Gravityloss wrote: post #123
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…

Apple's spotlight has had these kind of features for a long time too, though most of the time it mostly works. It loses your input, it baits-and-switches, it opens completely irrelevant software (often uninstallers that immediately begin an uninstall process or never-used settings pages), some applications are plain missing from there and have to be accessed through the application menu always.

> Apple's spotlight has had these kind of features

Features? Surely, you mean these kind of bugs? :)

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#162

Post by willis936 »

retsibsi wrote: post #129
Semaphor wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty stable for me. I start typing "Code", by the time "Cod" is typed, I see VS Code and want to press enter, before I realize that, I get done typing the "e" and out of nowhere "code.bat" (whatever that is) appears and gets executed. Stable at a PoS level. Windows search is the worst part about Windows 10 for me and I have no idea how anyone ever thought it was at a better than some pre-alpha stage. All the d…

On Windows 8.1, when I want to run Paint.NET I have to remember to accept the suggestion before typing the full name; it guesses correctly until I finish the .net, at which point it decides I want to open a web page. (Honestly though I'm pretty happy with it, it's good enough that I never miss the old-fashioned Start menu like I expected to.)

In fairness, knowing about prefix codes and top level domains, paint.NET is an unforgivably bad name for a program.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#163

Post by ndiscussion »

willis936 wrote: post #160
mrec wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically agree but would quibble with your 1. If I've pinned an application (as I do for anything I use regularly) surely it's because I want to launch it quickly via the taskbar rather than having to go via search. If I'm in search it's because I'm looking for something else .

True for you, but not everyone. I find tapping the windows key, typing a few letters, then tapping enter, is much faster and comfortable than touching the mouse.

Try holding windows key and pressing the number that corresponds with the order of the pinned item.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#164

Post by bobcostas55 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #97
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…

Use Everything instead. https://www.voidtools.com/

Why doesn't Microsoft just hire this guy? Why didn't they hire him 5 years ago? The internal politics around this feature must be utterly insane.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#165

Post by e12e »

thegeekpirate wrote: post #135
Semaphor wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny. "bitt" -> nothing. "bitto" -> works. "bitt" -> now works as well.

Good catch, so if you type "bitto" then hit backspace to "bitt", it works, but hit backspace again ("bit") and it'll disappear (it even shows me "Notepad", because why not)!

At this point in this thread, I'm starting to hope someone reverse engineer windows search, and do a write-up of how the indexing, stemming and search actually works...

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#166

Post by Santosh83 »

catcalendar wrote: post #46
xkemp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, maybe, document/file search is a pretty useful and commonly expected feature for a desktop operating system? And extending it to online search is an entirely natural next step? Even if this were a plot against Google, it would simply be bog-standard competition. It has absolutely none of the characteristics of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".

I can't believe you'd suggest something as rediculous as users wanting a unified search bar that just gives them what they want regardless of context. History has shown time and time again that users like diversity and would prefer a solution that they can tailor together in a piecemeal fashion after trying all their options.

This is some high grade sarcasm!

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#167

Post by maest »

service_bus wrote: post #158
maest wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there is a way to disable bing search by setting some flags in the windows registry. I was affected by this bug, and the way to fix it was to disable online search. There's a bunch of articles online on how to do it, eg: https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/02/05/its-not-just-you-wi... Basically have to set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\BingSearchEnabled to 0 and HKEY_CURR…

All of this information is in the article.

Yes, that is why I posted the link.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#168

Post by Macha »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #61
Zanni wrote: post #5

Of all the things I hate about Windows, unified search is the worst. If I want to search the web, I'll search the web--there's an app for that, the browser. Let me just search my hard drive, please. I didn't experience this bug, but if I had, I'd be furious that I couldn't search my own local files without somehow getting an internet service involved.

Apple has made this mistake about seven different times, the earliest being with Sherlock on OS9. Mixing local file search with Internet search solves no problem and causes chaos. The use cases for the two kinds of search are very different and users prefer using different tools for these jobs. Just stop doing this, Apple and Microsoft.

It's weirder with Apple. You can see why Microsoft might do it - it's not in the user's interest, but it is in Microsoft's interest to get more Bing usage. But for Apple, they hardly care how much I use Google.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#169

Post by tinus_hn »

Gravityloss wrote: post #123
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…

Apple's spotlight has had these kind of features for a long time too, though most of the time it mostly works. It loses your input, it baits-and-switches, it opens completely irrelevant software (often uninstallers that immediately begin an uninstall process or never-used settings pages), some applications are plain missing from there and have to be accessed through the application menu always.

Spotlight does have a bad habit of finding applications in your Time Machine backup though

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#170

Post by emn13 »

Xelbair wrote: post #120
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.

When looking for QGis i write: Q -> nothing Qg/Qg -> Qgis QGi -> nothing Qgis -> websearch

Yeah; that's pretty standard, alas :-(
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