Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure • Hacker News Board

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#151

Post by efdee » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

frabert wrote: post #121

kranner wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You can add tags to files instead of putting them in folders, I believe

Tagging files on Windows is a horrible experience though, sadly.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#152

Post by mannykannot » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

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…

File search seems to have steadily declined with each version at least since XP. The underlying pattern seems to be the combination of more features with a simpler interface. The inevitable result is less transparency for the user. Microsoft's search features have demonstrated repeatedly that this is a bad idea, and what's most puzzling is why they keep doing it.

Google maps is another product where useful features are regularly broken by 'improvements'.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#153

Post by wizzwizz4 » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

mreome wrote: post #59

I just wish I could get search to stop returning applications I uninstalled months ago (and yes I've tried deleting and rebuilding the index).

Perhaps there's a shortcut in Quick Launch? (A Windows 95 feature they decided to get rid of but never quite managed to completely remove.)

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#154

Post by thrower123 » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

Even the most insane Start menu shouldn't have enough items that you couldn't just put all the items it contains in an in-memory list and do a dumb startsWith search, and be lightning fast and more reliable than whatever insanity it is doing out of the box these days.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#155

Post by Noumenon72 » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #104

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?

Wow, no. I have no idea what folder a lot of my files are in, because I can find them with Search. And that extra click before accessing settings would be a huge downgrade for me. I am a fan of Windows search, it's one of the biggest improvements to usability they've ever made. Even if it worked better in Windows 7.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#156

Post by kunkurus » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

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…

https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/ solves this problems for W10.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#157

Post by dtech » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

tuananh wrote: post #118

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. works for me: https://i.imgur.com/9kBh2uB.png

Different for different users then: https://imgur.com/a/548crWn

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#158

Post by service_bus » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

maest wrote: post #10

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.

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.

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#159

Post by alkonaut » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

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…

This system no doubt sits on years of dusty debt, but really how hard can it be?

There are literally dozens of third party search/launch apps that are better.

I don’t know what kind of matching it uses but it’s not good. Is it prefix only? Is it case sensitive? What metadata is used in the match (what is displayed as a program name or something else)?

If I started writing a simple indexer app with an SQLite file and a little search box I’d have something more useful for finding apps after one afternoon.

So what exactly is the Windows search trying to do that I’m not considering, that makes it so hard that it fails with the trivial stuff like text matching?

Re: Skepticism after Windows 10 search failure

#160

Post by willis936 » Sat, Feb 08, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

mrec wrote: post #132

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone from Microsoft happens to be reading this thread, please read the above comment, then re-read it. It's a spot-on description of the problems and solutions for Windows search. Edit: and just to expand on a point the commenter made, the results would be more valuable if it prioritised in an order like this: 1) Something the user has pinned 2) Something the user has launched a bunch of times 3) The shortcut le…

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.