Aero Taskforce

Usable Explorer file search GUI

Submitted by Steve6375 on November 18, 2008 to Annoyance, Usability

Problem: I often want to search for a word in say a *.log file - how do you do this in Vista Search or Advanced search???
Also want to search for files in ALL locations (not just indexed and non-system). Chosing Everywhere does not do this you have to tick the Include Indexed files box - so Everywhere is not Everywhere is it!.
I also want the option of displaying the FULL filename with extensions.

Also if I search for *.log I do not want files called fred.log1 returned - if I wanted that I would have specified *.log* or *.log?.

Why does a search for *.log? return a file called System.IO.Log.dll ??? Totally inconsistent!

In XP this did what I wanted (except if I changed folders - e.g. up a level, the search path did not change).
I just want a simple interface that allows me to find files without taking an hour to return a massive list of files or having to understand how to write search queries in the Vista 'Search' textbox!
The Advanced search does not have a field for 'containing text: '
Why does the TAG textbox have 'add a tag' in it and the Authors field have 'Add an author' - why would I want to add a tag or Author to a file when I am searching for something?
The Name field should be called FileName as it could be interpreted as name of person who created/modified the file.

Solution: Make it usable!

Severity: Medium

Impact: High

Status: Not fixed