Windows 7: Search does not find files that it should, directory is indexed, and *.php included on the extension list

Windows Search is neither broken nor useless.  However, you do have to learn how to use it, and it is not the easiest or quickest for simple filename searches - but it does work.  God, how many times do I need to make this point before it sinks in?  Please, please, before anyone else posts a complaint here, read the posts above and the references given in them, and try out Search properly before whingeing.

To take the above complaint:

I took a 1 MB .exe file and copied and renamed it to converter.exe, testconverter.exe, convertertest.exe, testconvertertest.exe, and finally test<space>converter<space>test.exe, i.e.  test converter test.exe.   The folder I prepared these in is set to be indexed, so I also copied them to two unindexed locations on my C: drive, one only one folder in from the root, and the other several folders deep in C:\GTK+.  As I say, neither of these locations is specified in my Indexing Options.

1. I used the search expression "ext:.exe converter" (without the leading and trailing quotation marks, of course) to search My Documents (which is indexed).  Search immediately found convertertest.exe, converter.exe, and test converter test.exe, despite indexing being backed off (see posts above).  This is to be expected: as explained above and in the references, unless you specify otherwise, Search will only find files whose names begin with your specified word or contain the word with a space before it (I think it also finds it if preceded by a hyphen or underscore).

2)  I did the same search from my C: drive root, this time with the folders unindexed.  Again, Search found the three files named in (1), but took quite a bit longer to do it (maybe two or three minutes), since the locations are not indexed.

3)  I searched My Documents using the search expression "system.filename:~converter AND system.ext:.exe", which means any .exe file whose name contains the characters "converter" anywhere in it.  This time all five files were found almost instantly.

4)  I searched the non-indexed locations in C: using the same search expression.  Again all five files were found, reasonably quickly but nowhere near as fast as when indexed.

So it works for me, and if it doesn't work for you, try the suggestions above.  Make sure the Windows Search service and the three processes associated with it are running, etc.  If you follow all the suggestions and it still doesn't work, then try:

a) Agent Ransack, which, as Mr. Joe Blow from Kokomo says above, is really good (but takes some time if your file is deep inside the Windows folder structure, for instance), or

b) Copernic, which is a free fully indexing search utility from http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/ - again, see posts above.

Ultimately, if Search really doesn't work on your installation, some form of file or system corruption is probably responsible, and unfortunately you would probably have to reinstall the operating system to get it to go.  (I can do that painlessly anytime because I keep my system partition backed up with the EaseUS utility, so there).

And if anyone else posts here saying that Windows Search doesn't work without reading the thread properly, I shall SCREAM!  (Not that anyone will care).  The main complaint to make of Microsoft is that they never document anything properly for their users.

Signed, Irritated of Tunbridge Wells.

I wrote a small executable in Visual Studios.  I saved it as a project after delivering it into the standard folders - absolutely NO customizations as to its location.  The .exe has the word "converter" in it.

I ran a standard Windows Explorer search for "converter" on my C: drive.  Indexing is NOT being used, I set that checkbox in the options because I do not care about search speed.  The search ran ALL NIGHT LONG.  I am NOT complaining about that.  What I AM complaining about is the fact that even though the results had 313 files found, my executable was NOT IN THERE.  According to Windows Explorer, it simply did not exist.  The search is therefore, completely useless.

I downloaded Agent Ransack and ran it with the same options ("converter", search all of C:).  The results came back in less than a minute.  385 returned finds.  Guess what?  My file was there.  Microsoft's "tool" missed 72 additional files that Agent Ransack found in less than a minute.

Microsoft obviously does not care that their search is broken in Windows 7.  11 pages spanning 4 years of attempted fixes and it still is useless.   They have already stated that there will be no more Service Packs for Windows 7.  Apparently we need to buy their newest garbage spit out every few years to get fixes for basic, fundamental features that never should have been changed from Windows XP.  I guess that is what happens when you have a monopoly.

I will never again use the Windows Explorer search.  I strongly recommend that if you are reading this post, you do the same and download Agent Ransack.  Stop wasting your time trying to get it to work...it is impossible without intervention from Microsoft and that will never happen no matter how much we complain.  And no, I do not have any vested interest in them whatsoever.  Before I came to this thread, I had never heard of them before.

I appreciate your answer, but apparently you haven't read the entire thread.

If you look again, you'll see that there was no thread to read when samc1 wrote his reply three and a half years ago - his was the first response to the question.

Since I started this thread ...

You must be confusing this thread with another. This one was started on 27 November 2009 by Time Bandit (unless that's also you, of course).

I appreciate your answer, but apparently you haven't read the entire thread.  You're suggesting the simple, "party line" answer that works in some cases, doesn't work in others.  Like many people, by the time I resort to asking Microsoft or starting a thread I will have already tried the well documented, simple solutions.

Since I started this thread I've learned a lot more about how the new search utility works, so I'm able to get what I need out of it a lot of the time.  But there are still situations when it simple doesn't behave as it should, doesn't find what it should, or it is impossible to make it do what I want.  With this (and many other) problem(s), Microsoft needs to:

1.  Pay closer attention to what users are saying (i.e. read the whole thread),

2.  Accept the possibility that sometimes it is NOT the user's fault,

3.  Be willing to admit when something just doesn't do what the users want,

4.  Give the users what they want.  Really fix real problems.

-ETC