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

The search not working is what actually brought me here...or conversely, the computer changed it's behavior and I'm not able to adapt.  I honestly believe the search is working but something else is causing it to appear broken.  I still need help though.

For my job I receive POs as tif files.  I open them and "save a copy" to a folder - renaming them as 'company name - PO number'.  Later I email my copy of that PO.tif by clicking "attach" and pasting the PO# in the search box.  Pasting "just" the PO# always provided the exact PO I needed.  That worked fine until recently.

On May 9th I upgraded from Office 2007 to 2010 and installed the Office 2010 patches.  After that I got no results when pasting the PO number in the explorer search box.  I am trying things as I type this and have noticed the following:

• Clicking the start button and pasting the PO# there finds the file - in email and in the file folder.  This indicates the search function is working, but why not with file explorer?
• Using file explorer only finds POs (TIFs) from before May 9th but not after.
• file explorer finds PDFs and spreadsheets before and after May 9th using partial names and wildcards needed.  Example, for the file name "Microsoft Details" I can type "details" or " *tails" and file explore finds the files.  But if I type "tails" without the * wildcard nothing is found...that's all good.
• PDFs and spreadsheets appear to have their properties searched too but not their contents.
• TIFs by default open with "Windows Photo Viewer", which is what I've been using for years.  Today I tried opening a TIF with Office 2010 and then saved a it to the PO folder just like before. File explorer found that PO (same TIF name) just fine.
• The above got my attention so I tried several things.  Instead of opening TIFs from an email I copied them to another folder, then opened them from that folder with Windows Photo Viewer and saved the file to my PO folder.  Still not found in a search.
• Next I tried to open an older TIF (pre-May 9th) and resave it but I couldn't because the original was read-only.  I noticed everything was read-only beginning May 9th.
• Neither removing the read-only flag nor saving it without read-only changed anything.  TIFs after May 9th still weren't searchable.
• Opening a TIF with Windows Photo Viewer and resaving it with a completely different name only worked when the original file was created before May 9th.  Even though I renamed and saved the file today, the Date Modified showing in file explorer was still the old date.
• Repeating the above step but using Office 2010 to open and save the TIF worked fine.  The new file was searchable and the "Date Modified" in file explorer showed today's date and time.  I'm not sure if the date/time stamp is relevant but thought its worth mentioning.

I started this post thinking it was a Search Index issue but its looking more and more like "Windows Photo Viewer" was somehow modified when I upgraded from Office 2007 to Office 2010.  I posted this here because I don't know if the Search Index can't find certain new TIFs or if Windows Photo Viewer is preventing its TIFs from being found.  I suspect others might be experiencing similar things.  As a user I thought I was just upgrading Office - no other changes were wanted.  This is the type of thing that drives me crazy.

I read and read, and rebuilt the index several times.  After wasting all that time I now have to start over and see if anyone knows how to fix Windows Photo Viewer...if that's really the problem.

Correction:  (3) above should read:

... "system.filename:~=converter AND ext:.exe" ...

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.