Windows 7 (advanced) search pane?

Anonymous
2010-01-27T14:40:15+00:00

I've been using Windows 7 for some time now, and loving it!

However, when I was preaching to my family and friends, they asked me if the Advanced Search pane (that we used to have in XP) is back in Windows 7.

Of course, with the Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax (let's call this AQS), we are able to achieve what the advanced search pane could and more. But then they brought up a pretty good point:

Why should I (they) have to learn/memorize a special syntax in order to perform a complex search, when the advanced search pane in XP was so much more straightforward? And I kinda agree with them.

E.g, without looking at the AQS documentation, how many of you can immediately come up with the single search criteria for:

  1. all jpg and png files (only)
  2. that are in e:\images and d:\images and f:\dir\images
  3. without recursing into any subdirectories
  4. that are larger than 10KB
  5. and was created between 25th of December and 1st of January?

Anyone got an answer for that?

Or is there some sort of advanced search pane like in Outlook? Pick from a list of filters the field to search/filter by, and you get a nice label/textbox for you to type in?

I've done some digging, and it seems like there's only partial (restricted) support for this. E.g, in the Music library, you can only add filters for Album, Artist, Genre, Length; Documents: Authors, Type, Date modified, Size; etc.

And when you're not in a library, e.g, folder on an external disk, the only filters you can add are Date modified and Size.

Are there any ways to add more filters? Or are we limited to either: 1) relying on the filters that Windows 7 *THINKS* we need, or 2) buckle down and memorize the AQS?

[Edit]

Here's another story: I was explaining to my mom how you could build an AQS search criteria, and she remarked (paraphrased), "Why is it trying to search when you're not even done typing? Why not have a search button that begins searching only when you are ready to?"

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2011-11-13T16:56:45+00:00

By default, Windows only searches inside files if the location is indexed (so it can return instant results). You can tell Windows to do an intensive search (just like XP would have done).

  1. Open Folder Options (type 'folder' into the Start menu to find it).
  2. On the Search tab, click the 2nd option ("Always search file names and contents"), then click OK.

After that, using quotes to phrase-search inside files should work, even in un-indexed locations.  Searches may take a while if the location isn't indexed (just like XP), but they'll be complete and should return the results you want.

____________

One more note:  If the location is indexed, but your phrase isn't being found.... do this to make sure the file type is getting indexed.  Do this, for example, if you are trying to find a phrase inside a non-standard file like a JavaScript or PHP file:

  1. Type 'index' into your Start menu to find the Indexing Options, then click the Advanced button.
  2. On the File Types tab, find the file type you want to be indexed (tip: click in the list, then type the file type letters like JS to jump to it).
  3. With the file type selected, make sure the 2nd option is selected "Index properties and file contents", then click OK to close each box.

I believe these two setting changes would resolve about 90% of search frustrations people commonly have with Windows 7.  Please let me know if this helps for you.

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Anonymous
2010-02-09T01:26:47+00:00

Maybe it's just me, but how can you even get that far?

My "search" usually just stalls before it lets me even BEGIN to add a filter. Do you just initiate the initial search from a new explorer window? Or do you initiate the search from the start icon and then add a filter...or.....?

To me, Search is defunct...99% of my data is on a network share and it can't find it even if I am in the folder that I am searching for

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-02-02T12:28:25+00:00

I think rather than finding the filter, they'd rather you just type a few parts of the file and Windows will figure it out for you (whether you type the author or whatever).  I don't necessarily agree with that, lol.

You can see more filters if you expand the search box, but who would consider that an intuitive interface?  I think this could have been implemented much differently with better results.  Perhaps the 'search filters' could be checkboxes at the bottom of that menu, or even at the top similar to the library pane's links.  Perhaps Windows 8 will have more time spend on this area.

![](http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pqxrKJw4QR06lJSyyWRLZGs_D-sLwOfn4JwRyCdXTqAr9WQi9Yo8_mO_d7tlrgBUd4pD1DifYDmGpRLPVWrq4tw/Search Filters.png)

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-01-29T03:35:12+00:00

You don't have to learn or know the syntax.  It's really easier than it may appear on the surface.

Instead of trying to figure out the syntax, simply type what you're looking for.  If you want to search a specific type of info (like Author or Date, anything that used to be in the Advanced pane), it appears for you.  Simply click it and you're done.

In this picture below, I didn't have to type any of that, I just clicked "Add a search filter".  It's the same options from Windows 7, but now they're blue links instead of a big bunch of text boxes.

If this was helpful, please vote by clicking the green triangle. If it solves the issue, click Propose as Answer. Thanks!

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-29T09:23:55+00:00
    1. When you type into the search field, a search bar appear with buttons to limit scope, and OS X immediately starts searching based on your preferences.

    ...Windows does the exact same thing. When you click in the search field, buttons appear to limit your scope.  Picture: http://goo.gl/k0tqj 2. If you click the + button you can begin adding filters one by one.

    ..Windows does the exact same thing. Just click the filter you want to add.  Author, Date, Size, Kind, or dozens more.   Picture: http://goo.gl/piOOy 3. You can choose filters from menus.

    ...Windows does the exact same thing.  When you click the Kind button, a list of kinds in a drop-down menu appears.  For filenames ending with something, use the same thing you've used for the past 27 years: *ending.jpg  Picture: http://goo.gl/IMxyg 4. If the drop down menu doesn't contain the items you use every day, you can customize the menus with the dialog box.

    ...This is one that does seem to differ significantly.  The drop-down filters only show what's available.  If you were in a folder of all jpgs, the bmp picture type would not be an option from the kind menu.  However there's no UI to my knowledge to specify that all ".photo" files be interpreted as "picture" kinds.

    The biggest UI difference is that instead of a long toolbar with dozens of drop-downs, the Windows search box only shows you options for the filter you're building (like a calendar of dates when you choose a date) as you build your query.  Functionally it seems identical...

    Summary Picture:  http://goo.gl/2tAuH (form versus filter)

    I'm just glad that the modern OS's are moving toward filters to choose exactly what you want without as much hassle.  I just wish these filters were easier to access and discover in Windows.  I also with there wasn't confusion about some need to "know the query syntax".  I didn't type any of the queries in those screenshots, I point-and-clicked with ease just like on a mac... it just happened to build the query for me.  But so many seem to think you have to study the syntax and type it yourself.  Microsoft should just hide the syntax so no one sees it and gets scared and put off by it (but then power users would complain it was too simple).

    All right, maybe this the problem is that it isn't complete.

    Sure, everyone's using filters now. But Microsoft does it horrendously while Apple does it correct. There's practically hundreds of filters and multiple options for each filter.

    This has already been repeatedly raised by many users here, they don't see the multiple filters you see. And even then, this row of filters isn't complete! Different filters show in different folders. In OSX, if you don't see a filter you want, you add the filter from a menu that shows everything, as in, every search filter available.

    Can you do that in windows? No. That's the problem.

    And that's not all. Even the options aren't complete. Let's use size for example. It shows a list of options, from empty (0bytes) to gigantic (>128MB). Let's say I want to search files specifically between 50MB to 60MB. Can I customise these values? It doesn't appear so, at least without using the syntax.

    Which of course, the syntax should not be necessary to learn.

    Well, let's say I'm willing to learn the syntax, or at least the basic filters (and I can guarantee most people won't). Then, where can I find them? There is no help, there is no 'list of filters available'. It doesn't seem to be available in help files, and even a google search on the internet does not point me to a complete list of filters.

    And if it can get any worse, sometimes, the filters shown have no explanation what they are meant for. What does folderpath mean? What does kind mean? How am I to know these attributes of the file I wish to search?

    Even the documentation isn't complete.

    Lastly, the indexing is obscure. I haven't the least idea how it works, and I also get the same problem as others which is that files sometimes do not show. This is the worst problem, since it prevents people from finding what they want, and they don't even know why. Of course, you can remove the indexing entirely, but then the search slows down to a crawl without the use of specific filter (which of course, is a problem as stated above.)

    The best solution is thus to use a third party program.

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