On 21-4-2010 22:15, Darren New wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>> ...so how do you actually do this then?
>>
>>> That's what the whole COM thing is all about, along with things like 
>>> "Windows Scripting Host" and "Power Shell".
>>
>>   I find it telling that if the question would have been something like
>> "how do you find files in the current directory containing a certain 
>> string"
>> the answer could have been given in one line,
> 
> Yes. Every window has a search box on it.
> 
>> but when the question is how
>> to do those complex searches in Windows you mentioned... there's no 
>> simple
>> answer, only obscure references to something else.
> 
> Nope. Every window has a search box in it, *and* that search box handles 
> the complex file formats too. If all you want to do is search for a text 
> string in a directory tree, Windows has that.

IME the Windows that I use indeed have those search options. Except that 
they don't seem to work as advertised. They often don't find files that 
are clearly there. Typical situation: I am editing a file that calls a 
function. I search for all other files that call or contain that 
function in a tree starting one level above the file I am editing. No 
results, not even the file that I am editing. WTF? IIRC it can also give 
results outside the search criteria and it is definitely slow. In short, 
it drove me mad.

Then I tried googledesktop. Great program, much faster. Will also find 
files and e-mails that contain the text item you searched for. Lots of 
options to refine your search. If only it would be so kind to look at 
the options it would be even greater. In short, it too drove me mad.

Sometimes I connect a removable disk to a PC with an older version of XP 
or 2000 just to be able to do a reliable search.

I know it is probably something that I do wrong, but what?

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