Why is Windows search so bad?
Why is Windows search so bad?
I hear this often, but why would Microsoft avoid speeding things up? I've always relied on Linux, which can scan the whole disk in roughly two minutes. Windows, however, can run for an hour yet still overlook files. Recently I found EverythingToolbar that instantly searches the entire drive. I know Windows goes beyond just file names, but over hundreds of uses I've only searched for names. Does anyone get why this isn't available in Windows? If a simple tool could do it, even the biggest company would likely develop it. Plus, besides being extremely slow, Windows search can actually miss files entirely.
That's precisely how it functions, and that's all there is to it. As the creator puts it: it works well within its scope, but beyond that, it doesn't reach further. It excels at its tasks, though that's essentially the case.
It's quite an evolution since 2013. Now it supports a wide range of formats including FAT, FAT32, EXFAT, ReFS, ZFS alongside NTFS, SATA, M.2, PCIe, USB and network drives. Latest versions even allow indexing and sorting by various properties. The search experience used to be poor, especially with Windows' tendency to run OneDrive and Bing searches at the same time as local file lookups. Adjusting the registry and using pro features can help streamline the integrated search by removing unnecessary processing. Still slower than older versions but improved over basic performance. At its heart, Windows Explorer's main drawback is that it checks every file in a folder for metadata and thumbnails, which becomes slow with large collections.
Certainly! The search will focus on filename segments rather than full matches. Adjusting for variations like "Stell" instead of "Stellar" is possible. Let me know if you need further refinements.
Sure, I was always fine with Cortana being there. After they took her search feature away, things changed—slower and much less useful now. It’s frustrating because it doesn’t work nearly as well as before.
Both Windows Search and Search Everything support partial matches, though the approach may vary based on the specific path details (for each method). You might need to wrap your query in wildcards if required.
Perhaps but I clearly recall after they took her out it got much worse (I didn’t really use Cortana much, but the regular search was just better...) I still have a laptop with the anniversary/creators update installed... I really enjoy using that version, most things work fine! P.S.: You could also just skip the web results, that wasn’t the main problem, I’m not sure, but as mentioned later and still today, Windows search has become almost impossible. Sometimes it doesn’t even locate items right in front of you lol