fafhrd, I totally welcome the addition of GUI filters to the File Explorer ribbon in Windows 8! The filters that popped up under the search box in Windows 7 didn't expose the entire power of Windows Search. Thus, it should be easier now for people unfamiliar with the syntax to find what they need. It's funny that Microsoft kind of went back to the Vista style of search options.
Meanwhile, I've learned how to use Windows Search and
I always find what I need. As for people who complain on the page I linked to (or any other web page), I don't care, I've seen it all and even more
Most of the time these complaints indicate that people haven't mastered the feature.
Yes, it can be not intuitive or it doesn't work as you expect (this thread is an example), but it is what it is.
Learn the advantages, don't concentrate on shortcomings.
I find that the Start Screen Search finds very few of the possible documents or locations it should
I don't see why it doesn't find anything. It's index-based. If it's in the index, it should be found. And neither I see why you search for files on the start screen in the first place.
Generally, when you search for something, you
start as close to the target as you can (it's not only about Windows or PCs). Is it a document? Search in the Document
library, you global search filter.
Most annoying is the fact that the full filename must be entered before the search finds the file (example: diskmgmt.msc). In XP the first few letters typed in sufficed to identify and locate an indexed system file.
There's no point in looking back. And why would it be an advantage? I don't want to remember the executable name of dozens of tools. I'm fine with learning their
purpose, and I can find most of the control panel tools that way
.
diskmgmt.msc? You can type
disk man in Windows 7 start menu or Win + W in Windows 8 and get the same thing.
Are you a power user who wants to quickly run executables? Win + R is your best friend! Because it has autosuggest (on by default) and
autocomplete (off by default). With the latter on, you rarely need to type more than two letters for running your favorite tools. That's how
I do it
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoComplete]
"AutoSuggest"="yes"
"Append Completion"="yes"