I’m delighted to meet you – there had to be someone out there for whom Windows built-in search actually worked.
For the rest of us, the default indexing that never includes the places people actually store files, the “we’re just not going to bother indexing this because we don’t like it’s extension,” the “sure, you added a drive to your system. Why would we possibly think you might store files on it and add it to the index?,” the “oh you DID mess around in the guts of Windows prefs and add it to the index, but I did an update last night and removed it for you,” and the “Yeah, you did everything right, searching now…expected time 9,999 minutes” features make it effectively useless.
This is one of those things that Mac users rightfully gloat about: No user index management is necessary, and spotlight will find any file on the system by name or contents effectively instantly. Why Microsoft hasn’t been able to duplicate this trick in a usable fashion in the last decade remains a mystery to me.
The “…as long as you’ve added the directory to the index…” caveat makes Windows built-in search useless for 95% of it’s users.
Right make that /docume~1/. I remember at some point after upgrading to whichever flavor of windows allowed longer names, I ran some type of scan on the entire system (memmaker or defrag etc) and it shortening every file to 8 characters. I was very lucky I’d spent so much time working with DOS that I could figure out what most of them were and rename them. A lot of things didn’t work after that happened, until I figured out what the problem was.
Longer names are nice, but being able to have a space in them still screws with me.
Yeah, no-one on a Windows computer ever stores their files in the Documents library.
I can’t think of an extension for which this has happened. I just ran a search and narrowed it down by extension type, trying a variety of different file extensions, including basically any extension i could think of that (a) i use on my computer and (b) contains text information that would be useful to have indexed. Extensions included doc/docx, xls/xlsx, pdf, ppt/pptx, txt, odt, wps, rtf, epub, csv. I understand that my range of files does not include the full gamut of possible files that you might find on a Windows computer, but i’ll bet that those file extensions represent, conservatively, about 99 percent of the files that most everyday users have on their computers.
This is actually completely reasonable. For example, when i connect an external drive to my system, it’s often to run a backup of my documents. I don’t need Windows to index the backup drive when those exact same files are already indexed on my main drive.
Similarly, while my desktop computer has 5 physical drives installed (one SSD, and four regular HDs), i don’t need them all indexed by Windows. My music drive, for example, is adequately indexed by my multi-media software. My video files are easily found through the indexing system in my video catalog software. And my ebooks are fully cataloged within Calibre, and don’t need a separate index in Windows.
I do concede, though, that it would be nice if Windows would pop up a dialog box when you add a new hard drive, to ask if the user would like to index the contents of the drive for future searches.
Neither of these are actually a thing, unless you haven’t used Windows since at least XP.
Apple make great computers. My wife has a Macbook Air, and it’s an awesome little machine with a nice operating system.
Because I have a desktop computer with loads of storage space, i keep a backup of all her files and folders on my computer. I just got her Macbook from her, and ran some searches on her computer and on mine, for some particular search terms that i knew i would find in the contents of her files. In each case, both systems found the files i was looking for incredibly quickly; for practical purposes, there was no difference between them.
More generally, i use Macs periodically on the university campus where i work, and in my experience Windows search works pretty much the same as Spotlight, in terms of speed and efficiency.
Actually, the default locations make the search perfectly useful for 95 percent of Windows users, most of whom store almost all their files in the Documents section and in the other default libraries.
I often feel dirty defending Windows, because Microsoft has annoyed the hell out of me on a variety of fronts over the years. Unfortunately, some people make it necessary because they seem to think that nothing has changed since Windows ME hit the shelves.
This is because the users trust the system to put files in their rightful place. You typically don’t worry about which folder your document is going to be saved in, much less, the precise location of that folder on the hard disk.
They pretty much have duplicated it by implementing libraries - which don’t work very well for people who still insist on doing what they did in Windows 98 and saving things in custom folders on the root of the C drive. That problem is between the chair and the keyboard.
Oh, is that it? I’ll defer to your expertise — I know almost nothing about modern Windo$e or Mac philosophy.
In the olden days, users often put files and folders where they wanted to — (imagine the impudence of a user who wants to organize his own hierarchy!) — e.g. making subfolders for genres, or folders on multiple drives if space becomes a concern. But Windo$e Media Player, IIRC, makes it so tedious for me to simply tell the program where the music I want to play is, I’ve given up on it.
Mangetout, have you ever worked with an operating system where users … gasp! … told the software where the user files could be found, rather than vice versa? It’s not impossible; when I run KMPlayer it provides an option where I can select files and folders!!!
You can still put your files anywhere you like, if you insist on doing so, but the OS has become more organised and secure since the early days and now it has proper places for things - if you don’t allow it to put things in their proper place, it’s not really appropriate to complain that it can’t keep track of them.
Modern Windows does not want anything extra added to the root of the C drive, and does not generally want users storing anything outside of their own user folder. There are good reasons for this that relate to security, portability of your user profile, and indexing of your files - you can choose to break any of that if you want, then it’s broken.
I’ve been working with Windows since 3.11 and working in IT support since Windows 95. I’m not making this up - and it happens that I think the way modern windows organises its files is better than the old way. This thread is my cite.
True. Some of us are old and fixed in our habits. (Make that DOS 3.1, not Windows 98, thank you very much!)
In my case it’s back to that ‘out of sight, out of mind’ thing. I write fiction. The first thing I do when I start a new story/book is create a new folder right under root, named “1 TitleOfBook” with under it a handful of standardized subfolders (Structure, Text, Research, Correspondence.) And then I set up folder backups using SyncToy to copy that folder to a local backup drive and to Dropbox which I run at the end of each writing session.
It just makes me feel all safe and secure knowing each project is filed away in its own little home all by itself right near the top of my file tree list … and I know EXACTLY where it lives. Windows wants to shove my writing, where? Something like /User/myname/My Documents? All scrambled together with everything else I’ve written? Where it seems each damn game or whatever shoves a new folder of its own for, I dunno, saves or something?
Windows does a great job allowing one to save, organize, retrieve, and back up documents or any other type of files you could imagine. How well any given user makes use of these capabilities, however, is an entirely matter. I have an external hard drive to which Windows automatically backs up my files based on the schedule I created. Also, Windows allows you to back up your entire hard drive as an image, which allows a complete restoration in a very timely manner.
As a tech person, I can safely say that the overwhelming number of “computer problems” are really “user problems”.
I am definately an outlier. I always store my documents and anything worth saving on a separate drive from C:. I think this goes back to the old days when Windows used to just periodically screw itself up all the time.
Windows screwed up? Nuke it from orbit and start over. No need to backup anyting, all docs and pics are on F:.
I’m no spring chicken myself. Being old is not a choice; getting set in your ways sort of is.
I’m not going to tell you where to put your files. If you wanted to join us in the 21st century, you would still be able to create folders to organise things inside of the documents library - and those libraries are pinned in the file explorer, so they appear at the top of the list (and subfolders can also be pinned for quick access) - the problem you’re describing is a non-problem in modern versions of Windows.
Really? because I recently read a post by a guy who was doing this and had a bit of a panic because he had lost track of the folders.
But admit that at no point did I accuse Windows of having caused the problem. I knew the file relocation was because of some mistake I had made, and was only looking for a program that would help me if/when I did something similar again in the future.
For what it’s worth, I’ve often wished windows had the ability to ‘lock’ a directory in place and require something like holding the alt key and dragging to move it somewhere else.
Something, even a dialog box. More than once I didn’t realize I was holding the mouse button or clicked it by accident and moved a random file from one folder to another. Then I’m stuck trying to figure out which file it was and where I put it. Always fun.
I remember back on those days. It got tricky when someone would ask where some file was saved, since a lot of programs saved files in their own directory. Usually (and still now), I’d get lucky by going back to the program, saving a new file and looking to see where it wants to put it.
“My Documents” was really obnoxious at first, but after you get used to it, it is nice to have everything in one spot. In fact, I tell people to save everything in that folder. You can set up whatever hierarchy you want, but it’s a whole lot easier to find stuff when it’s all in one spot. On top of that, it makes backing up really quick. I know most people don’t do that, but if you keep everything there, all you have to do is right click, drag it to a thumb drive and tell it to copy it. Toss the thumb drive in a drawer and you’ve backed up all the important stuff.
Sure, but i would be willing to bet that most users like you, who are savvy enough to put their files on a different drive, are also savvy enough to know how to set up Windows Indexing to make sure that their files are found by the Search function.
I do the same thing as you. My C drive contains my Windows installation, my programs, and my profiles, but all of my actual documents and important files, as well as my email, are on a different partition of my SSD, and the backups are on different physical drives. I do it for the reason you cited: if anything goes wrong with Windows, i don’t lose anything.***
But when i install Windows on a new computer, one of the first things i do is point the Documents folder at the new location where i’m going to store my files. That way, the files are on a different drive, but they are also still part of the Windows Documents folder, and the Documents library, and they get indexed.
*** Although i haven’t had any problems requiring a re-installation since at least Win XP.
I have a little program called TeraCopy installed on my computer. I probably don’t really need it, but i picked up the habit of using it on earlier versions of Windows, because it’s a more reliable way of copying large files and folders in Windows. It’s often faster than the Windows Explorer copying system, and has error notification and the the ability to pause transfers.
Whenever i drag and drop files or folders, a little dialog box pops up asking me whether i want to move them using Explorer or TeraCopy, or Cancel. This acts as a failsafe against the sort of accidental file and folder movements that you are talking about. It’s saved me from doing that on a number of occasions. The feature is explained on their website:
If i decide to rearrange my folders, and i know that i’m going to be doing a lot of drag-and-dropping, i turn the feature off to save time, but then turn it back on again for regular use.
Even with Spotlight (OS X), I’ve not uncommonly had issues finding folders and files, so I, too, use an indexer called DiskCatalogMaker. The other great thing about it is that I have something like 30 offline hard drives, so once a filled-up drive is indexed, I could pop it out and put it in storage, and then I use Disk Catalog Maker to search my offline drives (which really is its main purpose, though I use it for connected disks, too, when Spotlight is having trouble), as well, something I’m not sure Spotlight is able to do.
Me too. It’s worse still when the folder is on a network share - a subfolder that someone created and has rights to move, they put a load of stuff in it and their whole team starts using it, then one person accidentally drags the whole folder inside another.
Linked spreadsheets break, users weep and wail that ‘IT has lost’ their folder.
I have not read through all the replies, but you did ask about a good backup program. I am glad you are backing up, as can’t remember how many people have come to me in tears because their computer has crashed in one way or another.
My first question is always, “Have backed up?” and usually, with a hangdog look, the answer is “no.”
I have been using computers for 35 years, and as soon as it was possible to backup, have done so. Even back when the the only way was to use 5.24" floppy disks. I had to use up to 40 of them, and had to sit there until one was full to then pull it out and put in a new one, Gah. Bud I did it.
Now that your external HDD is nearly full, either remove some of the old backups, or get a new one. They are very inexpensive for the huge sizes you can get now. Or you can even use a flash drive.
I have used a bunch of programs over the years, many free, but none totally reliable until a few years ago when an excellent one came out. It is not free, but I highly recommend Acronis True Image. It will let you creata b boot CD, it will clone your entire system to another HDD, and the backups are very reliable.
I have had several occasions when something went heywire either win Windows (imagine that?) or a program went missing or got screwed up somehow. Just turned on my external HDD, opened Acronis, and did a Restore. Takes awhile, but once it starts,you can just go and do something else. When done restoring, you are right back where it was before the glitch.
