What do I do about this? I keep legal files on my computer; the lawyer asks me to pull up a specific file and I wind up having to scroll down through the entire list because the Search feature doesn’t function. Is there a way I can reactivate it? :mad:
What operating system are you running?
Also, are you searching for files by name, or content?
Windows 7. And I’m looking for the name–the client’s name is usually the first word in the file name.
Even when Win.7 search is active, it is pretty lame.
Download and run the free utility: Agent Ransack.
Basic searches are pretty intuitive, and it has some really advanced functions. I couldn’t do my job without it.
Thanks. 
Agent Ransack seems somewhat fastidious. I set it to search in C:\Users\Doug\My Documents and got a dialog box that said I had given it the wrong directions–or words to that effect. I didn’t know it was so particular about phrasing…
Go to Control Panel -> Indexing Options. (Switch Control Panel to “View by: small icons” if you can’t immediately find it.)
Once you have the “Indexing Options” dialog box open, make sure the folders you keep the data are in the list of “included options.” By default the “Users” folder should be there, and most people keep the data in a sub-folder under Users, so it should be fine. If you use a non-standard folder for data, add that to the list.
If that’s in order and search isn’t working, click on “Advanced,” and click on “Rebuild.” Windows won’t rebuilt the index immediately, but it’ll do it when the computer is idle. It can take hours.
Thanks. I’ll try that.
A great little free program called “Search Everything” that does a much better search:-
http://www.voidtools.com/
OK, I’ll try that, too.
Hey! Thanks! This works much better than Agent Ransack! No protocol, no index required. Found what I wanted immediately. Perfect!