Computer help needed

mjd

mjd

Veteran
Joined
4 Sep 2020
Local time
3:17 AM
Messages
2,934
Location
Chicago, IL - Midwest USA
Think of this as a way to spare Bill Gates' life and keep me out of prison. LOL

My Windows Explorer search feature is not working. I can see the filename in front of me but the search doesn't show it.

I have thousands of files I'm trying to organize and it's laborious when I can just grab them all with the "search" feature.

Please help me stay out of prison. I don't look pretty in orange. ;-)
 
this finds files better than any MS offering
voidtools
(check the Search | Advanced search tab)

but I don't think it does a drag&drop type interface - perhaps if you explain a bit more what you want to do we could come up with a good utility.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjd
CookieMonster said:
this finds files better than any MS offering
voidtools
(check the Search | Advanced search tab)

but I don't think it does a drag&drop type interface - perhaps if you explain a bit more what you want to do we could come up with a good utility.
Click to expand...
I signed up for a digital design group. Member share all types of graphics. Most of the individual files are named correctly (but some are not). Right now, I have about 11,000 files I need to sort. I want to be able to search them and bulk move them to the correct folders. That way, I would only be left with a few hundred to rename versus all of them.

Let me know if screenshots would help if I didn't explain this well enough.
 
What about typing the search word in the Files section (the small search bar on the top right in Files or Pics)? I find that feature easier than messing with the "genuine" Windows search which tends to skip some files and/or include unnecessary stuff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjd
Hemulen said:
What about typing the search word in the Files section (the small search bar on the top right in Files or Pics)? I find that feature easier than messing with the "genuine" Windows search which tends to skip some files and/or include unnecessary stuff.
Click to expand...
Makes sense, doesn't it? That's not working. I even downloaded an app that will find search terms on the whole system and it's not finding most of them which leads me to believe it's some kind of indexing problem. <shrugs>
 
did a little playing with Search Everything ref'd above. it does not do drag&drop, but it does to highlight/cut/paste.

I'm still a bit confused - you mention file names and you mention 'tags' - depending on the source, the tags may be a separate database entry and not contained in the image file itself. 'tags' would be in the IPTC info block - but I seriously doubt every uploader 'completes' that info.

MS File Explorer does not access 'tags'

if you want to highlight+cut+paste (to a new directory) the Search Everything utility will do that
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjd
CookieMonster said:
did a little playing with Search Everything ref'd above. it does not do drag&drop, but it does to highlight/cut/paste.

I'm still a bit confused - you mention file names and you mention 'tags' - depending on the source, the tags may be a separate database entry and not contained in the image file itself. 'tags' would be in the IPTC info block - but I seriously doubt every uploader 'completes' that info.

MS File Explorer does not access 'tags'

if you want to highlight+cut+paste (to a new directory) the Search Everything utility will do that
Click to expand...
OK, I'll try to explain it again. Sorry I didn't convey it well.

First, I shouldn't have used the word "tag' because what I was referring to is NOT the "tag" we use when using keyword searches.

Secondly, let's say I want to search the word "adorable". I want it to return ALL instances of that word in a filename. It is NOT doing that.

It might occur to someone to just sort by name so all the "adorable"s will show up together. The problem is the filename may have some leading characters (i.e. designer's name or number or whatever) so an alpha sort is useless.

I think I'm going to do a hard reset to see if it fixes the issue.

Thanks to you and Hemulen for your ideas on how to get this sorted.
 
Search Every will do that.
Win10 File Explorer does that on my hp laptop.

navigate to D:
search block "2021"
returns files with leading and trailing characters - any file name that contains the string 2021.

if you're an old DOS type - the wild card characters operate much differently in Win10

all these files are on your local drive - right? funny things happen dealing with network drives.

also check Control Panel | Indexing Options to be sure something odd is locking out searches. note that indexing rafts of files can take many hours before it runs to completion and "works as advertised"
 
CookieMonster said:
Search Every will do that.
Win10 File Explorer does that on my hp laptop.

navigate to D:
search block "2021"
returns files with leading and trailing characters - any file name that contains the string 2021.

if you're an old DOS type - the wild card characters operate much differently in Win10

all these files are on your local drive - right? funny things happen dealing with network drives.

also check Control Panel | Indexing Options to be sure something odd is locking out searches. note that indexing rafts of files can take many hours before it runs to completion and "works as advertised"
Click to expand...
No. I have them on an external hard drive dedicated for my design files. However, the issue happens when the files are on my local drive also.

I'm aware of the indexing times so I usually run it overnight when I'm sleeping. Still no luck though.

I'll try Search Every and cross my fingers, toes and eyes. ;-)

Thanks!
 
CookieMonster said:
Search Every will do that.
Win10 File Explorer does that on my hp laptop.

navigate to D:
search block "2021"
returns files with leading and trailing characters - any file name that contains the string 2021.

if you're an old DOS type - the wild card characters operate much differently in Win10

all these files are on your local drive - right? funny things happen dealing with network drives.

also check Control Panel | Indexing Options to be sure something odd is locking out searches. note that indexing rafts of files can take many hours before it runs to completion and "works as advertised"
Click to expand...
I downloaded the app but the problem persists. Maybe I'll do a complete recovery this weekend to see if that helps.

Thanks to all of your for your suggestions!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom