Win8 Search Failure

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I have a flight simulator product (Prepar3D) installed on my Win 8 Pro system. This game uses a configuration file for tuning – the file name is Prepar3D.CFG. When I search for this file, the search fails. The file is actually located in /David/AppData/Roaming/Lockheed Martin/Prepar3D. Why can’t search find this file? I created a shortcut to the file, and searching can find the shortcut – but for some reason, search is ignoring the AppData directories. I am running with administrator rights – so I don’t understand why Windows is hiding this directory from me. Any idea of what is going on? Is there any way to make search, by default, search every location on my system?

David

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Your PC may not be fully indexed. This article may help. remember to fully index your PC will take quite a while the first time.

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Try downloading and using Everything Search . Its much more thorough and faster than Windows search including hidden and protected os files. If the file is on your computer, it will find it.

Jerry

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Another alternative search utility is Agent Ransack http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home
IMHO this works extemely well on WinXP and Win7, and thus allows the Windows indexing system to be disabled if you wish. However, I don’t know if it works on Win8. It’s freeware.

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I can vouch for the Everything program mentioned by Jerry. It works with Windows 8 Pro and is much faster than Windows Search, which can be disabled.

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I leave Windows search on along with Search Everything strictly for the program file search feature when you click on the start orb.

Jerry

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Most likely the .cfg file type is NOT included in the type for Windows to index. In the desktop, open your Control Panel. Type “search” in the search box. Click “Indexing Options”, then click the “Advanced” button, then click the “File Types” tab. Scroll down to see if .cfg is in the list and selected. If it is there and not selected then select it and force Windows to re-build your search index. If it is NOT present, add it using the small box and the bottom and then force Windows to re-build the search index.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks for all the suggestions. First, the system is completely indexed – it has had plenty of time to complete building the index. Second, the .cfg file type is included in the types of files to index. I checked that. (And, when I created the shortcut to the file on my desktop, indexing found that.) Regarding the other index programs, I have used X1 for a long time on my XP system at work – and it works very well. When I moved to Windows 7, I wanted to rely on the built-in indexing system. Same with Windows 8. My guess is that indexing excludes some “system” directories – but that is crazy, at least for the appdata directory. Lots of programs store configuration data there – and it would be nice to index it. I do most of my work on Macs (I have two iMacs and a MacBook Air) and indexing works very well there. My PC is mostly for games – and so that I can bring work home. Ah, Microsoft…..

David

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You can change the folders that are indexed using the same Control Panel applet.

Joe

--Joe

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If you go into and dig down into the indexing options (Users-Modify), you can check AppData and subsequent folders to be included in the search index. Microsoft excludes that particular folder subset by default so it won’t show up in any indexed search results even though the extension is included in types of files to search for.

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Again, thanks for the suggestions.

I modified the indexing configuration to index the appdata directories – and the indexing shows as complete. Search still cannot find the config3d.cfg file. (The file is actually located in /David/AppData/Roaming/Lockheed Martin/.) This directory is market to be indexed. “.CFG” files are included in the index list.

I like to be able to search file contents, but I may just have to try Everything Search – which apparently just searches file names.

David

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Again, thanks for the suggestions.

I modified the indexing configuration to index the appdata directories – and the indexing shows as complete. Search still cannot find the config3d.cfg file. (The file is actually located in /David/AppData/Roaming/Lockheed Martin/.) This directory is market to be indexed. “.CFG” files are included in the index list.

I like to be able to search file contents, but I may just have to try Everything Search – which apparently just searches file names.

David

Did you force Windows to re-build the search index? You can do this by opening Control Panel, typing “search” in the search box, Under Indexing Options select “change how Windows searches”, click on the Advanced button, in the troubleshooting section click the “rebuild” button.

Joe

--Joe

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From the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion (page 35):

The search functionality pulls its results directly from a special Search Index, and as such, the results you see
are not a comprehensive listing of all files on your system. To conduct a more thorough search, you will
need to use the advanced search functionality of File Explorer. Click the Search Box at the top right of File
Explorer, and a range of advanced options will appear under the Search menu in File Explorer’s ribbon.

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