search tool bar please help!

I'm a
teacher who has just replaced my school vaio with vista vgn-bx41xn to a
private
vgn-cr42. I have followed advice to replace the help / support in the
start menu with search as apparantly it has gone
due to the SP1 changes. It worked however the search tool bar that it
gives me
is not the one I used to have, in fact it only gives me a thin Google
based
search which only brings up a fraction of what I know I have on the
computer.
What I'm trying to say - badly I know is that I have transferred all of
my
teaching materials onto my new computer and I want to be able to search
the
whole computer using the search toolbar but it doesn't look like the
old vista
search I did which gives you the name of the file, date modifies, type,
folder
etc also within this search you can modify it to only search for docs,
or video
etc. Now I do know that I can still do this on my new computer however
I have
had to collate all of resources onto one file called sarah I now have
to go
directly into this file on my desktop then in the top right hand area I
can
carry out the search that I am used to carrying out on my old vaio. The
search
everywhere one is useless as I have already said even though I have
gone through
the process of replacing it onto the start menu it just doesn't open up
in the
way the old one did. I hope this makes some sense as I would like to
know that
that I don't have to put everything into this one file forever. I hope
someone reads this that will be able to help!!


--
Sarah 6060

On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:02:58 -0500, Sarah 6060
<> wrote:

>
>I'm a
>teacher who has just replaced my school vaio with vista vgn-bx41xn to a
>private
>vgn-cr42. I have followed advice to replace the help / support in the
>start menu with search as apparantly it has gone
>due to the SP1 changes. It worked however the search tool bar that it
>gives me
>is not the one I used to have, in fact it only gives me a thin Google
>based
>search which only brings up a fraction of what I know I have on the
>computer.
>What I'm trying to say - badly I know is that I have transferred all of
>my
>teaching materials onto my new computer and I want to be able to search
>the
>whole computer using the search toolbar but it doesn't look like the
>old vista
>search I did which gives you the name of the file, date modifies, type,
>folder
>etc also within this search you can modify it to only search for docs,
>or video
>etc. Now I do know that I can still do this on my new computer however
>I have
>had to collate all of resources onto one file called sarah I now have
>to go
>directly into this file on my desktop then in the top right hand area I
>can
>carry out the search that I am used to carrying out on my old vaio. The
>search
>everywhere one is useless as I have already said even though I have
>gone through
>the process of replacing it onto the start menu it just doesn't open up
>in the
>way the old one did. I hope this makes some sense as I would like to
>know that
>that I don't have to put everything into this one file forever. I hope
>someone reads this that will be able to help!!

By default Vista out of the box only searches "indexed" locations.
This is normally very limited. You have two choices, either expand
what folders get indexed automatically or when you do ANY search and
you're not sure where on your system the files you're looking for are
located remember:

1. Use advanced search. (quick shortcut Start orb, search-ms), when
the window opens, click on advanced search.

2. Under location change to either computer or Everywhere.

3. VERY important. Remember to check include non indexed and hidden.

4. Specify WHAT you're looking for under name.

Now Vista will literally look everywhere on your computer. It might be
slow depending on how many files you have and the size of the hard
drives and the speed of your computer.

A better approach...

What I do. Create one new master folder. Name it whatever you like,
something like My Stuff. Now create as many sub folders as you like to
organize your files. Can be just a few or hundreds, even thousands of
sub folders. If you haven't already put ALL your data files here.
That's all your written documents, notes, images, songs, whatever.

Caution: This assumes you know how to modify ALL the applications you
use to put files you create or modify in this new location under the
appropriate sub folder. So if you use Word all your text documents
might go in a sub folder named my Word documents. Your Excel
spreadsheet documents would go in some sub folder named spreadsheets
and so on.

Not ONE time set up search to look only in this master folder called
My Stuff or whatever you decide to call it.

1. Bring up Advanced Search.

2. Click Search Tools, then Modify Search Locations.

3. A Windows Explorer like window opens. Add the master folder to
included locations.

Now next time you search only your files placed under this master
folder in their own sub folders will be searched, if you truly put
EVERYTHING you create here, you'll quickly find anything and Vista
will bypass looking in the junk filled Windows folders and all the
other folders you would never put your data files in.

For some reason, MS kind of hid the main search window that works quite
well. Use your Windows Key / F to bring it up. I recommend you drag a
shortcut to your desktop for this window. Do that by dragging the
magnifying glass icon in the top bar to your desktop. I also like to right
click that and "pin to start menu" as well as drag it to my quick launch.
Now you can access the search window a number of ways. Use the Advanced
search option to specify special searches. If you have a search you perform
a lot you can save the search which will then create a folder like option
within the search window to access whenever you want. Hope this helps...

Jerry


"Sarah 6060" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I'm a
> teacher who has just replaced my school vaio with vista vgn-bx41xn to a
> private
> vgn-cr42. I have followed advice to replace the help / support in the
> start menu with search as apparantly it has gone
> due to the SP1 changes. It worked however the search tool bar that it
> gives me
> is not the one I used to have, in fact it only gives me a thin Google
> based
> search which only brings up a fraction of what I know I have on the
> computer.
> What I'm trying to say - badly I know is that I have transferred all of
> my
> teaching materials onto my new computer and I want to be able to search
> the
> whole computer using the search toolbar but it doesn't look like the
> old vista
> search I did which gives you the name of the file, date modifies, type,
> folder
> etc also within this search you can modify it to only search for docs,
> or video
> etc. Now I do know that I can still do this on my new computer however
> I have
> had to collate all of resources onto one file called sarah I now have
> to go
> directly into this file on my desktop then in the top right hand area I
> can
> carry out the search that I am used to carrying out on my old vaio. The
> search
> everywhere one is useless as I have already said even though I have
> gone through
> the process of replacing it onto the start menu it just doesn't open up
> in the
> way the old one did. I hope this makes some sense as I would like to
> know that
> that I don't have to put everything into this one file forever. I hope
> someone reads this that will be able to help!!
>
>
> --
> Sarah 6060