Friday, May 16, 2014

Wrong search order in Windows 8.1 Start menu

I have been using Windows 8.1 now for a little more than half a year, and I can safely say that compared to Windows 7, I still can not come up with one single thing I like better. Take search from within the (horrible) start menu. In Win7, bring up the start menu and type some text related to the document you want to open - voilla, chances are that the document you wanted is among the top 5 hits displayed.

Problem: In Win8 (updated to version 8.1 by now), you can also search from the start menu - by default searching "Everywhere". You only get the upper two documents it finds, which are mostly files you have not touched for years. Press the Win-F key instead to search through your files, and you end up with a screenful of ancient files you haven't used since Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem.

Workaround: My best workaround is to use following key combo instead: Win-E, then Ctrl-E (I only use the mouse when I am forced to, luckily at least keyboard control works pretty well in Win8) Now you can type your search term and instantly get proper search results from inside good old Windows Explorer. The Win-E key combo brings up Explorer in My Computer (if you haven't changed the default), then Ctrl-E places you in the search field in the upper right corner. It is uglier than the Win-F charm, but much more charming.

So why, Microsoft, can't you let Explorer serve these results even to the Win-F file search mechanism? Man do I miss Win7.

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