Fixing the Firefox 7 and 8 missing http://

I gave up on any search function within a windows operating system long ago. My search of choice is to install this http://www.voidtools.com/

Disable Search Suggestion Popups. As you type in the Search Box, Windows 7 makes suggestions based on past queries by pulling past queries from the Registry. You can disable this in the Local Group Policy by enabling User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer | Turn Off Display Of Recent Search Entries In the Windows Explorer.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.10.77windows.aspx?sid=5cbb6c33dee24e04beee633c420481a2

@TomB: so that you and others may benefit.

I think this behaviour might depend on the version of Internet Explorer. In IE9 I think the option you might be looking for is in “manage Add-ons”; Internet Options, Programs tab, Manage Add-ons, select Search Providers type… once you have selected a search provider (say Bing or Google or whatever is in the list) there is an option called search suggestions which you can enable or disable down near the bottom.
Hope this helps.

REPLY: No, this is HD search, not net search, but thanks – A

The only thing I have been able to find that might help is to disable ‘Find partial matches’, then use the * symbol as a wildcard if needed, like the good old DOS days.
To disable ‘Find partial matches’, while in Explorer, press the alt key to show the menu, then select Tools | Folder options, then the Search tab, and in the How to search section, uncheck Find partial matches.

This apparently solves your problem;
http://www.fettesps.com/how-to-disable-explorers-search-suggestion-history-in-windows-7/
REPLY: Thanks but no, search still executes on a partial word if I pause more than one second – Anthony

Odd.
I use the search al lot, mainly for file names (by adding the “file:” prefix). There are plenty of other filter types, but that is most useful. More importantly, even if the serach has started, it restarts if I add more letters.
I do find that it sometimes just fails, especially for files in the same directory. I may be using it wrong, but if I have files with “CU’ in the name in a folder, and type in file:CU it should get them, but it fails.
I have Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, and I rarely update (could be the reason). I have an i7 quad processor, that may help. I also do not index the files, but I have no idea if that makes any difference.

Registry accesses may give a hint where to modify parameters directly. RegMon helped me a lot to find keys where programs store internal parameters which were not directly accessable from the user interface. In W2000 (I know…) for example ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Full-Text-System’ (don’t know what it means) has some search parameters where I would try to change the key ‘When to Search Delay’ to a very big number…

2kevin says:
November 8, 2011 at 10:43 pm
I gave up on any search function within a windows operating system long ago. My search of choice is to install this http://www.voidtools.com/
Thanks 2kevin! “Everything” search is an amazing software! Could hardly believe the seach speed.

@Pete H
I downloaded and installed UltraFileSearch without any issues.I have Kaspersky AV installed.

@Anthony
“I use the new search feature a lot in Windows Explorer. Problem is the search engine takes off and starts a search often before I can complete a finished phrase or word set. This prevents any new input until the initial search completes. Or if I make a mistake in typing, same problem. Ditto when searching for emails in Windows Live Mail.”
Interesting. You’re not getting good advice probably because you have a problem that others can’t duplicate so they don’t understand what you want.
I can continue modifying the search term after the search begins. The priority is low so it can get a bit slow in accepting new keystrokes if there are a lot of higher proirity tasks at that instant competing for and winning the bids for a CPU timeslice but it definitely does not wait for a search to complete before changing the contents of the search term window.
I’d guess you’ve got something going on that is blocking normal preemption due to very high priority. Device drivers are the usual culprits and in this case I’d suspect the mass storage device driver. Do you have anything that is out of ordinary in way of the mass storage that is being searched? Perhaps something you added onto the system yourself?
REPLY: The behavior is common to all Windows 7 machines I have, with differing hardware. I have thousands of files on my machines, so search takes a long time. On a virgin machine, it acts as you describe. – Anthony

Thanks for a very useful fix – I hated the truncated URL’s in Firefox – they don’t look like URL’s at a glance, never mind the problem pasting them.
I reckon that there are layers of software such as operating systems and browsers (to name but two) that have matured as far as they usefully can – further change is pointless and often counter-productive.

Why would you need the http:// ?

Filesearchex works wonderfully for me. See link http://download.cnet.com/FileSearchEX/3000-2248_4-75165408.html Windows 7 search functions are pathetic.

Thanks for the Firefox tip! Done!
As for searching in Windows 7, I believe the behavior you describe is by design. Windows starts searching as quickly as it can to speed of the searches. HOWEVER, it should never stop you from continuing to type in the search box. There are three main reasons why that would happen: 1) Your disk is not indexed( or the index is corrupt), or 2) You’re searching in too big a space, or 3) Your computer is a “dog” :).
Given an adequate computer, you can fine tune your searches rather easily and not have the problem that you are describing.
Click on the “Start menu globe” and then type “index” in the search box – without the quotes. When the results come up, select “Indexing Options”. You can tailor where you are going to search by clicking on “Modify”. Make sure you select the “Users” folder. Once you have tuned the folders click on “Advanced” and select “Rebuild Index”. Then leave the machine on and walk away, it will take a while…. Don’t let the machine sleep until it’s done. Now even thought the searches still begin as you type, the computer should not show you the processing Icon and stop you from typing. This all assumes that while searching in Explorer you are looking in your whole disk or in your whole User folder. By design, Explorer only searches within the Folders or Libraries it is looking in at that moment.
Also, when searching you can select “Type:” from the filters (in blue below the search box) and the select something like “email”. Then when you type your search text it will only show you emails, not other files. This will NOT speed up the search though, it just narrows the selection.
Best,
J.

James Reid says:
November 8, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Your suggestion helped me, James. I recently “had to” install IE9 from IE7. (i.e. I didn’t want to, but from a hurried shut down the install got started from an errant mouse click.)
With IE9, I started to get too many suggestions from queries that I would make and that contained the web site name when all I wanted was the web site that I had been going to for years.
Thanks, Warren

As far as Firefox goes, I have yet to have an issue with copying and pasting with the http:// hidden. It has worked as intended for me each and every single time so personally I won’t be changing the settings, but all the power to you for finding a fix.
As for the windows search issue, I would suggest Linux 😉

Funny, Chrome wisely abandoned the silly http:// on the screen in version 2 or so about 2 or 3 years ago. People were annoyed that the http:// beginning also disappeared when the URL was copied and then pasted, but this was fixed – the http:// was returned when properly used via clipboard – in version 3 or so, also 2+ years ago.
I am sure that the elimination of redundant and always the same http:// is the right direction and I guess that Firefox will ultimately fix the clipboard behavior if it hasn’t been fixed yet.

Like you, I’m sure, I find the Mac! PC!! Mac!!! idiots tiresome. I use both platforms daily. But sometimes I need to search the PC for something, and then I’m like MAC!!!!!!!!!

@Lubos Motl
Even if all copy and paste bugs are fixed (and it is hard to catch all variations of url editing – you would not, after all, want http:// prepended to a urlbar that has something like w foo or g bar [I bind the w to wikipedia for quicksearch, or g to google]), and they have fixed a lot of them.
I am still opposed to the idea of hiding protocol. It teaches people who aren’t copying, but just typing out a site, to skip http:// – this screws up a lot of autolinking in web forms out there.
And protocol is still printed for ftp and https, so, why not include for http? Are those 7 characters really that much of a waste of space?

@ Anthony:
Slight edit needed to your post.
“…I found it, and though I would report on it for the benefit of readers…”
Should be “thought”, not “though”. I had to re-read it 5 times to figure out what was meant to be said.

If all that stuff checks out by the way, may i suggest executing the search at a folder level.
For instance, if you are looking for a picture, you navigate to the folder where you have your pictures , or the root of your website, if you are searching that, and use the search there.
( You are organizing your files aren’t you? )

Google Desktop is no more as they’ve already discontinued it http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/
For Windows 7 searches also check out these tips http://windowssecrets.com/woodys-windows/getting-the-most-from-windows-search-part-1/ and http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/getting-the-most-from-windows-search-part-2/ in addition to the recommended fixes above.
Dragging the link in Firefox to another program will probably lose the protocol but copy and paste should not. No issues with v7/8 on my XP.

All I can say is I ran into this at work (still XP at home), and thought WTF? and then served up all my favorite four-letter words at the idiot project manager for Windows 7 at MS who directed the layout and features for Windows 7 and changed a perfectly (almost) intuitive and VERY user-friendly XP and came up with that abortion.
For one thing, it took a LONG time to find the bloody thing.
I LOVED the simple [Windows]>F hot key in XP. Still do!
It seems every new director of such things has to stamp his imprimatur on the entire emterprise, not knowing when to leave well enough alone.
If it ain’t broke…

beng says:
Ric, you’re a fellow old-schooler! This is composed on an NT4 OS, dual-booted to W95. I’d still use the W95 except Firefox 2.0 won’t run on it. I actually have Linux as a third boot, but can’t get the TCPIP protocol to work on the internet (it DID work w/my previous internet provider).
So you guessed it, I’m cheap. BTW, I DO have a decent (free) antivirus, and I’ve never, ever had any virus.

Running an outdated OS that is not supported with security updates is a very bad idea. For Microsoft OSes no one who cares about security in the least should still be running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT or 2000 (and all variants there of) anymore as security updates have been discontinued from Microsoft. However, Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft until 2014. If you are running an end of life OS, I highly recommend upgrading your computer or getting a new one to run Windows 7 or Windows XP at the very least. Windows XP will run on very old hardware with minimum requirements being a 233 MHz CPU, 64 MB of RAM (128MB recommended) and 1.5 GB of available hard disk space. Otherwise if you must keep your older computer hardware use a current Linux Distro that will run on your hardware.
I am cheap too and Microsoft Security Essentials is a free and very capable AV for Windows XP, Vista and 7.

I agree with BioBob and Elftone – Agent Ransack is the best
http://mythicsoft.com/agentransack/
I am not sure about Windows 7, but in Windows XP and Vista, the built in search only searches those files and directories that Microsoft thinks you should be allowed to search. One reason I like Agent Ransack is because it allows you to search almost the entire drive. (It still won’t search certain “active” files .. like the registry.) For example, in Windows XP, when searching for files named desktop.ini
Explorer Search – 131 files
Agent Ransack – 215 files
Same search in Vista (after first moving a recursive directory to a temporary location to break the recursion)
Explorer Search – 7 files
Agent Ransack – 460 files
Agent Ransack – 1,444 files if recursion is allowed
Unfortunately, Vista 64 was designed to break many pre-Vista programs, such as Agent Ransack. Providing directories with infinite recursion is only one of the problems. (BTW, I had to use system restore to fix the temporary move because “Edit/Undo Move” failed. After that, the recursion was limited and no longer infinite.)
In addition, Agent Ransack allows me to search the browser cache.

I’ve tried to find a solution to the search-as-you-type feature, but can’t.
The only suggestion I can make is that you switch off the indexing option, that way the search-as-you-type will be slower. Of course the trouble with that is the search itself when you hit enter will be slower.

One other thing – the ‘new” windows search can also hog the process – resulting in a pc that runs like a dog.
Open Task Manager (right clikc on the task bar and select Task Manager)
Select the PROCESS tab
look down in the bottom left corner – check the box
click once on the title Bar to ensure that it is sorted alphabetically (or reverse alphabetically)
Trigger a RE-INDEX of the search tool
Locate the Processes for :
searchfilterhost.exe
searchindexer.exe
searchprotocolhost.exe
NOTE this will disappear and reappear as the search engine does its thing – patience; as long as the re-index is running they will appear !
Select each on – right click select
DOUBLE CHECK YOU HAVE THE CORRECT Process selected
Set the priority to BelowNormal or even Low
Close task manager
This WILL SLOW DOWN INDEXING – BUT will stop the indexer from hogging all the processor power to the detriment of what you want to do – it has been known for the Index to steal ALL AVAILABLE PROCESSOR TIME
If you get ACCESS DENIED messages – log in as ADMINISTRATOR or find your local friendly nerd !