Earlier today I got zapped by what I considered a “bug” in Firefox 7 (and now today, 8) when I copy and pasted a URL to Bob Tisdale’s blog into a short post this morning. Thanks to a new “feature”, the http:// no longer displays in the address bar in Firefox7:
While the feature is supposed to add the http:// back when copy/paste work is done, it doesn’t always work, hence I made a link in a blog post today without the http:// which prompted a slew of “dead link” complaints.
This “feature” is annoying, and I set out to find a way to solve it. I found it, and thought I would report on it for the benefit of readers and whoever might happen upon this blog via search. Here’s the fix:
- Type about:config in Location (address) bar, press Enter
- Filter for browser.urlbar.trimURLs (or scroll until you find it)
- Right-click or double-left-click on that phrase and toggle it to false
The http:// should then show up again, as seen below:
Now maybe readers can help me with a vexing problem in Windows 7.
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.
Does anyone know of a way to make the Windows 7 search feature only start after pressing Enter? Or maybe add a bit more delay before the search engine starts on is own?
I’ve searched for weeks for a fix, to no avail.
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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/
Wind Blows
REPLY: And this is helpful, how?
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
Faster computer? Kiddding. I don’t know where to turn of the search-ahead feature, but as a workaround, you might try typing your search term in Notepad and then copying it into the search box. A bit of a hassle, but you shouldn’t have to wait as you describe.
@TomB: so that you and others may benefit.
I usually type my search request in notepad first then copy/paste into windows explorer. A hassle but avoids the problem you mention.
I’ll second the recommendation for voidtools – their program Everything Search is terrific. But, while it’s great at filename search, it’s slow at sorting on the other attributes for a long list so trim the list down by using partial names.
You may want to try excluding certain directories or drives from the search ( and it won’t index a network drive or FAT32, only NTFS ). It’s not perfect but I don’t know how I got along without it as I have about 1.5 million files spread across 7 disks and a buttload of partitions.
I’ve had to mount some of them as NTFS paths otherwise I would be out of drive letters.
Thanks for the tip on the Firefox idiotic lack of http://. I fixed mine! thanks again!
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
Anthony and others on System 7,
First, thanks for the Firefox info. I updated it and also experienced these problems. Fixed, thanks to yourself!
On searching in System 7, which I have been on since late March, I was immediately struck by the apparent “dumbing down” of the search functionality available in Windows Explorer in the upper, right-hand corner. GONE was the power to search for just file names! Whatever you type in there is grist for the searching of the innards of every file in however many subfolders lie beneath the nexus of your search! It searches inside every file which lies below the folder you choose, 3 days ago taking 6 hours on an i7 quad-core 940XM extreme running on a 256GB SSD to search about 90GB of data, yielding over 300 files!!!!! And all I wanted were the files that had a 5 character string in their names!!!!
Today I was rewarded by a contract IT employee with what appears to be a satisfactory solution so far.
http://www.ultrafilesearch.com/
I found the file I was looking for in 5.56 seconds. This may or may not be the answer to each user’s specific gripes with file management on System 7, but it does install in Windows Explorer at the folder right click level such that you can do some more sophisticated searching than with the native XP search function.
Just sayin…..
@jeez, close, no cigar. search still takes off if I pause typing more than 1 second.
Not sure what is going on there. I just did another search, just for fun, and it took 1.2 seconds, methinks something is messing with your install.
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.
I second the “Everything” search tool recommendation by 2kevin. This free program is MUCH faster and more flexible than your current choice.
Make sure to disable the startup and systray options since they do not add any utility but do use a minor amount of system resources. A good pass thru the other “options” will help to get it working the way you would like as well.
Here is a review of the program and some comparisons of alternatives in the comments:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-fast-file-search.htm
REPLY: Thanks but no, this doesn’t solve the problem in searching emails. – Anthony
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
I use Everything for HD searches. It works on all versions of Windows. It is small and fast.
From what I Have learned, this may be the default for the Windows default search engine. I am not even sure if it is doing a multiple keyword search or a boolean string search. What I do know is that there is no way within System 7 utilities or settings to affect much of this. Unfortunately, from the research since March, the best things I have found to date, assuming searching emails is a top priority, is Google Desktop Extreme add-in, which might fit the bill. It is of the indexing, not file allocation table et al, paradigm, but you do have some control over what it indexes. And it is Google, after all. Just sayin.
Grep32, of UNIX derivation, if I remember correctly, can also access certain email variants. But it is also an internal string search engine. Useless for strings in file names elsewhere on disks.
William McClenney says:
November 8, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Hmm, McAfee certainly does not like that link William!
“Whoa!
Are you sure you want to go there?
http://www.ultrafilesearch.com/ may be risky to visit.
Why were you redirected to this page?
When we visited this site, we found it exhibited one or more risky behaviors.”
Not saying they are correct but ………
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.
I use the Powerdesk file manager, which comes with an excellent file finder (and is an excellent file manager). Don’t know whether there’s a Windows 7 version (due to my trusty old XP install still working), but it’s very likely.
Anthony
In my windows 7 version of explorer I have google ( I think it was the default) as an innocous one line bar just below the main dialog bar. On the left is the google button that will take you to the search page if you press it, and to its right is the ‘always on’ box where if you type anything in, it will immediately start to find the reference. If you carry on typing, the information in it will automatically change letting you finish the full reference. If you highlight a sentence it will also display in the ‘always on’ box which I also find useful.
They are both useful features and I can’t say I use or was even aware of any special search feature in Windows 7 or Explorer itself.
tonyb
Sorry, Anthony, I missed that additional line. You can try “Agent Ransack” (Free) or it’s big brother FileLocator Pro ($$) which both add text-inside-file searching to the file-name searching I thought you were looking for. Not as fast but it does search file content as well.
http://mythicsoft.com/agentransack/
review of free version here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/free-replacement-windows-search.htm
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…
Try Google Chrome.
I switched from Firefox a few years ago because it has better security based on the way it works and it is faster. Also, the problem you describe does not happen. While the http:// does not show in the URL, here is what happens when you paste:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/08/fixing-the-firefox-missing-http/
Just what you’d expect.
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.