That is apparent. Maybe since DOS. My vista doesn't even have a formal link to file search. You can't bring up a search window even XP had. You have to type something in a file browser search box and bring up some lousy search function. Took forever to find anything at all. Do linux and mac users share my pain or is this another one of the suck-it-up-windoz-users moment for me, again? :0 :0 :0
Probably you installed Vista wrong. Here is how to properly install it: Vista install in 2 minutes - YouTube.
It's a mixed bag. On Mac OS X there is "Spotlight", which lets you not only search files but search files based on contents. It sounded neat, but I turned it off. It was a big resource hog (both in disk space and CPU time) and worse, when you plug in removable storage like a USB hard disk or memory drive, it immediately pollutes the disk with the Spotlight overhead files.
The easiest way to find files (on Mac/Win/Linux) is to use the command-line "locate" function. On Windows, you will have to install Cygwin and run 'updatedb' the first time to update the database of all file locations (and run this program occasionally to re-update the database). Then, you just type on the command line:
"locate filetolookfor"
and the answers pop out instantly, based on looking them up in the database (not crawling your entire disk).
BTW, Cygwin is the first thing I install on a new Windows installation 
It is the most useful tool overall for making Windows livable and even come close to the built-in functionality of Linux and Mac OS X.
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The Basic Motor Driver: simple, inexpensive motor driver for 1 stepper motor or 2 DC motors
Thanks RuggedCircuits. I'll try out cygwin. The shredder install video didn't help. I have no install CD. The system resides on my hard drive.
I dunno, the search box on the start menu and explorer seems to work well for me (in 7 I avoided vista) ... I personally HATED the xp search, goofy arse dog asking me 20 questions ... its a file yo, just look for it!
one thing that does irk me is the fact windows wont look in root anymore unless your window is already pointed to c:\
In KDE (linux), there is an app that comes up with "Alt + F2", you can type in program names (like firefox and it finds it, starts it). You can also type in "cos(45)=" and you get the result and much more...
The "start menu" only searches for programs, but that option is in the top menu 
Searching for files is easily done in the file manager (It only lacks the capability to do complex regex-matches) or using another program and there's the console of course, which is quicker most of the time. There is a file-name database that includes all system files, so they are almost instantly found if needed.
I'm happy with the way it is and don't really use the windows thing anymore. It is so deliberately limited...
No CD to shred? No problem, here is how to get rid of Vista if you have a hard drive:
wow the shredder hates hard drives. What about laptop hardware drivers only found on windows? If I install linux I'll be in a different type of problem unless I use a desktop to swap out unsupported hardware?
the driver issue is mostly solved ... i am much more confident firing up a linux cd and having all the hardware work than any version of windows
Osgeld:
the driver issue is mostly solved ... i am much more confident firing up a linux cd and having all the hardware work than any version of windows
That is encouraging. Any distros you can suggest?
I lean to the debian side of things, so mint, though I am still on 10 and 11, 12 uses gnome 3 and its ok, but sort of annoying (you can use gnome 2 with a couple mouse clicks, which is a traditional windows32 type UI)
I guess thats my biggest hangup, any of them seem to be using the latest and greatest DM's which I frankly hate, though you may like them
Thank you very much. I thought it was only me.
Do linux and mac users share my pain or is this another one of the suck-it-up-windoz-users moment for me, again?
Actually, things have got much much worse under OS/X Lion. If it wasn't for the inevitable pain, I would downgrade. Under Snow Leopard searching for things (like inside a datasheet) worked in a reasonably logical way. Now, if you open the datasheet and search for Timers a whole lot of possible pages pop up. After finding the one you want, you then search for interrupt (as in ... interrupts within timers). But no. The search re-starts from the top of the document and you get to page 1 where you find that the processor supports interrupts. Well, der.
It's incredibly annoying and frustrating. And then Spotlight doesn't search within apps. But Arduino is an app (really, a folder) with all its libraries "inside" the app. But you can't find HardwareSerial like that. You have to right-click on the app, select "show package contents", and then in the resulting folder you can suddenly search within "the app".
I could go on. And don't get me started about Windows. Even Ubuntu has started hiding all its stuff away under the "don't confuse users with information" guise.
I've had problems with a Windows PC over the last month. At least I got onto Technical Support within 5 minutes. But then they ask me "have you installed any software over the last month?". Well OF COURSE I've installed stuff. Isn't that what you are supposed to do? Or do you just sit with your shiny new PC and not put anything on it? "Oh", they say, "you may have got a virus ... just do a revert-to-factory install". Well, how useful is that? Every time anything goes wrong you just throw away all your documents and apps? Along with all the licenses for copy-protected stuff. Suddenly iTunes says your music "isn't authorized" on this PC. And Photoshop doesn't work. And so on. It's like: "get the customer".
And, get this ... HP told me that I should disable automatic Windows updates because of "some dispute with Microsoft". Apparently the automatic updates were installing video drivers that didn't work with their PCs. So you have a choice now:
- Get automatic updates and your video card stops working; or
- Don't get automatic updates and miss out on security-related things and give control of your PC to hackers
Did I mention it's been a long day?
At least if you don't like your OS you can shove it in the shredder. If your computer manufacturer fracked you, you're in a bad spot. Not very long ago there was a bad design in NVidia's GPU. The packaging was not well designed to compensate for thermal expansion and connections broke when heated during reasonable use. Few laptop manufacturers stood up to defend their names and offered extended warranty (like a year) but that didn't include Lenovo. My wife's Lenovo broke shortly after our purchased extended warranty expired (about a few month). We tried everything and found out it was the GPU. Got a service package for $150 and got the darn thing fixed. I'm still uncertain when the fix-up may break. Maybe I was too nice to her to have got a dock for her laptop that further obstructed cooling and it broke because it sat on the dock all day. Anyway, when the hardware is a pile of poop, you keep wondering why you even want a computer.
..., you keep wondering why you even want a computer.
That is simple to answer: We desperately need computers to solve problems we wouldn't have without computers!
liudr:
Not very long ago there was a bad design in NVidia's GPU. The packaging was not well designed to compensate for thermal expansion and connections broke when heated during reasonable use.
Funny you should mention that. The PC in question that is failing has an NVidia graphics card. It is one of those "compact" designs where the monitor, processor, disk drives etc. are all together in a thin box. The problem tends to happen in the afternoon when the house gets warmer, and when it has been on for a while. The symptoms are the screen flickers and goes black, and a message pops up about an NVidia error communicating with the graphics card. Despite all this overwhelming evidence of a hardware problem the tech support guy leads me through an hour of stuff about checking what software I have installed, whether I have a virus, what version of the graphics card driver I have and so on.
Does it get better if you hit it with some ice spray?
You are the guy with a unclear history of encountering computer virus? At least that's what the tech thought Funny this NVidia problem happened to us both, small world. And no madworm, once the damage is done, it can't be reversed. The connections are broken physically like yanking cords too hard and eventually stressing them out, only on a smaller scale. If you were talking about getting an apple clone to boot your illegally copied games on a hot summer afternoon with only electric fans, yeah, that ice spray would go long way. I wish I had that, I wish such thing existed back then 8)
liudr:
Maybe since DOS. My vista doesn't even have a formal link to file search. You can't bring up a search window even XP had.
Since Vista, MS has changed key areas that technical people prefer. To offset this they have made a better cmd environment. I think it is just their overreaction to Linux kinda like Windows Metro is to what the iPad is doing. Windows 10 will probably be marketed as, "includes advanced features experts prefer!"
For the interim I recommend using a lite utility called FileSearchEX. It'll let you search files and folders in a way you're familiar with and about 10x faster. When I switched all my home PC's over to Windows 7, I had a freak out buyer's remorse feeling when I could not find something in my source files. Now I'm cool.
I'll say one thing for Windows 7 (just the one). When I had problems with the PC, and I spoke to their technical expert, he kept telling me to click on the Start button and then in the search field just above it type "system" or "device" (or whatever). The "search within apps" usually brought up the exact app (or control panel) he wanted and it let him direct me to this-or-that without a lot of "click on Start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, scroll down to xxx" and so on. So that part was pretty neat.
liudr:
The shredder install video didn't help. I have no install CD. The system resides on my hard drive.
Thermite. ]