What a shame
I like typing "depends" or "computer management" in the start box - because you can't find anything in the menu anymore - and having it fire up web pages for adult daipers and IT service companies
Microsoft is experimenting with taking Search out of Cortana and making it more Mac-like in the newest Windows 10 build. Searching currently is funnelled through the Cortana UI, whose emblem, appropriately enough, is a black hole. Cortana bungs together many things besides search – tasks and notes and even bots. Cortana is …
"It seemed redundant since there's a search box at the bottom of the start menu just above the start button"
...not in our build of Windows 10 Home there isn't. It's Cortana or nothing. I've switched off (ok, _hidden_ which is the best you can achieve in Home edition!) Cortana so there's no other way to search the damned programs menu!! God damn you Microsoft!
Give us what we REALLY want: the ability to TURN CORTANA OFF COMPLETELY.
I think I have a response / MS quote to the above. While it refers to a skype, where MS introduced (yet another) new, useless and time-wasting "feature", trying to make you "befriend" as many strangers as possible, their response is brilliant, because:
a) it applies to any concern / request on MS application, OS or other
b) sums up the MS "f... you!" attitude:
///////////////////////
I am sorry to say this, but the discover contacts is an added feature of the new Skype application. The purpose of this, is for you to be able to easily add contacts on Skype.
I hope this information helps.
Regards,
///////////////////////
Sounds familiar?
p.s. to defend MS, they're no better, or worse, than any other Mega-Corporation in their approach (Google, Apple, etc.). Once you're their bitch, you play the bitch part. I hope this information helps.
This post has been deleted by its author
In the past I used "everything" (yes, that's the name of the software), but I found I couldn't be arsed to narrow the search their way, so I moved to ultrasearch, seems as fast, but....uhm... I meant, Windows-based utilities, sorry! But I don't know if they work on W10, I'm a w10refusenik...
"Why can't they bring back Windows XP search?"
Because cloud and AI is trendy now. Especially those search assistants with girly names.
There are many things in Windows which could have been improved. For example, the humble File Explorer could have been revamped into the likeness of Total Commander. Two panes side by side, full filepath visible. Display useful information instead of silly stuff such as 'Ratings'.
Especially those search assistants with girly names.
Curious they didn't choose male names like Kevin, Ralph, Juan...then again. As for the cheesey, doe-eyed Cortana images, Microsoft ought to be ashamed of themselves. I suppose at least there's few if any Cortanas and Siris in the the real world, but girls named Alexa might be well pissed off. I hear the name Adolf isn't used much these days, and that begins with A - how about it Amazon?
And what male-ish name could Google use? "Okaygoogle" is just such a shite name, you have to wonder how far up their own arses Google's staff are to believe that people were going to use that. I suggest they rename their "assistant" something more of a persony sort og noun. Like Sgrooge.
I'm using Start10 to get my Win7 look and feel back. Take a look here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HQtrbXXy_pX0GqE0DRaOIeu_7t0zRC24/view?usp=sharing
Notice the search bar says "Search Files and Folders", that's all it does!
I've sinkholed about 10 of M$ built in slurp addy's in my Host file, but some of their crap still gets through so I've found their secret hidden files and love spending time filling them with random crap (have to boot Linux to do this) to mess up the encryption hash. My view point is that what ever they think they can backdoor slurp will taste like shit when I get done with it!
Some do, they are getting more and more so because M$ has come to the realization that people where doing so.
But not all LocalHostServices are.
M$ is wise to people breaking their slurp and are just hard coding the IP addy in the routine itself, which lends it self to be sinkhole at my network server (lan) before it gets to the (wan).
This is why this machine is on the Insider Fast Ring running a bit of WireShark.
Just finished updating to build 17046, time to boot up Linux and trash some more hash's.
The pity of this is that it seems only us techie types are pissed off about this type stuff (data slurping). Most non-techies don't seem to give a husky rat's ass about it. They figure "let them slurp" and I'll get some ads for stuff I REALLY want and others just shrug and say "who cares?".
The old saying about "everyone has their price" is true. It's just that some sell themselves very cheaply.
@AC
Hang on, if you've paid for a copy of the operating system, why on earth should the vendor still be pushing ads at you?
Presumably for the same reason some people pay way over the odds for clothes, shoes and accessories that have the manufacturer's name plastered all over them, meaning they're paying the manufacturer to do the manufacturer's advertising for free. That reason being they're fucking idiots, so the manufacturer can get away with it.
You want me to advertise your clothes? You fucking pay me, you shower of cunts.
You want me to pay for your OS or s/w? You don't get to fling adverts at me, you show of cunts.
ref. free advertising on clothes: I've always been in the habit of covering, ripping off and un-stitching logos from my shell jackets, trousers and shoes, etc, but in this day and age, they f... make the logo a part of garment, i.e. very hard, or impossible to remove. Also, with no logo, you stick out like a sore thumb, and strangers look at you with a smirk, like you're trying to pretend you're NOT a plain-clothes policeman. Also, relatives think of you as a bit... you know... ah, well, my dad's a bit... weird, you know, etc.
Actually, if you wanted 5 seconds of fame, you could buy a non-branded coat, and stitch all the well-known logos, then half the world (and youtube) would be wanting to interview you and see this REVOLUTIONARY idea (while you make a handy click-based revenue). Also, interesting if you could be taken to court for trademark violation by all those brands. Ah, the age of me-wanting-to-be-famous.
Well, got to move these refrigerators...
"By the time your feedback has been processed through SatNad's amazing Cognitive Engines, it'll do the opposite."
Yes, any sensible suggestion relating to UI or any idea with even a hint of common sense gets inverted by MS these days so they do the opposite.
Hmmm, perhaps if everyone bombarded MS with odes praising their fugly flat UI and said they absolutely adored the data slurping and could MS please do more of it, just perhaps they would go back to a sensible UI and stop slurping?
Paris because MS is mostly operating on that level these days.
might as well copy Spotlight's command line mode, called mdfind. mdfind is really fast since your machine's already paid the indexing price.
Well, maybe not an exact copy. mdfind is not the friendliest of utilities when it comes to adding special search criteria, makes gnu find options seem cuddly and warm in comparison, which takes some doing.
Then, again MS being MS, they will certainly hook it up to Powershell super-obtuse syntax* - it seems I have to look up the syntax every time I want to do something as easy as sorting a directory listing by date.
* PS is consistent and I suspect it really flows once you get it, but that hasn't happened yet with me and I really get the impression it's aimed much more at machine consumption than casual user manipulation.
@JLV
PS is consistent and I suspect it really flows once you get it, but that hasn't happened yet with me
I was told that the trick with PowerHell is to wear out your tab key (and/or arrow key? It's been so long I forget), cycling through the choices until you get one that looks like it might be what you want (and often turns out not to be).
To be fair to PowerHell, it makes bash's autocomplete (even if you have bash-completion installed) look a bit crude. To be fair to bash, it's far easier to remember options you use a lot so you can use a letter or two to allow autocomplete to quickly get the answer
I tried PowerHell a couple of times. I hated it with a passion. Maybe I was doing it wrong. I couldn't bring myself to experiment for long enough to see if it was possible to drive it better.
This UI also pops up by hitting the Start button and immediately typing
Oh ffs!
So we start with searching inside start menu, then a full screen search window, then back to the start menu.. but with ads, and now a floating window. They don't know what they're doing! They're continuously changing the main way we interact with the shell, and not for the better.
All this is, is a way to generate bing searches, keep an eye on what we do, make us use Edge, and blast ads at us... when all we're trying to do is start an application or search for a file.
I just want a stable UI that stays out of my way until I need it - and keeps local things on my computer.
Surely at Microsoft they're using something else?
The easiest way to control most of the features you hate (or love) in Windoze is to install Winaerotweaker possibly combined with Spybot Antibeacon to kill telemetry. The solution to Search is Everything. All these are free.
WinAT contains about 200 settings organised by functional area (eg Desktop, Context Menu, Network etc)
Here are some of the features I personally favour:
Disable nearly ALL the "Call Home" features
App lookup in Store
Error Reporting
Web Search
Auto update of Store Apps
Cortana
Windows Ink
Telemetry
and Block all Ads
(although if you're still paranoid, install Anti-Beacon and remember to select all the items on the 2nd tab as well)
Disable driver updates (the ones most likely to bork your system/s)
Disable Windows updates easily (easiest is to set Ethernet connection as "metered") (more detailed version below)
Verbose logon messages (so if something delays shut down or startup you can usually identify the culprit)
Show seconds on your taskbar clock (didn't even know that was possible till I spotted it in WinAT)
Add various to the Context menus eg
File Hashing menu (brilliant if you a regular hash checker, which I am)
"Kill Not Responding Tasks"
Shutdown menu (and change default behaviour)
Power Options
Remove the Shortcut and Shortcut arrow from your desktop icons
More detail on controlling Windows Updates:
Setting Ethernet as metered will halt the update process till you OK it but doesn't control what gets delivered.
For total blockage of Windows Updates, disable the service but if you merely wish to control when it happens and (partially restrict what gets updated)
download wushowhide.diagcab
It treats the update process as a troubleshooter but don't let that deter you.
Run it when you know updates are available. Choose the "Hide Updates" option when its finished checking for updates. Tick those you do NOT want, Close the "troubleshooter".Then permit the update in the normal way.
For even tighter control (pro users and up only) use gpedit
/admin templates/windows components/windows update/configure automatic updates
click enabled and choose "2 - Notify for download and auto install"
you almost return control of the Windows update process to where it used to be pre W10
As for Everything, I cannot figure out why Microsoft hasn't bought him out.
It's genuinely a life changer for anyone with millions of files on their system (I currently have 7.6 million). It does what you kind of expected file search programs to do before you actually had to use one. i.e. INSTANTLY find all occurrences of relevant matches anywhere on your system. I'd really love to know how he's done it because he's clearly using the technology far better than Microsoft do. Example: I'd read someone raving in similarly favourable terms about it and sceptically thought, yeah, right. I'll try it out not expecting it to deliver.
Installed in seconds. Told me it was indexing my system. I thought fair enough - expected it to take days (like microsoft's indexing) or at least hours. It took less than a minute for my (then) 6.25 million files spread across 16 drives/partitions.
I didn't believe it, so I began to test it. Found files in places I didn't even know existed.
It has vastly improved my file management by helping me to avoid unnecessary duplication and reminding me where I store files relating to arbitrary topics. Who needs the Windows Search joke?
Some variation of the above is now my go-to method of searching for files under Windows. Ever since the search indexer appeared the GUI search has got slower and more useless with each release.
dir is now the fastest way to find a file if you know something about the name. IME, YMMV of course ;-)
Part of me is sad that the bloated UI of windows makes this necessary. Part of me is happy it is still an option!
Here is another scoop that Microsoft has missed!
Behold!!! The Cortana Operating System!
Just think how expandible it could have been with a fully dedicated AI server farm holding the AI and everyday tasks and algorithms to get info and relay that back into speech for the end user.
Microsoft is missing out big time on this! Just imagine pairing and or using a plugin to hool up Cortana with BIG BLUE AI by IBM.... HOLY COW!!!!!!