Maeveana,
Windows Desktop Search should be able to search by file name without a problem. Here are some search tips that may help.
If you know the exact file you are looking for you can use the following syntax:
filename:file you are looking for
Example - if you are looking for a file named computerdata.exe you would use the following syntax
filename:computerdata
In the event that the above isn't working for you please provide me with some of the specific file names and types that you are unable to search for by file name. It may help me pinpoint the problem.
Paul Nystrom - MSFT
Hello Maeveana,
You can search successfully on the above by doing the following:
Instead of searching for file:voed, search for file:*voed This places a wild card at the beginning stating that voed could be part of a single "word" and that there could be additional letters/numbers before voed. You can also place a wild card at the beginning and end - telling WDS that there may be additional letters before and after voed. Doing this should reveal results on all of the files you list above.
As for why you are pulling up an Excel file that does not contain your search term, it is likely that the Excel file contains a link to another file that does contain your search term.
To address your question regarding .tif property searches, WDS automatically indexes the metadata of .tif files. You can restrict search results to .tif files using the "ext" keyword in your search. For example,
Searchterm ext:tif
In regard to what it means to index a file type, we simply mean that WDS will index certain "types" of files. For example, .doc, .xls, .pdf are all file types. For files with textual/numerical content (.txt, .doc, .xls), we generally index the full content (up to two megabytes) of the file. For files with media conent, (.gif, .tif, .mpeg) we index only metadata. Some media content files (.pdf for example), can be indexed through the use of certain IFilters.
As for how the actual search routine works, I'll have to check and see exactly how much of that information can be revealed to the public. Perhaps we can post some of it in one of our blogs.
Paul Nystrom - MSFT
