Comment by fpgaminer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fpgaminer | Hacker News Reader

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See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comforting to know everyone is having similar problems ... though still just as bewildering as to why it's happening in the first place.

It's weird that there are no great "magic search" tools on any desktop environment I've used. Windows 7 is close, but doesn't include any fancy results (can't have it do quick math, etc). Mac's Spotlight gets everything right, except it won't open a new window if I type, say, "firefox". It'll just pull up a window I already have open (no way to change that behavior without weird hacks). Unity's gets confused and breaks too often. Cinnamon's sorts results alphabetically. Gnome's is fairly close to ideal, though it forgets launch history too quickly (if I type "calc" and select LibreOffice's Calc just _once_ it'll start showing that first, instead of Calculator which I want 95% of the time when typing "calc").

Type 'upda' to get Windows Update, but instead it shows Java's updater.

Type 'updat' and all search results disappear completely.

Type 'upd' and now it shows Windows Update but not the Java update.

Type fast and get different results than if you type slow.

Type the same thing a third time and get different results than the first two times.

And now Cortana keeps bugging me with lame notifications. How do I turn this off?

I just played this game a few minutes ago with Device Manager. I have developed a habit that when I search the Start menu, I slowly type one letter at a time and wait for the result each time.

Just right click the windows menu next time, everything you could want is in there.

I think that explains what the programmers who wrote Cortana were thinking. The reasoning must have been as follows:

- The user types 'upd' and pauses. The most likely thing the user wants is Windows Update, so show that.

- The user continues typing (typed 'upda' so far). The user doesn't want Windows Update otherwise they would have picked it earlier. So show Java's updater.

- The user keeps typing (typed 'updat' so far). Well the user didn't select Windows Update or Java's updater, so who knows what they want. Don't show anything until we get more letters.

The logic works unless you're dealing with human beings who don't pause and pick the one correct action at every point.

> The logic works unless you're dealing with human beings who don't pause and pick the one correct action at every point.

I think that includes all human beings. None of us pay full attention at all times. Who did the PM think they were targeting?

> I think that includes all human beings. None of us pay full attention at all times.

That's exactly what I meant though I said it in an ironic way.

That doesn't explain this: https://imgur.com/a/Jlhno

Speed of typing seems to matter for 'downloa' but not for 'download' or 'downloads', see my other post for the full non-story and two possible fixes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15766965

Same with Spotlight search on macOS:

Type "pho", it suggests Photoshop

Type "phot", it suggests Photo Boot

Type "photo", it suggests Photoshop again

I get different results on this too but to the same effect. At least macOS still gives you all options underneath whereas Windows 10 will just not show you anything sometimes

I don't think its that weird?

Photoshop most started application so it offers it at 'pho'

yet you keep typing another char, so apparently its not photoshop you search for, maybe its the number 2 app that is required, lets offer photo booth.

Ah wait the user keeps typing, well i only got two proper options, let suggest option number 1 again.

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years.

https://everything.en.softonic.com/

"Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Despite your glowing review, I cannot bring myself to download and install anything from sites like these. I'm sure it's a great program.

Everything's site is voidtools.com

https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

Indeed, umatrix just blocks the whole page from loading by default. So something seems off :-)

You can get it via ninite.com

In the "Others" section

My bad, I think I grabbed the wrong URL and can't edit the post any more. vinw's comment referencing Void Tools is the correct url.

I have been using Everything for a long time and would gladly recommend it to anyone trying to search their files on windows. It even supports regex searches. It is one of the very few softwares I miss when using linux. The search part of everything is lighting fast.

Everything is such a hidden gem. Simple and lightning fast, I can't imagine using a computer without it now. Compared to it, Windows's search is worse than garbage. There have been more than one occasions where Windows can't even find a file in a folder even when I have typed in the exact file name.

I wonder why windows can't have something like Everything integrated in explorer? It surely can't be that hard to index file names when you're the OS yourself...

There's a feedback item for it. Upvote!

For Linux users I can recommmend FSearch, which is inspired by Everything Search. http://www.fsearch.org/

Logged in just to upvote you .. Everything is the fastest search tool I have ever used. It is ridiculously good. From memory, it doesn't index files, just reads the File Allocation Table.

You have to wonder: how is it that a single developer can build something so much better than a behemoth like MS? They should be seriously embarrassed.

We aren't the customers. The advertisers who pay to show up as Search Results are the customers. That's why.

We are the customers though, that's why it's so tragic a fall. I spent something like $200 for Windows. Microsoft doesn't get to use that excuse here. It's not some free service like Gmail; Windows is paid. See also the OneDrive advertisement fiasco.

I think Windows started going downhill for two reasons: When Microsoft coopted the desktop version to add mobile-oriented features (Windows 8), and then when they coopted it to start cross-selling their cloud and Web services.

Thanks very much for the info. I've been headscratching about how to read ZFS quickly, now I have some ammunition to convince the ZFS devs with!

I remember one time Everything was mentioned someone also mentioned Wox but a reply said the combo launcher+Everything is not as good as separate tools.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13738309

Everything pairs well with AstroGrep!

I was reading the discussion on my mobile, but opened up the page on my desktop (where I am logged in), just to say that this is an amazing little tool! Search is blazing fast. I have been a happy user for the past 5 years.

This program comes with, well, you might describe it as a bit of an easter egg:

https://imgur.com/a/TZVw8

(Screenshots; SFW)

Everything is truly a gem that makes Windows usable. I use it more than Explorer.

I can highly recommend Alfred (https://www.alfredapp.com/) for Mac. Best system-wide search that I've used and you can even create workflows!

One app search engine I deal with: type “remo” and hesitate a heartbeat. System fills “remove”, meanwhile I finish “ve<enter>” and the system searches for “removeve”.

That same thing (Calc/Calculator) happens to me every day. haha. I never thought about how that is probably affecting a ton of users.

oh my, I'm not alone! ;)

Anybody knows how to get that "calc" thing working as expected?

Have the same problem all the time, one time it was too much and I just uninstalled Libreoffice (of course in the end I just had to reinstall it)

surely that's a reason to turn off the stupid microsoft search, not to get rid of libreoffice

We're talking about searching in the Activities view of GNOME 3. I don't think it can be turned off (usually it's great if there isn't a name collision)

Have you considered installing KCalc? It should come first. :)

That calc example is the exact reason I uninstalled libre office. Google sheets is good enough for everything I need

Shout out for Wox. https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox its what I went to when Launchy stagnated. Its one of the first things I install on new PC's

Check out keypirinha http://keypirinha.com/ if you like Wox. I prefer it over wox a lot.

Defender flags the installer as virus :/

In addition to the tools others mentioned, check out Agent Ransack. It's like visual grep and it's fantastic for finding text in document (including binary docs). It runs on demand only so it won't sap any of the system resources.

There used to be a program called X10. It would index into Lotus Notes, word docs, PDFs; everything on my computer. It worked great for about a year, then was bought out and went to shit. All this AI search stuff is garbage.

Doesn't affect me because I've been using Qalculate as a calculator for years. "qalc" is qalculate, "calc" is LibreOffice. Problem solved :)

Avafind is da thing if you are on Windows.

I've been trying out Listery (http://www.listary.com/) which is the best thing to Alfred on Windows I can find. Like an updated Launchy.

giant screw up with typeahead

Have you tried KRunner?

man locate

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