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Comment by heurisko | Hacker News Reader

I was trying to check Disk Partitions on Windows 10, so typed this into the search.

It gave me a website with some freeware tool. I had to search around again until I found the actual system tool. I don't know what a regular user would have done.

I'm not really a Windows user.

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My favorite is when I see the result I want flash by and then I accidentally type the next character -- correctly -- due to momentum, and the result disappears. Then I delete the last character in an attempt to bring back the result, and then I try retyping the whole thing, but the correct result never reappears. It is gone. Only useless web results remain.

This! It's infuriating.

I also find that at first it pulls up File Explorer when I type "exp", but in a flash it switches to Edge. Just wanted a file management window, please.

In case you're not aware: Windows Key + E for a file management window.

I live in other OSes most of the time, so thank you for this.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search] "BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000 "CortanaConsent"=dword:00000000

^ put this into a .reg file, run it, and never see those bullshit web search results again. Have been doing this first thing after a fresh install on every PC.

You need carriage returns.

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Search]
  "ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections"=dword:00000000
  "AllowCortana"=dword:00000000
  "DisableWebSearch"=dword:00000001
  "ConnectedSearchUseWeb"=dword:00000000

  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]
  "CortanaConsent"=dword:00000000
  "BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000
  "AllowSearchToUseLocation"=dword:00000000

Much simpler is to just paste to a terminal:

    REG ADD HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search /v BingSearchEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
    REG ADD HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search /v CortanaConsent /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Yeah Windows Search is useless. I'd recommend Everything[0]. Though, it's more for general file searching than searching for programs. Can't remember if it learns your habits and pushes them to the top or not. Regardless it's instantaneous and I almost never use the Windows search since I discovered it

https://www.voidtools.com

Thanks "Everything" looks like something I will install and use.

I previously used a manually-triggered disk search indexer called Cathy.exe which works well [1]

For "real time (i.e. without the pre-cached index) live searches of filenames and/or contents by keyword/grep I like "Agent Ransack" [2]

It's one of the few things I always use on every windows machine I login to

[1] https://cathy.en.lo4d.com/windows

[2] https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

Everything is pretty much the only thing I miss from Windows. Maybe paint.net too. I haven't found a suitable Linux equivalent for either.

fsearch replaces "Everything" for me

fsearch is fantastic. Bind it, or various configured states of it, to keystrokes and never look back...

I quite like pinta as a paint.net replacement. Don't think it's as feature complete, but hits that ease of use sweet spot for really quick crops or adding text, etc.

I absolutely love "Anything", use it constantly.

Has saved my neck many, many times.

Unrelated, but that last part of your comment tingled my Litany Against Fear sense. At least I know with which mindset I should encounter Windows 11 now.

This happens on Spotlight as well.

I've needed it enough time that I won't ever forget "diskmgmt.msc" command, and AFAIK it works since Windows XP.

I'm not really sure what's so problematic with searching settings, but other platforms I use (macOS, iOS) are not really much better in this regard.

mmc.exe and you can snap-in diskmgmt, and it will save that in the menu for next time.

Since diskmgmt is mmc with that snap in already snapped in.

Disk Management is also in the Power User Menu, just right click the Start Menu orb or Win+X.

A regular user would have said, "What's a disk partition?"

It is still available by right-clicking on the start button. This will almost certainly go away in 11, because MS hates us.

It is currently available via right click on the start button in Windows 11.

It's diskmgmt.msc, you can just run it the unix way.

By editing a text file?

Use a terminal, or just Win+R

Just because it's CLI doesn't make it *nix. The 'everything is a text file' is the 'nix.

You don't run something by editing a text file

cron would like to have a word with you as would init.d

So you use cron whenever you want to launch an executable? This "UNIX way" seems terribly convoluted.

So you use cron whenever you want to launch an executable on a scheduled basis.

Edit: Arguing that running executables via CLI is what makes things *nix is just missing the point. In case your unfamiliar with the 'everything is a file concept:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_is_a_file

Unix way isn't running via CLI, but knowing what to type to run what you want, because it's faster than GUI, while GUI provides you contextual information to help you discover what you can do.

>In case your unfamiliar with the 'everything is a file concept

But then Linus gives a rant how he hates polymorphism and overloading.

Unix way is when you just know what command to type without searching.

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