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New Windows Search: Cortana - Alternatives? 2
- Thread starter kjv1611
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #2
ok, sounds like there's already an answer built-in that you can skip the Cortana stuff and just use the built-in Vista/7/8 search type capabilities... if this article is correct:
I'll have to install another virtual instance of Win10 to test it out. My last one crashed, so I just deleted.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
I'll have to install another virtual instance of Win10 to test it out. My last one crashed, so I just deleted.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
- Thread starter
- #3
And that still doesn't totally answer the question, I suppose. I just noticed that it later talks about disabling Cortana separately from whether it shows in Start Menu or other locations. So perhaps I'll still need to find an alternative. I really need to install it again to play a bit more.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
I like this third party search program, if that is the question being asked?
SearchMyFiles v2.52
SearchMyFiles v2.52
- Thread starter
- #6
Yeah, linney, SearchMyFiles is one I've used off and on anyway. It is a great too, definitely. However, it doesn't really fit the bill as a replacement for the Windows Search in how it works. I don't want to have to look at 20 text boxes and such just to do a quick search. 99% of the time, I can find what I want just hitting the start button and typing with Search in Windows 7.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
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goombawaho
MIS
I PAY for and use FileSearchEx. I would pay more for it too.
Link
"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.
Link
"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.
- Thread starter
- #8
- Thread starter
- #9
As a seemingly nice update, I went ahead and upgraded one of our computers at home to Windows 10. I actually previously downloaded to a flash drive and downloaded the ISO as well in case I wanted to try that option. I was going to do the update on this test machine by just letting it download and do the whole thing, but it was taking too long - my guess is lots of other folks clocking MS download servers with the same. Well, that and I had some backups probably killing my router at the same time between a few PCs.
So I went with the USB drive (I had downloaded with a different computer to the USB flash drive). I chose in place installation since I had read how if you try to do a clean install from boot the first time, it would fail activation, trying to upgrade from a prior version (Windows 7/8/8.1).
So after doing another backup of my docs and such, I started the process. It had some updates to do first, so that took a while, since I hadn't turned that laptop on probably in a month. Then it took forever and forever, but finally completed.
I'm typing now from Google Chrome in the new Windows 10 upgrade installation on the same laptop. So far, I've tested a handful of different programs, and all seem to be just perfect. As a matter of fact, some things so far seem to be much more snappy than Windows 7 on the same version prior.
So the nice new mention from my perspective? Apparently they undid forcing you to use Cortana! Yay! That makes me SUPER DUPER happy, b/c I don't have to choose between considering another privacy leak and keeping search in the start menu, etc.
So far, all-in-all, this is going GREAT! I must say it's the easiest OS install I've ever done. Now, granted, I did an Upgrade. Now that I've gotten that part working, I'll try the clean install on this machine later.. maybe. I know I want to do it, but I'll play around with it for a while first, little here and a little there.
So Cortana is OFF, but Windows Search is still working! Woohoo! I must have been using 1 or 2 versions prior to the release when Cortana was forced if you wanted to search.
All my settings, wallpaper, wifi, typical settings at least, all seem intact. The task manager is about like Windows 8 if not the same. That's one thing I really liked in Windows 8, but didn't think the task manager warranted the upgrade.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
So I went with the USB drive (I had downloaded with a different computer to the USB flash drive). I chose in place installation since I had read how if you try to do a clean install from boot the first time, it would fail activation, trying to upgrade from a prior version (Windows 7/8/8.1).
So after doing another backup of my docs and such, I started the process. It had some updates to do first, so that took a while, since I hadn't turned that laptop on probably in a month. Then it took forever and forever, but finally completed.
I'm typing now from Google Chrome in the new Windows 10 upgrade installation on the same laptop. So far, I've tested a handful of different programs, and all seem to be just perfect. As a matter of fact, some things so far seem to be much more snappy than Windows 7 on the same version prior.
So the nice new mention from my perspective? Apparently they undid forcing you to use Cortana! Yay! That makes me SUPER DUPER happy, b/c I don't have to choose between considering another privacy leak and keeping search in the start menu, etc.
So far, all-in-all, this is going GREAT! I must say it's the easiest OS install I've ever done. Now, granted, I did an Upgrade. Now that I've gotten that part working, I'll try the clean install on this machine later.. maybe. I know I want to do it, but I'll play around with it for a while first, little here and a little there.
So Cortana is OFF, but Windows Search is still working! Woohoo! I must have been using 1 or 2 versions prior to the release when Cortana was forced if you wanted to search.
All my settings, wallpaper, wifi, typical settings at least, all seem intact. The task manager is about like Windows 8 if not the same. That's one thing I really liked in Windows 8, but didn't think the task manager warranted the upgrade.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
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- Thread starter
- #11
Yeah, I guess that was it - on one of the virtual machines, I did login. I'll have to remember that going forward. Thanks for making that distinction. I didn't test enough different instances to see that.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
- Thread starter
- #13
Yeah, Beilstwh mentioned "Everything" back on July 1st. Although it was tough to spot in the text, b/c it wasn't capitalized.
Search Everything by Niirsoft is one of their many good programs. I've used it for a long time. However, I wouldn't at all consider it a replacement for the quick and dirty, easy to use, built-in search in Windows.
I didn't get much more time to test further, but so far, Windows 10 is working great on the 1st laptop. On the second laptop, it installed and all, but ran into an issue with the driver for the touch-pad, and so far seems a bit sluggish. However, the sluggishness could have just been timing. I was glancing at it really quick this morning before heading out to work - it just finished upgrading this morning (had issue with the laptop constantly trying to boot from USB flash drive rather than hard drive at every restart, so what should have finished last night was still going this morning).
The driver was for an Elantech touchpad, in case anyone runs into it. My work-around so far was to "roll-back" the default driver to the Windows generic driver, and then it worked fine. Not sure if there is a better option available for the touchpad, as I didn't have time to look. It's an Asus laptop. The first was an HP.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
Search Everything by Niirsoft is one of their many good programs. I've used it for a long time. However, I wouldn't at all consider it a replacement for the quick and dirty, easy to use, built-in search in Windows.
I didn't get much more time to test further, but so far, Windows 10 is working great on the 1st laptop. On the second laptop, it installed and all, but ran into an issue with the driver for the touch-pad, and so far seems a bit sluggish. However, the sluggishness could have just been timing. I was glancing at it really quick this morning before heading out to work - it just finished upgrading this morning (had issue with the laptop constantly trying to boot from USB flash drive rather than hard drive at every restart, so what should have finished last night was still going this morning).
The driver was for an Elantech touchpad, in case anyone runs into it. My work-around so far was to "roll-back" the default driver to the Windows generic driver, and then it worked fine. Not sure if there is a better option available for the touchpad, as I didn't have time to look. It's an Asus laptop. The first was an HP.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
Not everybody gets (or misses) Cortana.
Why isn’t Cortana in my region or language?
Applies to Windows 10
Cortana is available in the following countries/regions: China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. Cortana is available in these languages: Chinese (Simplified), English (U.K.), English (U.S.), French, Italian, German and Spanish
Why isn’t Cortana in my region or language?
Applies to Windows 10
Cortana is available in the following countries/regions: China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. Cortana is available in these languages: Chinese (Simplified), English (U.K.), English (U.S.), French, Italian, German and Spanish
- Thread starter
- #15
You know what, I just now realized. "Everything" and "Search Everything" are not the same thing, though both are search tools. I'm checking out "Everything" now. I'll have to download "Search Everything" separately. Pretty cool stuff.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
The howto thing shows how to minimise the doings of Cortana by adjusting the settings (no hacking required) which is good.
Searching the web is something I like to do from a browser running Google, thanks anyway M$.
Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast
Searching the web is something I like to do from a browser running Google, thanks anyway M$.
Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain
That's just perfectly normal Paranoia everyone in the universe has that: Slartibartfast
- Thread starter
- #18
When I said "Everything" not being same as "Search Everything", I was forgetting name of other program. It's called "SearchMyFiles" which is a great program when you really need some help finding a file. It also search pretty quickly without any index.
I do like how MS allows you to pretty much neuter Cortana if you want with very little effort while still maintaining system search functionality.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
I do like how MS allows you to pretty much neuter Cortana if you want with very little effort while still maintaining system search functionality.
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57
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