Using Explorer has always been more like playing an unpredictable, quirky fruitmachine than using a tool, and recent versions have only increased that perception.

Not only that, simple tasks like copying a file are made unnecessarily difficult by the lack of a two-pane view, and the need to always remember to use rightclick when copying files to avoid accidental deletion of the original.

As for Libraries, I treat any such development with caution. A while back I started a major project using a similar third-party app to catalog a large number of files spread across several locations.

When it broke (surprise!) the project suffered a major setback, because I then discovered that the exotic format used couldn’t be restored from a backup. (And yes, the irony was that I DID have backups…) I don’t have enough experience of Libraries to know if the same is likely to happen, but once bitten…

I seem to be getting more and more crashes with Windows Explorer recently.

Sometimes it fixes itself – but not always & its happening more and more often these days – still this is an RC – Luckily

My Other Post was that about the directory resetting itself whenever I close a folder in a deeply nested directory – Explorer shoots back to the top and I have to scroll back down to find where I was.

Your arrogance is tempered by your admission of ignorance of System Preferences, the OS X equivalent of Windows’ Control Panel.

FYI, the default configuration of System Preferences is to organise by categories, with an alternative configuration to list the various items in the ‘old-fashioned’ way, aka Alphabetically. This choice is precisely what you have praised in the ‘Dark Side’.

Do you still want to proclaim ‘you either do things the way Jobs wants you to or you don’t do them at all’?

MetalMonkey, if you have file types or locations that are unusual, you can add them to the list of locations to be indexed.

Windows search works in the background and once the index up to date, searches will be instant.

Windows Explorer should be the life blood of the OS, but instead, its slow, cumbersome and the search is apalling.

Microsoft have claimed to offer new ‘Search’ features in every OS, and in every new OS, the search function has one fatal flaw. It’s results. I have, quite often, tried to use search from Explorer looking for a file. In the time it takes to actually find it, I have stumbled upon it, and seen it in front of my eyes. Yet, on returning to Explorer, it proudly states, ‘No files found’. I freely admit, I don’t use my profile to store documents, and I don’t just use the common applications like Office. I store my work on a separate disk in my own folder structure and more often than not, it’s source code.(Maybe the indexer doesn’t index Visual studio files or files it doesn’t recognise?? – I’d like to know the answer to that if anyone knows.)

I now use a command prompt if I ever need a search, but I organise my files in such a way that I don’t need to search for them.

Not only that but Microsoft boasts the Windows search indexer will find files in seconds, not minutes. err, no, actually, it doesn’t find files after minutes of searching, but will slow my machine down while it indexes the volume. Thats why I disable the indexer and stick with DOS.

I fail to understand why, Microsoft, in their infinate wisdom, insist on searching the entire domain’s servers and PC’s, and show them in the network list in my explorer. This just slows everything down and creates un-necessary traffic.

As i’ve said before, I am not Microsofts biggest fan. I just want something that does what it says on the tin. 90% of windows does.