9 ms·

I agree with [this][1] idea: > an autocomplete has one chance to reorder per keystroke. if you got it wrong and you have a better ordering a bit later you must

I agree with [this][1] idea: > an autocomplete has one chance to reorder per keystroke. if you got it wrong and you have a better ordering a bit later you must “swallow the sadness” (as per the original author of this wisdom) but never change already displayed items [1]: https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/1470751551568363530 https://twitter.com/dan_abramov/status/1470751551568363530

fbdab103 4y ago
Can someone please tell the Windows Start Menu designers? Have completely ruined the experience as it constantly juggles items as its heuristics are seemingly updated. I especially enjoy how Bing results get prioritized over local applications and files.
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  You're the product. I'm not sure they care what you think.
- bombcar 4y ago
  I cannot figure out how "upd" shows Windows Update but "update" does not.
  - biorach 4y ago
    > I cannot figure out how "upd" shows Windows Update but "update" does not. This drives me crazy.
  - neogodless 4y ago
    I realized the other day "stor" brings up Photos as the first result. I'm dumbfounded.
    - medstrom 4y ago
      That can be desirable if the filesystem path to Photos includes a directory named something like "storage". Of course it should still prioritize apps that actually have "stor" in the name, but maybe you didn't have any?
      - neogodless 4y ago
        No - Microsoft Store was installed. And what I was looking for. (To see the new WSL GUI app.)
  - cm2187 4y ago
    But most of all it doesn’t seem to be deterministic. Very often I get a different behavior on the second attempt. Search in windows puzzles me. Like I don’t get why it takes so long to search files in explorer, while traversing the same folder structure programmatically takes milliseconds. Hard computer science problem!
    - progre 4y ago
      I think search in windows makes a stab at searching content as well, and not just straight text. This means unpacking zips, loading excel files etc. But, yeah, it sucks.
      - sacrosancty 4y ago
      - cm2187 4y ago
        I am not even sure it's the case. In explorer options, search, both "include compressed files" and "always search file names and content" are unchecked by default. And from the behaviour it seems to only search file names indeed. I suspect it has more to do to explorer registering something with the file system to be notified if any of the folders being searched change or something like that. Something completely useless in any case, I'd much rather it doesn't do anything smart and gives me a result instantaneously.
    - _caw 4y ago
      If you don't have it already, I'll shill for the excellent tool "Everything" by voidtools. This is a must-have for me on any new Windows install.
- hnick 4y ago
  Users are spending more time in the Start Menu, and visit Bing more often: engagement metrics are up!
- layer8 4y ago
  The sane alternative is to use OpenShell.
- jve 4y ago
  One can only hope that this thread finds a way onto some responsible MS employee monitor. Yeah, MS is not good at search, but I think having one engineer tackle windows search for over all these years would have brought us instant and relevant search results. How many times I have to find the right keyword to find something I KNOW is there but that satisfies the search engine is more than I want to recount.
devnullbrain 4y ago
I want foo. - Type 'f' - foo appears in the search. - Type 'o', because I type with 10 appendages and getting them to work together requires pipelining. - foo disappears from the search This should never happen.
- layer8 4y ago
  This happens all the time on iOS with the “predictive text” feature, it’s maddening.
- yxwvut 4y ago
  Just wanted to comment in agreement and confirm that this exact scenario drives me insane. Adding more information that agrees with the existing top suggestion should never change that top suggestion.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- colanderman 4y ago
  +1000. I forget which search -- it's probably macOS Spotlight -- drives me batty with this daily. Firefox has a related misdesign. If you type a word which matches both a search keyword and a history item, the search keyword takes precedence -- which is nonsensical, since I've typed nothing (not even a space) following the search keyword. So e.g. I have a `cpp` keyword to search `en.cppreference.com`; typing `cp`+Enter brings up `en.cppreference.com`, as does `cppr`+Enter, but `cpp`+Enter does a search for an empty string.
  - tobyhinloopen 4y ago
    Spotlight 100%
- Nursie 4y ago
  Concrete example from my firefox url bar - type 'for' - forums.overclockers.co.uk appears, this is where I'm going, I go here once on most days type 'forums', because my fingers didn't get the memo to stop - forums.samygo.tv appears at the top, a site I haven't visited (on purpose) in almost a decade, mostly because I don't have that tv any more. Massively annoying.

fbdab103 4y ago

Can someone please tell the Windows Start Menu designers? Have completely ruined the experience as it constantly juggles items as its heuristics are seemingly updated. I especially enjoy how Bing results get prioritized over local applications and files.

CoastalCoder 4y ago
You're the product. I'm not sure they care what you think.
bombcar 4y ago
I cannot figure out how "upd" shows Windows Update but "update" does not.
- biorach 4y ago
  > I cannot figure out how "upd" shows Windows Update but "update" does not. This drives me crazy.
- neogodless 4y ago
  I realized the other day "stor" brings up Photos as the first result. I'm dumbfounded.
  - medstrom 4y ago
    That can be desirable if the filesystem path to Photos includes a directory named something like "storage". Of course it should still prioritize apps that actually have "stor" in the name, but maybe you didn't have any?
    - neogodless 4y ago
      No - Microsoft Store was installed. And what I was looking for. (To see the new WSL GUI app.)
- cm2187 4y ago
  But most of all it doesn’t seem to be deterministic. Very often I get a different behavior on the second attempt. Search in windows puzzles me. Like I don’t get why it takes so long to search files in explorer, while traversing the same folder structure programmatically takes milliseconds. Hard computer science problem!
  - progre 4y ago
    I think search in windows makes a stab at searching content as well, and not just straight text. This means unpacking zips, loading excel files etc. But, yeah, it sucks.
    - sacrosancty 4y ago
    - cm2187 4y ago
      I am not even sure it's the case. In explorer options, search, both "include compressed files" and "always search file names and content" are unchecked by default. And from the behaviour it seems to only search file names indeed. I suspect it has more to do to explorer registering something with the file system to be notified if any of the folders being searched change or something like that. Something completely useless in any case, I'd much rather it doesn't do anything smart and gives me a result instantaneously.
  - _caw 4y ago
    If you don't have it already, I'll shill for the excellent tool "Everything" by voidtools. This is a must-have for me on any new Windows install.
hnick 4y ago
Users are spending more time in the Start Menu, and visit Bing more often: engagement metrics are up!
layer8 4y ago
The sane alternative is to use OpenShell.
jve 4y ago
One can only hope that this thread finds a way onto some responsible MS employee monitor. Yeah, MS is not good at search, but I think having one engineer tackle windows search for over all these years would have brought us instant and relevant search results. How many times I have to find the right keyword to find something I KNOW is there but that satisfies the search engine is more than I want to recount.

devnullbrain 4y ago

I want foo. - Type 'f' - foo appears in the search. - Type 'o', because I type with 10 appendages and getting them to work together requires pipelining. - foo disappears from the search This should never happen.

layer8 4y ago
This happens all the time on iOS with the “predictive text” feature, it’s maddening.
yxwvut 4y ago
Just wanted to comment in agreement and confirm that this exact scenario drives me insane. Adding more information that agrees with the existing top suggestion should never change that top suggestion.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
colanderman 4y ago
+1000. I forget which search -- it's probably macOS Spotlight -- drives me batty with this daily. Firefox has a related misdesign. If you type a word which matches both a search keyword and a history item, the search keyword takes precedence -- which is nonsensical, since I've typed nothing (not even a space) following the search keyword. So e.g. I have a `cpp` keyword to search `en.cppreference.com`; typing `cp`+Enter brings up `en.cppreference.com`, as does `cppr`+Enter, but `cpp`+Enter does a search for an empty string.
- tobyhinloopen 4y ago
  Spotlight 100%
Nursie 4y ago
Concrete example from my firefox url bar - type 'for' - forums.overclockers.co.uk appears, this is where I'm going, I go here once on most days type 'forums', because my fingers didn't get the memo to stop - forums.samygo.tv appears at the top, a site I haven't visited (on purpose) in almost a decade, mostly because I don't have that tv any more. Massively annoying.