DonationCoder.com Software > Find And Run Robot

Cannot get FARR to search as expected

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Econdoc:
Hi:  I am a relatively new user and am having problems. 

1. In order to try to understand how FARR searches, I switched off all the virtual folders except %FARRDIR%\scripts.  I then searched for 'excel'.  It returns one item: C:\Program Files (x86)\FindAndRunRobot\scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Printers and Faxes (cpanel).lnk.  Nowhere in that path is the string 'excel'.  Why did it find this?

2. In order to try to understand how FARR searches, I switched off all the virtual folders except %COMMONSTARTMENU%.  Again, I used FARR to try to find excel.  This time it did find a shortcut to Excel, but it also found this path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe  and this folder  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Utilities\Text Utils - Compare, Split.   Nowhere in that path or in the folder can I find the string 'excel'.  Why did it find this?

Any help you can provide would be appreciated. It is difficult to set up these virtual folders when they do not find what you are searching for!

Another question: FARR sometime will find 30+ entries.  It will display only a few of them.  Is it possible to scroll thru the entire list?

mouser:
Welcome econdoc  :up:

1. In order to try to understand how FARR searches, I switched off all the virtual folders except %FARRDIR%\scripts.  I then searched for 'excel'.  It returns one item: C:\Program Files (x86)\FindAndRunRobot\scripts\Control Panel (cpanel)\Printers and Faxes (cpanel).lnk.  Nowhere in that path is the string 'excel'.  Why did it find this?
--- End quote ---

By default FARR has enabled "non-contiguous matching", which will match (albeit with a low score) against strings where the given letters are found in the right order but not next to each other, so for example: "Printers and Faxes (cpanel)"

You can disable this if you like from the "Search Behavior" tab.


I think you are going about this the right way, trying to simplify in order to understand what FARR is finding, so disabling non-contiguous search can help.  You can also turn on FARR's display of subfolders as it searches, which is in the "Display Options" tab.

One thing to keep in mind is that FARR tries hard to find lots of matches, but score them in a way so that the one you are most likely to want is listed at the top.  You can alter the scoring heuristics in the "Heuristic Scoring" tab.  Note also that once you launch a file once, it goes into your history list where it will be found instantly, and scored higher, the next time.  So even if the file you were looking for wasn't at the top position the first time you launched it, it will be higher and faster next time.

mouser:
Another question: FARR sometime will find 30+ entries.  It will display only a few of them.  Is it possible to scroll thru the entire list?
--- End quote ---

you can change the # of results farr lists by default from the "Display Options" tab, or you can leave it how it is and add "+sall" to your search to show all results.

After discussion on the forum, I've agreed we need a faster way of showing all resutls -- that is on my todo list.


ps. if you haven't seen them, there are over 3 dozen FARR screenscast videos showing how different features work:
https://www.donationcoder.com/3ds

joby_toss:
I encountered an issue that somehow matches this topic title:

I'm searching for "opera" to find "opera.exe" so I can launch my browser.
I have an installed version in "%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%" and a portable version in "%APPDRIVE%\Portables".

If I search for "opera" FARR finds only the portable executable (although I see in the status bar that FARR searches "ProgramFiles(x86)" folder.

If I search for "opera.exe" or "opera +sall", both executables are found (both have big scores).

Any ideas why this happens?

Win7x64 ----- FARR v2.86.01

mouser:
joby,
can you try going into options, and on Search Behavior tab, uncheck the option to "Remove duplicate links" and see if that helps -- if it does, at least we will have a clue as to what is going on.

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