I have been trialling Locate32 (latest 64-bit version) for a while, and yesterday I was puzzled because some files that I had just created and that would have been indexed by Locate32 in its latest database update were not showing up in Locate32's results page. At the same time I got an error - which was not repeatable.
I wrote to the developer of Locate32 per email:
I was using Locate32 and searching for files/folders named ..Audio
After sorting the results list, I got this error message:
CLocateDlg::SortNewItem:Something is wrong! Contact jmhuttun@{redacted}
I have established that Locate32 seems to be unable to catalogue/index folders with a preceding dot (.) or preceding two dots (..) in the folder name, and it cannot seem to catalogue/index the files within such folders either.
System is Win7-64 Home Premium.
He replied:
Looks like that you are trying to something strange. I should recommend not using '.', because it's meaning is quite vague in GUI programs.
However, I see nothing strange about it. Windows File System allows for preceding 1 or more full stops in file/folder names and quite a lot of programs use at least 1 preceding full stop in file-naming - e.g. Google Picasa. I have been using folder names with preceding dot(s) (.) for years with no issue until now - and my File Manager is xplorer² (I rarely - if ever - need to use Windows Explorer).
This is an example of a typical filename and path that seems to be causing difficulty for Locate32:
C:\Workdata.007 (Media 1)\..Audio\Personal + Family\2012-01-31 224456 - Meeting notes at Labour MP office (9m 48s).amrPuzzled, I did a comparison, using different tools to do the searching:
- 1. Using the FIND command for files/folders in Windows Explorer and also using Regex ".*.*" or "..*.*" seems to indicate that it is partially blind. That is, it:
(a) can find non-specific folders with preceding full stops (1 or 2) with no problem, but
(b) cannot find a specific ..foldername or specific filename.ext within that ..foldername, but
(c) can find files with specific .ext but a non-specific filename within those folders;
(d) can find a specific or non-specific foldername within those folders.
- 2. Using Locate32, it cannot seem to find those specific ..foldername folders, nor non-specific ones, and cannot find any files - specific or non-specific - within those ..foldername folders. It seems to be "blind" to the ..foldername and any files/folders nested within it.
- 3. Using FIND in xplorer², it can find specific and non-specific ..foldername folders and any files/folders (specific or non-specific) nested within them, with no difficulty.
Q1: Am I doing something wrong here, or have I tripped over some kind of a bug in Windows and Locate32?I rather like Locate32 because it is
fast, but if it fails to actually catalogue certain undefined and apparently legitimate types of file/folder names in NTFS without your knowledge, then I shall have to use an alternative, or go back to using xplorer² (which, though it seems to be fail-proof in this context, is slower, as it does a real-time search the first time you search for something). If I can possibly avoid it, I certainly don't want to have to change my long-established folder-naming conventions to accommodate Locate32.
Q2. What alternatives are there to Locate32 that would not have this ..foldername problem?(Thanks in anticipation.)
