Exclude directory for search?

[Asvod]

Is there any way to make TC exclude a specific directory (path) for searching? It spends WAY too much time searching Temporary Internet Files, for example, every time I search for something in C:

A permanant entry in wincmd.ini would be nice .

[djk]

Try it (from HELP):

Include/Exclude certain directories in the search.
Examples:
*.ini | windows\ - finds all ini files except those in directories called "Windows" and their subdirs.
*.htm? | _vti*\ - finds all hml files, except in subdirs starting with _vti (used by Frontpage)

[Francesco]

Not directly.

The only 2 ways, I know:

1) If you want to search only certain folders, you should select those before pressing Alt-F7.

2) for example *.* | *7\ *6\
with the '|' character, you can exclude all the directories ending for example 007 or 06.

[Jonas]

An other solution is disscused here in the german board.
The idea is a textfile with all path in which TC should not search or a direct include/exclude-list in the search-dialog (pro: much easier to use/manipulate; contra: need much space on the dialog so that the results are needing an extra-tab). I made a fake-screenshot for this: http://www.jonas-baehr.de/forum/TC-search_main.png

Christian said, that it's too late for TC6 but in the next version (TC6.5?) he will implement such a list. (but I don't know if he meant the textfile or the lists in the search-dialog)

[Asvod]

Thanks djk Francesco:
I was aware of that (sorry for no mentioning it - forgot), but I think you have to agree that it's awkward to enter 2-3 paths to exclude every time you want to search for something.
I was thinking of something more permament, like an ini file entry.

The Ideal, I think, would bó if you can enter a list of paths somewhere once. When you run a search, if "file not found", then display dialog asking:
"Search in excluded paths? Y/N/Show Paths"
N as default.
The show paths option is in case you forgot what you've excluded.
The dialog can have a checkbox:
"Show this dialog next time"

Also, the main search dialog can have a checkbox:
"Search in excluded paths"
with a >> to the right like this:
"Search in excluded paths" >>
that lets you modify the list of excluded paths.

What do you think?

[Asvod]

Ah Jonas - finally your png loaded (15 minutes on a 1 Mb connection!)
Unfortunately, I don't know German.

To be honest, I think it looks abit cluttered, although having both an INCLUDE and exclude mask is very handy sometimes.

It may look cluttered to me because I can only guess at the meaning of the words. Please Jonas, no offence meant.

How "permanent" are the include/exclude lists? They should be saved and reappear the next tine you run a search, right? But if you have 20 paths that you ALWAYS want to exclude, they just end up cluttering everything.

Thats why I was think of a "permanent" exclude list, and a seperate list for each specific search. Or is that too messy?

20 paths or more is realistic if you search a big LAN often that has amazing amounts of junk on it.

[Jonas]

Ah Jonas - finally your png loaded (15 minutes on a 1 Mb connection!)
Unfortunately, I don't know German.

Sorry, I haven't thought about that (I made the pic for the german board)
The last tab "Suchergebnisse" (="Search results") is only visible after you press "Start". Then this tab should get the focus.
The two lists are labeled "Seach in" and "Not search in". The Buttons "Hinzufühgen" and "Entfernen" are standing for "Add" and "Remove".
"Add" should add the line above (the "search in" of TC5.1) to the list.
"Remove" should remove the selected entry from the list.
The Checkbox "Liste aktiv" means "list activ": If checked, the settings from the currend list are used for the search. They should be ignored if the checkbox is unchecked.
The rest is simular to the currend search-dialog except from the Checkbox "Regulärer Ausdruck" (= "regular expression") which is comming with TC6 and the Checkbox "Unterverzeichnisse von ser Suche ausschliessen" (="exclude subdirectories from search"). I know that this can already realized by adding "| *" to the searchfield, but with an extra checkbox it's a bit more userfriendly.

Regarding the question of the permanence of these lists, I thougt that they should keep thier content even if TC is closed. If you want to search even in the excluded dir's once, you simply have to uncheck the "list activ"-Checkbox and the content of it will be ignored for the currend search.
And it would be nice if TC would save the lists together with the other search-options in the Load/Save-tab.

All in all I think that this solution is much easyer to use/modifie and more powerfull than a textfile with the exclude-paths. The only contra could be that the search-results are on an extra tab and so no more shown together with the search-options, but I think the pros are in the majority.