Comments on: How to hide inappropriate content from Vista search

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:28:04 +0000

Nice job.

By: James

James — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:07:46 +0000

Great post, very useful information. Also go easy on Summit he was just trying to help

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:33:29 +0000

Thanks Summit; unchecking “read-only” did the trick.

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 09 May 2010 06:02:09 +0000

Summit, posting in *ALL CAPS* is the mark of a moron.

Your method does not work very well- so stop trying to insist we use on using your “tricks”

20 bucks says you’ve no idea how to use a virtual machine- which was what I was advocating as one of the best methods for achieving what this thread was about- keeping files hidden from accidental detection by other users.

By: Summit

Summit — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:02:00 +0000

THESE TRICKS WORK…TRY BOTH OF THESE TRICKS…BUT ALSO MAKE SURE THAT IN THE PROPERTIES BOX OF THE FOLDER (IN THE GENERAL TAB, YOU ALSO UNCHECK THE “READ ONLY” = IT SHOULD NOT BE A BLUE/VIOLET BOX AND NEITHER BE A TICK; BUT JUST A BLANK BOX. THE HIDDEN OPTION BOX IS TICKED. THEN GO TO THE ADVANCED TAB AND UNCHECK BOTH “ARCHIVE AND INDEX ATTRIBUTES” .THEN APPLY THIS ATTRIBUTES TO THE FOLDER AND SUB FOLDERS. THEN TYPE IN THE SEARCH BOX, THE FILE NAME AND IT SHOULD SHOW. THIS IS FOR WINDOWS VISTA, MAY ALSO WORK FOR XP.
THIS TRICK PLUS A BLANK “READ ONLY” BOX WILL BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE FOLDER AND THIS FOLDER AND ITS FILES WILL NOT SHOW IN ANY SEARCH WHETHER IN “START” OR “ADVANCED SEARCH ” OPTION.

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:21:38 +0000

Oh please. I’d never trust this method- many posts above me show how riddled with holes this is. Search from the root of the C drive and it all comes out in the wash.

Do it properly: RUN A VIRTUAL MACHINE AND BROWSE IN THERE. It’s not hard.

Create a virtual machine and browse, store, and watch everything in there. VMWare Workstation with a virtual machine running Windows XP Pro is all you need.

If you’re really smart, you can install and run the VM from an external hard drive folder, so when the hard drive is unplugged, your host machine is squeaky clean. And I mean so clean you can see your reflection in it.

Never a “mom that isn’t mine” moment again.

But yeah, if you don’t use my method, you’ll always be looking over your shoulder for that random index you forgot to exclude. The ONLY watertight solution is to run a virtual machine- so there is no way your host machine can pick up what the virtual machine has on it. It’s also good as it protects the host against infection from viruses.

Most people could benefit from using virtual machines, they just don’t realise it- so they either put up with messed up installs of Windows, or waste countless hours reinstalling Windows on their PC every time they screw it up. Which is a lot- people generally screw their computers up a lot.

By: Skullptor

Skullptor — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:30:22 +0000

I did go through and do this..but it only affects the search from the Windows Start Button.
If you open file explorer, select the entire computer, in the left window, and put in jpg or wmv..you still end up finding the content that you identified as not to be indexed.
In addition, the laptop I use is an HP one that has HP Media Smart.. when you select photos..again, deselecting The only thing I can think to do is to make the file folders that contain the sensitive content hidden folders from within the same properties tab that you have noted as a path to doing this. Of course you have to have the view hidden files option deselected for this to work….havent tried it yet but believe it will work.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:21:45 +0000

how do you show files that you have hidden?

By: Heybwoypuretrubleyuahgi

Heybwoypuretrubleyuahgi — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:21:48 +0000

Yes I am still finding the files. But thanks for your effort

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:31:06 +0000

Hi there, i have tried all the above options, and it still comes up with the files. the folders were originally not indexed, but if you do a search for it, it still tracked them down, and that’s without even clicking the “include non-indexed, hidden” and such files. is there a way to overcome this? including once the search is checked to look for non-indexed and such files? Cheers