Serious flaw discovered in Windows Vista's Explorer

[null_]

For anyone who is interested, here are the reproduction steps:

1. Click on Start, and then click on Documents.
   
2. In the Search entry box, type "NOT Shortcut" (without the quotes).
   
3. Click on the "Save Search" button and save the search query as "Search Test".
   

I've removed the rest of the post due to the un-necessary amount of spam that I have received in the past 24 hours.

Edited December 31, 2007 by iCeFuSiOn

[Eric Veteran]

Big deal... Explorer crashed and was back up like nothing ever happened in 3 seconds. I'd hardly call that "bringing it to its knees." I would, however call this total flame bait. :rolleyes:

[7Dash8]

Very close to being blogspam. This is a serious flaw? Worst case scenario is the explorer process crashes and restarts without even restarting the OS. It may have taken down XP, but Vista just restarts the process and it's fine. Should MS fix it...of course. Is it a major flaw that's going to have any real impact, no. MS can fix it easily with a patch. Nice try to fabricate an issue out of nothing though. In fact demonstrates how Vista is much more robust against these sort of glitches than XP ever was.

[magik]

Uhh... so you're searching for something that is NOT a shortcut? ie: pretty much everything? What do you expect to happen? :laugh:

[null_]

Uhh... so you're searching for something that is NOT a shortcut? ie: pretty much everything? What do you expect to happen? :laugh:

If you're trying to search for documents only and the explorer brings back a list of shortcuts as well, NOT Shortcut will hide them. What it ISN'T supposed to do is crash the shell. This was bugged for SP1 and was marked as "won't fix".

[Thrawn]

Humn, well I've never uesd a boolean in Vista, much less saved it. This is an actual issue, but not a real issue.

[CrimsonRedMk Member]

Mac OS Ubuntu Apple iPhone Linux Leopard OS X Fedora Windows XP ......... I has flame?

Yeah, it'll be fixed with a KB, or it'll go unfixed and after a week people will forget.

[magik]

If you're trying to search for documents only and the explorer brings back a list of shortcuts as well, NOT Shortcut will hide them. What it ISN'T supposed to do is crash the shell. This was bugged for SP1 and was marked as "won't fix".

Right, but usually you have something like "<some doc title> NOT Shortcut" and that doesn't crash, in fact it works exactly as expected. But placing just "NOT Shortcut" without any other filter does crash it instantly. So, yea, it crashes if that is your intention, but really this isn't much of an issue. Although it should probably be fixed, it's really not a big deal. Either way, I'm sure a patch will be released eventually. Probably after SP1, though.

[BajiRav]

I won't call this a serious but probably an unfortunate bug. Vista has other issues that are more important that this. Such as slow copying speeds and folder view thingy.

If you're trying to search for documents only and the explorer brings back a list of shortcuts as well, NOT Shortcut will hide them. What it ISN'T supposed to do is crash the shell. This was bugged for SP1 and was marked as "won't fix".

can use kind:document ? or just remove appdata folder from your index locations...that is what I do.

[shakey_snake]

We can only curse at things like this because WinFS would have certainly avoided such problems.

*sigh*

:ike:

Edited December 30, 2007 by shakey_snake

[Berserk87]

this is hardly serious, let alone a flaw.

[argonite]

For some reason, search for "NOT Shortcut"

Explorer crashes

Wait 3 seconds

Explorer restarts

Hey let's not do that again

Not serious, but it is a flaw.

[spenser.d]

:rofl:

And to think I actually expected to read about a serious flaw...

Good grief, even in XP bringing back a crashed explorer is as easy as bringing up the task manager and doing a File >> Run explorer.exe

Apparently Vista does that all for you. Hardly anything to bash Vista for.

Not to mention that nobody out there even searches for "NOT Shortcut" by itself (given by the fact that it took over a year to even find this flaw...)

-Spenser

[osirisX]

Call me when something serious happens.

[Guest xiphi]

I wouldn't have known of this bug if I hadn't of seen this post.

Title should read "Obscure bug found in Windows Vista's Explorer", instead.

[Trong]

Gah, this is the stupidest thing I've ever read. The fact that you posted this as a serious flaw makes me question your mindset right now.

[Slimy]

Time: 00:25 EST/05:25 GMT | News Source: Neowin | Posted By: Andre Da Costa

Why are we the source?

[Smigit]

Why are we the source?

heh. we say they are the sourc they say it's us. A nice vicious cycle of sourcing.

Anyway it doesn't seem overly serious but it definitely should be fixed. I doubt it will kill anyone but it's blemishes like this that day in day out tarnish Vista's image. It's not the most pressing issue by all means, but still should be looked at.

[Eric Veteran]

We can only curse at things like this because WinFS would have certainly avoided such problems.

*sigh*

:ike:

Go look up WinFS and come back and give us a report on it. WinFS is not what you think it is. ;)

Why are we the source?

He changed it. Here's the original link: http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/kmkenney/...plorer-bug.aspx

As I said... This post is total flame bait and some people have already bitten the hook. ;)

[mad_onion]

wow the thread title and original post really tries to make this sound like a big deal. unfortunately for them it really isn't i'm sure it will be fixed but i wonder how many times people actually search for NOT shortcut. and anyway explorer restarts quickly really not much of a problem. if this is a seriuos flaw i would like to see how the author would describe all the problems that device drivers are causing in vista.

[anthonyspt]

At a time where everyone is anxiously awaiting the upcoming service pack for Windows Vista (and while others flock back to Windows XP in droves), yet another flaw in the Windows Vista operating system has been discovered that can bring the Windows shell ("Windows Explorer") to its knees within 20 seconds. Even worse, this issue occurs under every day usage of the operating system if you use the Search function regularly with boolean search operators.

1. Click on Start, and then click on Documents.
   
2. In the Search entry box, type "NOT Shortcut" (without the quotes).
   
3. Click on the "Save Search" button and save the search query as "Search Test".
   

This has been confirmed as a flaw in Windows Vista (all editions) and Windows Vista 64-bit (all editions), and even worse, the issue still occurs on the latest release candidate for Service Pack 1, and has been marked as "will not be fixed". The bigger question is, will Microsoft step up to the plate and fix this issue or will they let it pass on by while they work heavily on Windows "7", ignoring the fact that Windows Vista still has flaws and inconsistancies that are seeing larger companies hold back deployment until 2009 or even skip Vista?

Source of instructions to reproduce issue: ActiveWin.com

So from this we can learn a few things.

1) Vista must be in better shape and more on track and stable than the anti-Vista zealots would like for people to believe if it has taken a year for something like this to be classified as a serious flaw. For people that can think for themselves, this is the best pro-Vista post in history...

2) The person that found this flaw is a bit scary to expect this to be a valid search, especially so important to save it as a Search Folder. But hey, everyone to their own thing, so I'm over the scary part.

3) The person that posted this thinks MS is heavily working on Windows 7. Well it is true MS's NT cycle always starts at the end of a product release, so we can assume they are working on Windows 7. However, it is time for the idiots that keep running around thinking MinWin is Windows 7 or any different than the 'tight' kernel that is already in Vista and all previous versions of NT to wake up and watch the presentation or talk to someone at Microsoft for an accurate source on the subject. Windows 7 is not very active yet, and its kernel technology is the same as Vista, and it is scary that after 15 years of NT, people don't yet realize that the NT kernel is in fact very tight and small when you remove the API interface layers. (NT is a light API interface hybrid kernel technology) - This is why MinWin was a basic recompile of Vista kernel with the external APIs turned off, PERIOD.

4) Let's hope the person that found this fatal flaw doesn't do a nested search in a search that is recursive. They will really be mad at Windows then... Which points out another good thing about this bug, instead of dragging the system to a grind in an endless loop, or even choking, Vista just restarts Explorer and goes on its way. PS It will only restart the 'Folder Window' and not fully restart Explorer if you have "Launch folder windows in a separate process" (PS Which is handy to turn on)

Now for the unknown:

There is already an easy fix for this, pick a different freaking syntax, Vista has the most diverse search engine in OS history, with the most extensive set of search options including natural language and strict syntax as the user chooses.

Here is the 'fix' or way to perform the search effortlessly without killing Explorer if you really want to do this search:

NOT (ext:lnk OR ext:url)

-This also excludes Internet shortcuts, and is more accurate as you don't get folders in the mix of results.

NOT ext:lnk

-This is if you only want to exclude plain shortcuts and not Internet shortcuts, and again works better as it doesn't mix folders in the results.

You could also do:

-(ext:lnk OR ext:url)

or

-ext:lnk

Get the idea here? There are numerous ways to get the same results that don't involve killing Explorer

Now with that MAJOR flaw out of the way, this would be a good time to remind people that the search features in Vista are pretty powerful in doing more than just searching for items.

Look up a tool called Start++ from brandontools.com - (it is handy) and from it you can get an idea of how powerful the searching system is and how it can be extended in basic shell and commandline usage even. (Most people don't realize you can get search results in a CMD prompt, or from within their applications.)

Also for people doing more than causal searches, take a minute and read some up on some of the syntax options Vista offers and see why it makes Leopard and even Google Desktop Search look like toys.

This is a good reference page to begin with for the basics of advanced searching in Vista:

http://search.msn.com/docs/toolbar.aspx?t=...earchSyntax.htm

[Eric Veteran]

That's an excellent post, anthonyspt! I wish I could rate your reply! :)

[ThePitt]

yet another thing that need to be written from scratch

[gtho]

That's an excellent post, anthonyspt! I wish I could rate your reply! :)

+1 excellent and very informative post

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

So from this we can learn a few things.

1) Vista must be in better shape and more on track and stable than the anti-Vista zealots would like for people to believe if it has taken a year for something like this to be classified as a serious flaw. For people that can think for themselves, this is the best pro-Vista post in history...

2) The person that found this flaw is a bit scary to expect this to be a valid search, especially so important to save it as a Search Folder. But hey, everyone to their own thing, so I'm over the scary part.

3) The person that posted this thinks MS is heavily working on Windows 7. Well it is true MS's NT cycle always starts at the end of a product release, so we can assume they are working on Windows 7. However, it is time for the idiots that keep running around thinking MinWin is Windows 7 or any different than the 'tight' kernel that is already in Vista and all previous versions of NT to wake up and watch the presentation or talk to someone at Microsoft for an accurate source on the subject. Windows 7 is not very active yet, and its kernel technology is the same as Vista, and it is scary that after 15 years of NT, people don't yet realize that the NT kernel is in fact very tight and small when you remove the API interface layers. (NT is a light API interface hybrid kernel technology) - This is why MinWin was a basic recompile of Vista kernel with the external APIs turned off, PERIOD.

4) Let's hope the person that found this fatal flaw doesn't do a nested search in a search that is recursive. They will really be mad at Windows then... Which points out another good thing about this bug, instead of dragging the system to a grind in an endless loop, or even choking, Vista just restarts Explorer and goes on its way. PS It will only restart the 'Folder Window' and not fully restart Explorer if you have "Launch folder windows in a separate process" (PS Which is handy to turn on)

Now for the unknown:

There is already an easy fix for this, pick a different freaking syntax, Vista has the most diverse search engine in OS history, with the most extensive set of search options including natural language and strict syntax as the user chooses.

Here is the 'fix' or way to perform the search effortlessly without killing Explorer if you really want to do this search:

NOT (ext:lnk OR ext:url)

-This also excludes Internet shortcuts, and is more accurate as you don't get folders in the mix of results.

NOT ext:lnk

-This is if you only want to exclude plain shortcuts and not Internet shortcuts, and again works better as it doesn't mix folders in the results.

You could also do:

-(ext:lnk OR ext:url)

or

-ext:lnk

Get the idea here? There are numerous ways to get the same results that don't involve killing Explorer

Now with that MAJOR flaw out of the way, this would be a good time to remind people that the search features in Vista are pretty powerful in doing more than just searching for items.

Look up a tool called Start++ from brandontools.com - (it is handy) and from it you can get an idea of how powerful the searching system is and how it can be extended in basic shell and commandline usage even. (Most people don't realize you can get search results in a CMD prompt, or from within their applications.)

Also for people doing more than causal searches, take a minute and read some up on some of the syntax options Vista offers and see why it makes Leopard and even Google Desktop Search look like toys.

This is a good reference page to begin with for the basics of advanced searching in Vista:

http://search.msn.com/docs/toolbar.aspx?t=...earchSyntax.htm

Actually, about the MinWin thing, the Core effort (which is the sliced off APIs) used to be called MinWin, but there's another effort to remake the kernel called MinWin and that does involve changing the kernel architecture.

The current slimmed-down kernel need the entire source tree to be built to build the kernel, because even though it doesn't call the APIs above, they're still needed to complete dependencies.

The new MinWin will enable the kernel to be built alone, or parts of the system, which helps in the layering, upkeep and testing of the OS.

Other than that, very informative post :)