In previous versions of Windows (or is it just the Firefox browser?), searching for terms (using Ctrl + F) in browsers was better--instead of searching solely for whole terms, it searched for anything you typed (e.g., while typing "eradicate", it would have found every "e", then every "er", then every "era", etc).
I want to be able to change this back to the way it used to be. Can I?
Hi, I think you'd need to be more specific as to the situation.
Windows search depends first on Windows search indexing and on incompletely documented search syntax such as
Advanced Query Syntax - Windows applications | Microsoft Docs
(search bar on the taskbar, file explorer search).
Searching a browser page would be a function of the browser.
Searching the internet would be a function provided by the search engine.
If, for example, in file explorer's search field in a suitable folder, you were to type
file:a
then all files beginning with an a are listed- after a short pause
file:ab
then all files beginning with ab are listed.
If you were to use a free tool such as Locate32 or the better known but heavier on resources Everything by void tools, then the 'find-as-you-type' response is faster.
For Firefox, see articles such as these- if older, things may have changed as FF has evolved very rapidly, and those changes may reflect your comments:
Firefox Tip Skip the Find Bar and Search by Typing | The Den
Can feature in firefox 57.0.4 | Firefox Support Forum | Mozilla Support
Ctrl + F in Firefox just opens the find in page dialogue at the bottom of the page.
Quote
