Windows Explorer Search very slow, and a couple of other things

The search window in the upper right corner of Windows Explorer offers no options that I can identify.  I have a few questions.

1  Is there a way to access search options you would like to use as were available in XP?

2  I just went the first hour into a search for a filename beginning with "cv1".  I think I am searching the C: drive, but this search has run so long now, bringing about partial filename results that do not display "cv1" in the truncated name, that I am wondering if it is also searching the other drive in this laptop, of if a default exists, somewhere, that is also telling it to search within the file for that string.

If the default is to search not just filenames but every last byte in every file can this be changed or somehow made available as a list of search options as existed in all previous versions of Windows?

Now it could be that my system is pretty old and slow.  It's 2 months old tomorrow and is a HP Envy 17 Extreme version with an i7 940 XM quad-core extreme processor, 8 gigs of RAM and a very slow (almost glacial) 256GB SSD main drive. 

Can you shed some light on why a partial name search takes so long?  I thought System 7 was built for speed? 

3  I store some data files on the C: drive, but mostly all my data files exist on the 1TB D: drive, arranged in various large and deep file systems.  A growing problem for those that actually do know what a file is, and how to construct logical folder systems to manage them, is the overbearing insistence built into the operating system to urge users to store them somewhere under Documents and Settings.  In fact, the first items listed, suggesting they might be of some importance, are actually not top level folders.  Things like "desktop", "downloads", "recent places".  I really do not know where in the file system these things are, since they are not top level folders, but apparently someone's interpretation of what might be a user's primary choices.  Because I do not know where these things are, I am loath to even click on them.  Surprisingly enough, since I do my best to place anything I download in the folder where I want it to live, why on earth would I want to visit a download folder?  Are there additional copies of all my downloads there too?  If so, why store additional copies of downloads for users that have somehow managed to figure out how to store downloads where they want them to go, each and every time?

The "desktop" link is equally fascinating.  What a useful feature?  I can boot it up, wait until the desktop shows up and the indecipherable Apple progress circle stops, click on the desktop icon for Windows Explorer, then click on "Desktop" and get a different version of what I had already seen on my desktop.  Definitely a useful, first order, top of the list tool!

Is there a way to simply eliminate these completely useless (at least for me) top level choices?  And is there a way, regardless of how complex and deeply hidden from the user, way to set your very own, as in "personal computer", defaults?  I actually do know what/where locations I would like programs to default to. 

4  System Administrator.  Who is it?  Laptops, to some extent, should be considered rather of a personal computer.  Being somewhat personal, and in this case owned by me and occasionally shared only with my cat (when she walks or rubs up on it), who should the System Administrator be?  Is there a way that I could become the System Administrator of my very own computer?  That would be nice.

William McClenney