find text within files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Spacey Spade
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Spacey Spade

I want to search for a specific word in some *.reg files I have in one
folder. Win98: Find: All Files, containing text:

It doesn't find the string "startmenuinit". This isn't the first time
I've had this happen. I thought maybe it was more M$ crap, but I've
used File Finder by Mijenix Corp (1998) and I've used LightningSearch
by Oleg Rekutin with the same results. When I open the file in Metapad
(notepad) and search there, it finds the string!

Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
 
Spacey said:
I want to search for a specific word in some *.reg files I have in one
folder. Win98: Find: All Files, containing text:

It doesn't find the string "startmenuinit". This isn't the first time
I've had this happen. I thought maybe it was more M$ crap, but I've
used File Finder by Mijenix Corp (1998) and I've used LightningSearch
by Oleg Rekutin with the same results. When I open the file in Metapad
(notepad) and search there, it finds the string!

Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
Click to expand...

You might check out Agent Ransack.

LB
 
I want to search for a specific word in some *.reg files I have in one
folder. Win98: Find: All Files, containing text:

It doesn't find the string "startmenuinit". This isn't the first time
I've had this happen. I thought maybe it was more M$ crap, but I've
used File Finder by Mijenix Corp (1998) and I've used LightningSearch
by Oleg Rekutin with the same results. When I open the file in Metapad
(notepad) and search there, it finds the string!

Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
Click to expand...


Use the free search program "Agent Ransack" from:-

http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/Page.aspx?page=download

MUCH better than the M$ find program!!
 
Cousin said:
I want to search for a specific word in some *.reg files I have in one
folder. Win98: Find: All Files, containing text:

It doesn't find the string "startmenuinit". This isn't the first time
I've had this happen. I thought maybe it was more M$ crap, but I've
used File Finder by Mijenix Corp (1998) and I've used LightningSearch
by Oleg Rekutin with the same results. When I open the file in Metapad
(notepad) and search there, it finds the string!

Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
Click to expand...

I saved your post and searched for "startmenuinit." Win98's Find found it,
no problem.

Maybe try checking the Date and Advanced tabs to make sure you haven't
limited your search.
 
Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
Click to expand...

Yes: *.reg files are UNICODE files. Your string "startmenuinit" is actually
contained as "s.t.a.r.t.m.e.n.u.i.n.i.t." where "." stands for a NULL-byte.
Your editor (metapad) converts UNICODE to ASCII before displaying the file.

Don
 
Spacey said:
I want to search for a specific word in some *.reg files I have in one
folder. Win98: Find: All Files, containing text:

It doesn't find the string "startmenuinit". This isn't the first time
I've had this happen. I thought maybe it was more M$ crap, but I've
used File Finder by Mijenix Corp (1998) and I've used LightningSearch
by Oleg Rekutin with the same results. When I open the file in Metapad
(notepad) and search there, it finds the string!

Is there any reason why I can find certain strings and not others
within files?
Click to expand...

You may also want to have a look at ths one:

LookDisk

LookDisk is a Freeware-Disktool with following functions:
Search for files using various parameters (also within ZIP, ARJ, RAR, LZH,
& CAB-Files)
Search for a text in any file (also within ZIP, ARJ, RAR, LZH, &
CAB-Files)
Search for duplicate files by name or content (also within ZIP, ARJ, RAR,
LZH, & CAB-Files)
Show disk overview
User entries are saved and do not have to be re-entered each time LookDisk
is started.
The list of found files can be saved or printed.
LookDisk can handle large amount of files without using lots of system
resources.

LookDisk is compatible with Window95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP. 1.36 MB

http://www.fxsearch.com/ldw_eng/

Zo
 
You might check out Agent Ransack.

LB
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what .reg files look like, but if they're plain text, there's a
DOS program called Views that is incredible. Fast, easy to use, the whole
nine years. Freeware. I don't have a url, unfortunately.
 
Donald said:
Yes: *.reg files are UNICODE files. Your string "startmenuinit" is actually
contained as "s.t.a.r.t.m.e.n.u.i.n.i.t." where "." stands for a NULL-byte.
Your editor (metapad) converts UNICODE to ASCII before displaying the file.

Don
Click to expand...

I created many of these reg files from scratch in MetaPad. And they
were searchable with win98 find files "containing text". Then I worked
on some of those files across the network (editing the reg files on a
win98 machine from a winxp machine, and I guess at one point I may have
used notepad). Since on my xp machine the real notepad doesn't
currently exist (metapad renamed as notepad in windows directory), I
cant test to make sure this is what happened.
 
Spacey Spade said:
I created many of these reg files from scratch in MetaPad. And they
were searchable with win98 find files "containing text". Then I worked
on some of those files across the network (editing the reg files on a
win98 machine from a winxp machine, and I guess at one point I may have
used notepad). Since on my xp machine the real notepad doesn't
currently exist (metapad renamed as notepad in windows directory), I
cant test to make sure this is what happened.
Click to expand...

I should add that *.reg files are UNICODE since W2K/XP, before (Win9x/NT4)
they were ASCII/ANSI. XP's Regedit ver 5 can still optionally export *.reg
files as ANSI, so I suppose it can also import ANSI format (didn't check).

Whatever, to check the format of your files you should look at them in Hex
mode (if metapad can do that). To search them you need a content-searcher
that can handle UNICODE.

Don
 
Yes: *.reg files are UNICODE files. Your string "startmenuinit" is actually
contained as "s.t.a.r.t.m.e.n.u.i.n.i.t." where "." stands for a NULL-byte.
Your editor (metapad) converts UNICODE to ASCII before displaying the file.
Click to expand...

On my system (Win XP SP2) both windows search and Agent Ransack ignore
the NULL bytes and find the required search string in *.reg files.
 
OzBo said:
On my system (Win XP SP2) both windows search and Agent Ransack ignore
the NULL bytes and find the required search string in *.reg files.
Click to expand...

Yes, here too (Win XP SP1). Apparently the OP got some XP *.reg files on a
9x system.

Don
 
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