search for files/documents

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Many times when I use search to try to find files or documents Iget 'no
fesults to display'. I get this message even when I know the name of the file
and where it is located. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
 
Can't Find Files, Containing text........
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_fix_search.htm

Using the "A Word or Phrase in the File" Search Criterion May Not Work
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q309173

Content Search Does Not Search All File Types for the Specified String
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q309447

Searching for files:-
Asterisk/star (*) Use the asterisk/star as a substitute for zero or more characters.
If you are looking for a file that you know starts with "gloss" but you cannot
remember the rest of the file name, type the following: gloss*
This locates all files of any file type that begin with "gloss" including
Glossary.txt, Glossary.doc, and Glossy.doc. To narrow the search to a specific type
of file, type: gloss*.doc

This locates all files that begin with "gloss" but have the file name extension .doc,
such as Glossary.doc and Glossy.doc.

Question mark (?) Use the question mark as a substitute for a single character in a
name. For example, if you type gloss?.doc, you will locate the file Glossy.doc or
Gloss1.doc but not Glossary.doc.
(Copied from Help and Support)
 
Many times when I use search to try to find files or documents Iget 'no
fesults to display'. I get this message even when I know the name of the file
and where it is located. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
Click to expand...

Some folders are excluded with the default search settings. May want to
check those preferences and adjust. Marking the choice to include "hidden
and system folders" might help.
 
Sharon F said:
Some folders are excluded with the default search settings. May want
to
check those preferences and adjust. Marking the choice to include
"hidden
and system folders" might help.
Click to expand...

I was able to add the key to do away with search assistant but I would
like to set the "advanced options" box, the "search subfolders" box
and "the search hidden files and folders" box to default to being
checked. Do you know how to do that?

cmsix
 
I was able to add the key to do away with search assistant but I would
like to set the "advanced options" box, the "search subfolders" box
and "the search hidden files and folders" box to default to being
checked. Do you know how to do that?
Click to expand...

You can set that up in Search preferences. It should hold the setting from
one search to the next. That's how I have mine set up. Although I rarely
use it these days, I didn't do anything other than set preferences and they
"stick" from one search to the next.

Personally, I prefer alternative search tools to the one that is included
in XP. Agent Ransack is free. I used that for a while and then upgraded to
the shareware, File Locator Pro by the same company: www.mythicsoft.com
 
Jim said:
Many times when I use search to try to find files or documents Iget 'no
fesults to display'. I get this message even when I know the name of the file
and where it is located. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
Click to expand...

I have two theories. One, if the files for which you are searching are new,
it's possible that the indexing service has not yet had a chance to index
those files (indexing takes places only while the computer is idle). Two,
there's something wrong with the indexing service, in which case I'd
recommend disabling it through the "change preferences" button. Good luck.
 
I have same situation like here. When I go to help and it also tell me "Click
change preferences" button. But I cannot find this button. Can you tell me
where and how I can find this button?

Thanks,
Jenny
 
First, try reopening the search window. Do not select any of the searching
modes. If it's there, the "change preferences" button would be at the bottom
of the list in the search companion explorer bar (on the left side of the
screen).

(The rest of this post is based on a help article, "Change the appearance of
Search Companion" in the Help and Support Center, which can be accessed from
the help menu in a search window or from the Start Menu. (Incidentally,
there is generally no good reason to search from the Start Menu. Just go to
the folder you want to search and press ctrl+f.)) If that doesn't work, try
this: Click Start, then Search. Select Change Preferences, then Without
Indexing Service.
 
Thanks for you response!
Just don't know why? I think it lost the "change preferences" button
somehow. I tried what you told me here, but still cannot find it. I forgot
this is XP. right now I only can see is SearchOptions (has some choice under
there), and Search for other items with "Files or Folders", "Computers", ....
When I search on key words, I know it in that folder or files, but it always
shows me "Search is complete. There are no results to display".

Thanks,
Jenny
 
Hi, I've just read through this thread as I've got a very similar, but
slightly different problem which is probably caused the same thing. I have
multiple files I know contain a certain string but only some of them are
found. I have followed the advice you've suggested i.e. disable the
indexing,but without success. The exact same files are on my other PC which
runs win2000 and the exact same search finds all of the files. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Scott
 
Hi, I've just read through this thread as I've got a very similar, but
slightly different problem which is probably caused the same thing. I have
multiple files I know contain a certain string but only some of them are
found. I have followed the advice you've suggested i.e. disable the
indexing,but without success. The exact same files are on my other PC which
runs win2000 and the exact same search finds all of the files. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Scott
Click to expand...

You can edit each file type that you want included in the text search or
use a nice little tool that MVP Doug Knox has created that does it
automatically for you:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_filefilter.htm

Or use an alternative find tool such as Agent Ransack from
www.mythicsoft.com
 
Sharon,

I've have downloaded Agent Ransack as suggested and it does seem to be very
good so far.
It does bother me a bit still that XP's search tool doesn't always work now
when I've used the built-in search tool in several different versions of
windows for years and never had any problems. It did cause me several hours
of worry that I'd been working on old versions of code. Nevermind, I'll just
use agent ransack from now on.

Thanks

Scott
 
ok, explain how it doesn't find files that I know contain a particular string
when it searches for it. A step by step dummy guide would be appreciated.
 
So users don't get lots of stupid hits when they are seaching for their documents, XP's search only search registered document files for text. So the files you want searched, if they should be searched, then the supplier of the program would have supplied a filter.

XP comes with 4 filters

Text (unicode or ANSI depending on the files header). Note previous versions would not find unicode text in files not marked unicode just like XP.
HTML for IE and OE
Office
and Binary. Binary is the default for files not registered. This only searched properties of a file not content.

So the manufacturer of the program that uses you files should have supplied a filter.

The principal is that USER DATA is searched not the program's data. Search is for USERS not programmers.

You can of course use any of the supplied filters on any filetpe by changing the registration (look at .txt\PersistantHandler in the registry). You can also make text the default for all files as well (Post SP1) or the default for unregistered file types (XP Gold).

Windows search is very smart. The GUI interface to it is simple - basically you can type stuff in Containing Text field. It can generate abstracts of documents (but not in the UI from Start Search), do really advanced boolean and other types of queries.

From Help
There are five kinds of queries:

a.. Free-text queries
b.. Phrase queries
c.. Pattern-matching queries
d.. Relational queries
e.. Vector-space queries (You can assign weighting factors to control the relative importance of terms in the ranking of results. Weights can range from 0.0 to 1.0. For example, in the vector-space query light, bulb, both terms have equal weight in the ranking of results. In the query: {weight value=.3} light, {weight value=.1} bulb,
{weight value=.6} light bulb, the term "light" is three times more important than the term "bulb," and the phrase "light bulb" is twice as important as the term "light." If no weight is specified, Indexing Service uses a weight of 1.0 by default. For more information about term weighting, see Term weighting. )

Note this is probably what does searching on MS's web site (as it was an Internet Site Search Engine before it became Windows Search).

The advanced features and Help are available in Indexing Server in Computer Management under Services and Applications.
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Scottb said:
ok, explain how it doesn't find files that I know contain a particular string
when it searches for it. A step by step dummy guide would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
David, thanks for the explanation. In my scenario it is just a simple text
string ( in plain text files files (happens to be sql commands written using
notepad and saved as .sql but could be .txt for all intents and purposes)
that I am looking for.

I search 'All or part of the file name:' - *.*
'A word or phrase in the file'- a single word e.g. CustomersTab

There's nothing complicated but it only finds a subset of the files I know
for sure contain this string. This exact same search works on my win2000 PC.

I appreciate that XP's search tools is probably very clever under the covers
but if you can't rely on it bringing back 100% correct results I think it's
fair to say it doesn't work properly. Would you not agree?
 
No. It's designed to not search SQL files. Why would a user want to search program files. If you want your user to search your application files add a filter for that file type. But the user will start getting totally irrelevent hits on their searches for their documents. The SQL program supplier decided users didn't need to see the contents of the SQL files else they would have supplied a filter (or used the text filter).

Older versions of windows support programers and hackers at the cost of useless results to users (99.999999% of the people that pay money to MS).
 
David, I assume from your response you're not a programmer. An sql file is
actually just a text file with a different extension but it could just as
well be a .txt. in Windows terms, it is like a .INI file. Nothing more. It is
not a application file as there is no particular application that is needed
to open it. It really just is a text file that contains sql commands but with
a commonly used naming standard to identify it as such. It is just a plain
old text file that happens to contain sql commands and so I would expect to
to be searched.
 
I am a programmer and I know what SQL files are (although I was a BQL programmer). WTF would a user want to search them.They are a program file. They do not contain pictures of babies, resumes, sales proposals. They contain a SQL program.

You are obviously an incompetent programmer with the incompetent advisers in this thread.
As you have no idea of proramming perhaps you shold give it away.

I can use search, you can't. 99.9999% of users can use it, you can't.
 
David, What do you think sql stands for if you think you can have a SQL
program unless you're talking about PL/SQL which is generally identified by
..pks & .pkb extensions. I'm talking about SQL. (It's Structured Query
Language, btw. It's used for interrogating databases such as Oracle, mysql,
SQLserver etc) All developers, no matter which language they use ('though
maybe BQL is different), often need to find references to particular code
modules in other files. Using a search tool allows them to do this.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I was looking for some help on a specific
problems with XP's search not to get dragged into comparing technical
abilities. I've never come across BQL in the 10 years I've been working as
a certified developer for a large IT consultancy firm so I wouldn't comment
on it unless I had something constructive to say. It's always good when
people jump into a thread to give abuse but can't actually contribute any
useful advice.
 
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