Search text in files

[Emil Horowitz]

Hello,

in Win98 it all was so easy: Enter file-mask or leave field empty, enter
contained text, hit F3 - and see the results. Nothing of this seems to work
in Windows XP (Home Edition). Though the search section offers input fiels
for file names and contained text, I never get any results, even when
searching for a known text in a known file. I can't believe that this simple
and useful function has been complicated to such an extent that you have to
know about file types and change settings before every search. Or is it just
a bug?

Could anyone help?

Thank you,
Emil Horowitz

 

[Guest]

I had the same question, and found that the text searches on the contents of files only work with certain basic, well-known file formats (such as pure text).

See the following Knowledge Base articles for more details:

309173 Using the "A Word or Phrase in the File" Search Criterion May Not Work
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309173

309447 Content Search Does Not Search All File Types for the Specified String
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309447

Hope this helps!

 

[Hilary Karp]

Try AgentRansack. It's a good free replacement.
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/default.aspx

 

[Alex Nichol]

in Win98 it all was so easy: Enter file-mask or leave field empty, enter
contained text, hit F3 - and see the results. Nothing of this seems to work
in Windows XP (Home Edition). Though the search section offers input fiels
for file names and contained text, I never get any results, even when
searching for a known text in a known file.

It only searches for text in a very limited number of types - they must
either have registry entries saying they are pure Text (.TXT and not
much else) or have known 'filters' to handle embedded format controls,
so that Search can avoid being confused by thinking those are characters
in 16 bit Unicode (eg .doc, .htm). You can add an additional type as
pure text provided you know that it *is* that, and that it does not
already have a 'PersistentHandler' in the registry. Make the following,
after - - start and before - - end into a file by cut/paste to NotePad.
Make sure there is a blank line at the end. Save as "Patch.reg" then
d-click on this file to enter it into the registry.
This is for .log - modify that for other extensions, with care.

- - start
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.log\PersistentHandler]
@="{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"


- - end