Finding Files

[Guest]

How can I search for a text string in ALL files, every single one, I don't
care if it is txt, zip, or other binary file. If it is a file (takes up space
on hard drive), then I want to search it. Currently I can't find anything
because Vista refuses to check files other than txt, doc or other "special"
files. Also, adding special extensions in the index is not a good solution,
cause I could spend all day adding every possible file type combination. For
example, Linux/Unix "grep" is the ideal search tool, which does not ignore
files based on their name (just because a file has a ".exe" ending does not
make it so.)

Thanks,

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

Have you tried:

WINKEY + F

Select All in the menu bar

even perhaps select Advanced Search where I see you can set it to
search hidden etc files, just like in XP and can set the location to
All Local Drives.

 

[Guest]

In the Windows world, "All", means ".txt, .rtf, .doc, and sometimes .zip". I
have tried that already and it does not work. I found a solution by simply
copiyng directories to search to my OpenBSD server, and then using "grep" to
find what I want.

Thanks for the reply though,

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

In the Windows world, "All", means ".txt, .rtf, .doc, and sometimes .zip".

Not necessarily if you work the options.

An alternative to your solution is to install Explorer Plus (aka PowerDesk)
which is a very good file manager that Microsoft really should have bought
and used. It has a Fast Find function and I just it to find "Griffith" in
all of my C: drive that VISTA uses. It's churning away and has found the
name inside a bunch of files -- lex, efg, db, dic, dat, ini, htm.....

If I could think of some text inside an exe file I'd try that too.

You can even set it to show the text inside the file it locates and if there
are multiple references it will list each one with some initial key wording.

 

[Wayne Hertz]

Try XYplorer's (the alternative file manager) Find Files / Contained Text.
It does not care about extensions and simply searches everything.

Wayne