windows xp search

[tascienu]

I have to say that the search functionality in windows xp has been
screw up big time... or Windows xp was made for the elderly...

1. Text search does not search in .vb files. something wich was working
in win 2000!

2. Second, try to search *.dbx files. You will find nothing... it will
say search complete! well, when i go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\MyUser\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{8D32DF8B-D3B8-4783-A0C5-FE37E2FC8659}\Microsoft\

I can well find them there. Huhummm!.. Is windows xp made for the
mentally retarded??? Is there an advanced user settings there that i
can turn on??

I just hate things like not being able to run activex on my hard drive,
etc...

 

[Don Taylor]

I have to say that the search functionality in windows xp has been
screw up big time... or Windows xp was made for the elderly...

1. Text search does not search in .vb files. something wich was working
in win 2000!

Text search doesn't search all kinds of files. .vb isn't one of them.
Only a small selected set of file types will actually be searched.

Others have suggested a variety of search tools not provided by
Microsoft if you want to have it really actually search a file
for text.

2. Second, try to search *.dbx files. You will find nothing... it will
say search complete! well, when i go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\MyUser\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{8D32DF8B-D3B8-4783-A0C5-FE37E2FC8659}\Microsoft\

..dbx isn't one of them.

I can well find them there. Huhummm!.. Is windows xp made for the
mentally retarded???

You might say that

Is there an advanced user settings there that i can turn on??

Searching for FILES, rather than file contents, is also complicated
by a default of not searching for system or hidden files. That you
can change. But for contents you can only change that by getting a
real file search utility from someone else.

I just hate things like not being able to run activex on my hard drive,
etc...

Some others hate having everything being an activex program where you
can't know what it is going to do when you run it on your hard disk.

 

[Uncle Joe]

I have to say that the search functionality in windows xp has been
screw up big time... or Windows xp was made for the elderly...

1. Text search does not search in .vb files. something wich was working
in win 2000!

2. Second, try to search *.dbx files. You will find nothing... it will
say search complete! well, when i go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\MyUser\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{8D32DF8B-D3B8-4783-A0C5-FE37E2FC8659}\Microsoft\

I can well find them there. Huhummm!.. Is windows xp made for the
mentally retarded??? Is there an advanced user settings there that i
can turn on??

I just hate things like not being able to run activex on my hard drive,
etc...

My, aren't we judgmental today.

While others would dispute my claim, I am not mentally retarded
nor elderly. I find XP easy, useful, and stable.

Without adjusting any settings whatsoever, my XP Home search
facility revealed the existence of 177 .dbx files on my two hard drives
when searching using "*.dbx" search pattern.

I have zero *.vb files on my two hard drives so I can't address your
issue of searching text within such files. When I searched for
"*.vb*" files, however, I got three dozen hits for file types such
as .vbx, *.vbs, and so forth.

I did try searching for the phrase "united states" in my *.doc files
and immediately got eight hits before terminating the search. This
reveals that XP search can find text in files if the search pattern is
configured properly.

Did you click on the "more advanced options" arrow in the search
companion panel and then enable the following search options?

1. Search system folders = yes
2. Search hidden files and folders = yes
3. Search subfolders = yes

 

[tascienu]

Sorry for the outburst... I was really pissed of at the time...

yeah, i don't know how you were able to find those files, on my pc, it
does not work. But really i think the search functionality on Windows
2000 was much much better..., and i used it often to search within my
code files for some keywords. The point is, if you tell your computer
to look for a word within "all" files, you expect it to do that...

I know microsoft wants to protect their users from malicious programs
etc... but i think they have screwed long time and experienced
clients... that is why i thought, they could probably provide two
interfaces... 1 - beginners, 2 - advanced.

I hate buying third party tool for something that used to work in
previous versions!

by the way, *.vb is not the same as *.vbs... you can say that java is
not the same as javascript...

T.

 

[Uncle Joe]

by the way, *.vb is not the same as *.vbs... you can say that java is

not the same as javascript...

Oh, I appreciate the difference. Was merely trying to saying that the
search revealed that I had zero *.vb files on my system so I couldn't
search for text within such files. Decided to search for *.vb* to see
what would turn up.

I'm not a big fan of buying third-party tools, either. Have invested far
more in third-party tools than in buying my copy of Win XP Home.

Good luck!

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Hi,

WinXP's search function filters out files to search in based on file
extensions (see further below).

Install the free Agent Ransack, it searches for text strings in *all*
types of files, and not just in a selection of "approved" file
extensions as the built-in search does. In my opinion it is a better
search tool as well...

Download it from here:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/default.aspx

Agent Ransack can save the search result to a file (or clipboard), as text,
comma separated text or tab separated text. E.g. Excel reads comma separated
text (csv) very well.

When searching for text inside files, Agent Ransack is also able to do a
preview of the lines the text was found in (just do a single click on the
found file).
Also, you can use regular expression on both the file name part and the find
text in files part.


If you still want to use the search tool that comes with WinXP to
search for text in files, take a look at this:

Using the "A Word or Phrase in the File" Search Criterion May Not Work
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;309173

Or this:

Add Files to Containing text Searches
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_fix_search.htm

 

[tascienu]

Oh, thank you all for your input. Especially thanks to Torgeir for the
above article... so, there we go i see the brain-dead mentality that
came with WIN XP. So, only "approved" files extensions are searched...
Shouldn't then call it... Search in "Approved File Extensions" instead
of saying... Search "All" ?

Imagine if you tell somebody to go search for a pen in all the
drawers... and he goes he searches only the drawers that are labelled a
certain way... and he comes back and he says... "I've searched all the
drawers, i found no pen". Instead of saying... "I searched "some"
drawers, i found no pen".

That was my point.

Anyway, thanks all for your help, I will evaluate third party software
now...

T.

 

[Bob I]

Unfortunately without that little bit, Search would be chugging through
..avi files too. So just maybe for 99.9% of users, the change is for
better. Point taken and snapped off flush so no one get injured.