File searches with Windows Explorer

[Don Culp]

In Windows Explorer, if I search for txt files with the following option:

All or part of a file name: txt

then numerous txt files are returned.

However, if I try to narrow the search for a specific word among the txt
files (e.g., the word "the") with the following option:

A word or phrase in the file: the

then no files are returned, even though I know that there are multiple txt
files that contain the word "the".

How can I find such files?

(Win XP Pro, SP2)

Thanks,
Don Culp

 

[Don Culp]

Interestingly, if I use a networked computer (Win 2000, SP2) to search the
specified folders for files containing the specified text, then the search
works as expected.

Don Culp

 

[Bob I]

Nothing particularly surprising if you know that the "search" in XP was
made smarter so as not to bother looking in what it has not been told
are text containing files. Win2k will blindly slog through every thing
while XP will skip the "non text" files.