How to Find Text in a File

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Guest

I'm trying to find text in a file. Should be easy, right? Press F3.

My legal, licenced, French version, fresh install does not behave as I would
expect it.
Here is how I do it, with a rough translation from French to English:

I press F3,
Select: "All files and all folders"
Type "a word or phrase in a file"
Select: "Advanced options"
Check: "search in all sub-folders"

About 6 sub-folder levels higher, I know this text string "xyz123" exists in
a PHP (plain text) file called "config.php".

Yet when I press "search" it never finds "xyz123" in any file, including,
especially "config.php".

Am I going nuts, or does Win XP Pro do something diferent than good old
Win98?????

How do I find a text string in a file? Or how can I report this very strange
problem?

Come on, this should be easy?

John
 
You know what I'm not the only one!

I think MSoft decided to go MACstyle and do quick searches with Only reading
the header/Markup info for each file - and your php/text file don't have any
so MSsearch skips it.

Search internet for switching search over to the classic style - it maybe
slower but at least you know it's searching.

Not an IE certified PRO
 
I'm trying to find text in a file. Should be easy, right? Press F3.

My legal, licenced, French version, fresh install does not behave as I
would
expect it.
Here is how I do it, with a rough translation from French to English:

I press F3,
Select: "All files and all folders"
Type "a word or phrase in a file"
Select: "Advanced options"
Check: "search in all sub-folders"

About 6 sub-folder levels higher, I know this text string "xyz123" exists
in
a PHP (plain text) file called "config.php".

Yet when I press "search" it never finds "xyz123" in any file, including,
especially "config.php".

Am I going nuts, or does Win XP Pro do something diferent than good old
Win98?????

How do I find a text string in a file? Or how can I report this very
strange
problem?

Come on, this should be easy?

John
Click to expand...

XP will only look in files with certain file extensions for text. See this
KB article on how to register additional file extensions.

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

Doug Knox has a script that helps with this issue.
http://www.dougknox.com/
Win XP Fixes
Windows XP Search Problems
Can't Find Files, Containing text........

As an alternative to XP's search some people use the free search utility
Agent Ransack
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/
 
jtjohnston said:
I'm trying to find text in a file. Should be easy, right? Press F3.

My legal, licenced, French version, fresh install does not behave as I would
expect it.
Here is how I do it, with a rough translation from French to English:

I press F3,
Select: "All files and all folders"
Type "a word or phrase in a file"
Select: "Advanced options"
Check: "search in all sub-folders"

About 6 sub-folder levels higher, I know this text string "xyz123" exists in
a PHP (plain text) file called "config.php".

Yet when I press "search" it never finds "xyz123" in any file, including,
especially "config.php".

Am I going nuts, or does Win XP Pro do something diferent than good old
Win98?????

How do I find a text string in a file? Or how can I report this very strange
problem?

Come on, this should be easy?

John
Click to expand...
Agent Ransack is freeware that is much faster and has more options than
Windows' built-in search routine. Do a Google search.

Bill
 
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