Search in Text doesn't work in XP?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Gregg
  • Start date Start date
B

Bill Gregg

I'm a developer, and I've just started using a new
machine with Windows XP professional. Normally, I use
windows Search utility to find code references in my Web
sites. This involves searching through folder on a
mapped network drive.

Today was the first time I used Search and I tried to
find all files that had the text "BuildIRPSearchPage".
At first I specified the entire web. No results. Then I
went to the folder that had the 1 page (.ASP file) that I
was sure had this text. No results.

Finally, I removed the text search altogether and just
specified the file name in the file name box. My page
was returned. I opened the page the Search found with
notepad, copied "BuildIRPSearchPage" directly from the
page and pasted it into the text search box, reran the
search and NO RESULTS WERE DISPLAYED!!!! In other words,
I cut text directly from a page that it had returned,
added that text to my search criteria and now the file
was no longer being returned.

IT'S BROKEN!! Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing
something incredibly stupid?

Bill Gregg
 
Any chance the files are in a 'hidden' folder? And, you're entering your search terms into the second box 'A word or phrase in the file:'?
I'm a developer, and I've just started using a new
machine with Windows XP professional. Normally, I use
windows Search utility to find code references in my Web
sites. This involves searching through folder on a
mapped network drive.

Today was the first time I used Search and I tried to
find all files that had the text "BuildIRPSearchPage".
At first I specified the entire web. No results. Then I
went to the folder that had the 1 page (.ASP file) that I
was sure had this text. No results.

Finally, I removed the text search altogether and just
specified the file name in the file name box. My page
was returned. I opened the page the Search found with
notepad, copied "BuildIRPSearchPage" directly from the
page and pasted it into the text search box, reran the
search and NO RESULTS WERE DISPLAYED!!!! In other words,
I cut text directly from a page that it had returned,
added that text to my search criteria and now the file
was no longer being returned.

IT'S BROKEN!! Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing
something incredibly stupid?

Bill Gregg
 
XP is definitely VERY fragile in this regard. Most of our XP Pro systems
are now "broken" as well...and no text-based searches work...
 
from the wonderful said:
XP is definitely VERY fragile in this regard. Most of our XP Pro systems
are now "broken" as well...and no text-based searches work...
Click to expand...

The text search relies on some filters which tell it a) what files to
bother to search at all, and b) how to extract text from them. Basically
it doesn't do what you think, or what text search =used= to do.

There are registry tweaks to add new file types for searching, but
frankly the best thing to do is to 'dump the dog', and use a 3rd party
search tool..
e.g. http://www.agentransack.com/index.asp (the price is right).

Pity the WinXP Fisher-Price-Disney coding team got carried away with
'form' and ignored the function. 8>.
 
See www.dougknox.com, Win XP Fixes, Windows XP Search Problems, Can't Find
Files....... Containing Text for a partial work around for this issue. As
GSV said, some users are switching to Agent Ransack to work around XP's
Search limitations.
 
Bill Gregg said:
I'm a developer, and I've just started using a new
machine with Windows XP professional. Normally, I use
windows Search utility to find code references in my Web
sites. This involves searching through folder on a
mapped network drive.

Today was the first time I used Search and I tried to
find all files that had the text "BuildIRPSearchPage".
At first I specified the entire web. No results. Then I
went to the folder that had the 1 page (.ASP file) that I
was sure had this text. No results.

Finally, I removed the text search altogether and just
specified the file name in the file name box. My page
was returned. I opened the page the Search found with
notepad, copied "BuildIRPSearchPage" directly from the
page and pasted it into the text search box, reran the
search and NO RESULTS WERE DISPLAYED!!!! In other words,
I cut text directly from a page that it had returned,
added that text to my search criteria and now the file
was no longer being returned.

IT'S BROKEN!! Has anyone else seen this? Am I doing
something incredibly stupid?
Click to expand...

Did you use the Advanced Search options like "search subfolders"? The
basic Search function is very limited.
 
Back
Top