Search with "A word or phrase in file" -- broken AGAIN!!!!

[dkiernan]

Did Microsoft "undo" the fix offered in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309173, titled
"Using the "A word or phrase in the file" search criterion may not
work"????

I *used* to be able to enter this fix directly and search through any
file extension for the text of my choosing (usually .asp, .inc,
or .sql files). However, with my latest PC, I made the change as
directed by the KB and it doesn't work. So, I went over to a 2003
server that I know had the same change made -- now *that* machine will
also not find text in *.asp files.

It seems that MS has "undone" even the registry hack. (I've tried
both using the method of going through the indexing properties and
directly using regedit).

It seems preposterous to have to add a PersistentHandler for *every*
file type I *might* possibly search through.

If someone has a fix for the recent unfix, I'd be quite interested in
it. Rather not install 3rd party software to do something that SHOULD
BE NATIVE!!!

This is soooooo frustrating!!!!

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Read this.

Windows® XP - Search Problems
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_bad_search.htm

Then get this.

xp_persisthandler.vbs - Enable XP's "Search" to find text in files.
© Doug Knox - rev 2/5/2002
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_fix_search.htm

More information here.

Using the "A word or phrase in the file" search criterion may not work
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[dkiernan]

Thanks for the response. However, I had already read that MS article,
as I mentioned. The Method 2 fix -- which, incidentally used to work
-- does not work anymore.

I also indicated that I was aware of the persistent handler method,
but in my opinion that seems like an assinine thing to have to
manually add *any* file type that I *might* search through -- worse
yet, have the information I am desparately searching be in some file
extension that doesn't have persistent handler.

To me, a better solution is to have a search for *.* actually search
*.*. If MS really wants to protect the noobs from themselves, use the
"hide file extesions for known filetypes" as the switch to determine
whether *.* searches every file.

Alas..it is not up to me.

So, returning to my original question(s),
1) did microsoft "undo" their original workaround for this (IMO) dumb
behavior?
2) is there a new workaround for this that does not require a) a
separate reg hack for every possible file extension or b) third party
software (e.g., agent ransack, google desktop, etc.).


--David.

 

[frodo]

from reading those links you should have come to understand that it just
doesn't work so great! I can't answer your exact question, ie did they
un-fix it. Even when fixed it doesn't do "search within a file's context"
very well.

If that is something you do a lot, it would be very worthwhile to install
a good "desktop search" tool. Google and Yahoo both offer one, and there
are several others too (MS has one too; it's similar to the capability in
Vista). The Google tool is very good at "text inside a file" searches, but
searching on a file's name is not intuative. Yahoo's tool does that well,
along with the other types of search, but its interface is way more
cluttered (it's based on Copernic X1, a for-$$ long time favorite of many
folks). They are all free, so try them out, one by one.