Windows Desktop Search

[Guest]

Ok....I was asked by my boss to find a software that will search the contents
of docuements for Social Security Numbers. All the SSN#'s are in the scheme
xxx-xx-xxxx. I have tried to search using wildcard charecters but apparently
the (-) is a wildcard symbol. Does anyone know of a diffrent software to use
or a better way to use desktop search.

Jason

 

[Guest]

I might be understanding this wrong but does he have a bunch of documents and
he wants to find out which documents have ###-##-#### in them?

If so I believe a solution would be to use Windows' normal search option,
select all files and folders, then use the "A word or phrase in the file:"
option. Put in the serial number in there and select the folder than contains
the documents. This will have Windows search for the SSN within all the
documents and it will give you the results of each document that contains the
SSN searched.

 

[Guest]

I need to find documents with any SSN not a specific SSN.

 

[Guest]

Ahhh, in that case I am not certain sorry.

I need to find documents with any SSN not a specific SSN.

 

[Bob I]

Download and install AgentRansack and use the following as the search text.

[0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]

 

[reclusive monkey]

Ok....I was asked by my boss to find a software that willsearchthe contents
of docuements for Social Security Numbers. All the SSN#'s are in the scheme
xxx-xx-xxxx. I have tried tosearchusing wildcard charecters but apparently
the (-) is a wildcard symbol. Does anyone know of a diffrent software to use
or a better way to usedesktopsearch.

Jason

You can achieve this, but you will have to use cygwin. You can then
"egrep" for the social security pattern in files.

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?egrep