Windows Explorer Search in WinXP

[Viviana Vc]

Hi all,

Until now I have used Windows 2000, and these days I switched to Windows
XP SP2. Now I'm having the following problem with the Windows Explorer
Search in WinXP (I'll describe the steps to reproduce):
- create a directory eg MY_DIR
- create in this dir a file momo.txt in which write the text "lolo"
- make a copy of momo.txt in the same dir and rename it to momo.pm
- use Windows Explorer to make a search into MY_DIR directory for all
files that contain the "lolo" string
=> even if the content of momo.txt and momo.pm is identical, only
momo.txt is found. In Windows 2000 this was not a problem.

I used TweakUI to change the search to be like Windows 2k, but this
doesn't really affect the actual search. How can I change the behaviour,
so that in the above scenario both files to be found as containing the
"lolo" string?

Thx,
Viv

 

[chris]

Hi all,

Until now I have used Windows 2000, and these days I switched to Windows
XP SP2. Now I'm having the following problem with the Windows Explorer
Search in WinXP (I'll describe the steps to reproduce):
- create a directory eg MY_DIR
- create in this dir a file momo.txt in which write the text "lolo"
- make a copy of momo.txt in the same dir and rename it to momo.pm
- use Windows Explorer to make a search into MY_DIR directory for all
files that contain the "lolo" string
=> even if the content of momo.txt and momo.pm is identical, only
momo.txt is found. In Windows 2000 this was not a problem.

I used TweakUI to change the search to be like Windows 2k, but this
doesn't really affect the actual search. How can I change the behaviour,
so that in the above scenario both files to be found as containing the
"lolo" string?

Thx,
Viv

Are you renaming the file momo.pm, or momo.pm.txt? If you are acually
renaming it momo.pm (meaning you go in to notepad and save it with the
option "all files" or you have hide extensions turned off) you are
changing the extension of this file to .pm, and windows will not search
it for text because it does not know it is a text file. Perhaps this
works in 2000, i don't know, but I doubt it. XP will only search files
it knows are text files.

 

[Major Tom]

Hi all,

Until now I have used Windows 2000, and these days I switched to Windows
XP SP2. Now I'm having the following problem with the Windows Explorer
Search in WinXP (I'll describe the steps to reproduce):
- create a directory eg MY_DIR
- create in this dir a file momo.txt in which write the text "lolo"
- make a copy of momo.txt in the same dir and rename it to momo.pm
- use Windows Explorer to make a search into MY_DIR directory for all
files that contain the "lolo" string
=> even if the content of momo.txt and momo.pm is identical, only
momo.txt is found. In Windows 2000 this was not a problem.

I used TweakUI to change the search to be like Windows 2k, but this
doesn't really affect the actual search. How can I change the behaviour,
so that in the above scenario both files to be found as containing the
"lolo" string?

Thx,
Viv

It appears to be dependant on the file extension. If you change .PM to .DOC or .HTM or .JS it will find the
text.
When asked to find a text string, it looks like XP only searches files it expects to contain text.
Even if you associate a .PM file with Notepad the search still fails.

Somebody else will know more about it I guess.

Major Tom.

 

[Sinner]

It appears to be dependant on the file extension. If you change .PM to
.DOC or .HTM or .JS it will find the text.
When asked to find a text string, it looks like XP only searches files it
expects to contain text.
Even if you associate a .PM file with Notepad the search still fails.

Somebody else will know more about it I guess.

After testing it myself, I reached the same conclusion. I didn't test it
with the indexing service turned on though. I don't know if that would make
a difference.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

All TweakUI does is allow you you to use Classic Search, gets rid of the
cartoon crap.

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

 

[Viviana Vc]

I tried also with indexing service on, but still didn't work. This is
pretty annoying as I can't trust anymore the Windows Explorer search.

 

[Viviana Vc]

Chris --

This works indeed in Windows 2k, as actuallly stated by MS article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173
"In Microsoft Windows 2000 and earlier versions of Windows, all files
are searched for the content that you specify. Windows XP does not
search all file to enhance the performance of searching and to avoid
extraneous results."

Wesley --

THX a lot for the links you sent me. At the first glance it looked like
there is no way out, meaning no way to set the behaviour like in Win2k,
as it looks like you have to set some registry stuff for each file type
you want, but I want _all_.
But in the end I did what's written in:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173 -> "Method 2" which seems to be
exactly what I want: Win2k behaviour, meaning searching _all_ files, not
just the ones specified in the registry.
After doing this, in the sample above the momo.pm is found.

Thx again
Viv

 

[Michael Bednarek]

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:25:46 +0200, Viviana Vc <[email protected]>
wrote in (!!!) [microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, alt.os.windows.xp,
alt.os.windows-xp, microsoft.public.windowsxp.customize,]
alt.windows-xp:

Until now I have used Windows 2000, and these days I switched to Windows
XP SP2. Now I'm having the following problem with the Windows Explorer
Search in WinXP (I'll describe the steps to reproduce):
- create a directory eg MY_DIR
- create in this dir a file momo.txt in which write the text "lolo"
- make a copy of momo.txt in the same dir and rename it to momo.pm
- use Windows Explorer to make a search into MY_DIR directory for all
files that contain the "lolo" string
=> even if the content of momo.txt and momo.pm is identical, only
momo.txt is found. In Windows 2000 this was not a problem.

I used TweakUI to change the search to be like Windows 2k, but this
doesn't really affect the actual search. How can I change the behaviour,
so that in the above scenario both files to be found as containing the
"lolo" string?

Not reproducible here (NT5.1-SP2, fully patched, indexing disabled),
both files are listed as found.

[F'up set to ng where found.]

 

[Major Tom]

I tried also with indexing service on, but still didn't work. This is
pretty annoying as I can't trust anymore the Windows Explorer search.

You can get it to work with a one line registry hack.
If you are not comfortable editing the registry do this:
Create a blank text document, copy and paste this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex]
"FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions"=dword:00000001

Close the document, change extension from TXT to REG, right-click and select ' Merge '.

(To undo, change the 1 to a 0 in the last line.)

Major Tom.

 

[Damian]

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:25:46 +0200, Viviana Vc <[email protected]>
wrote in (!!!) [microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, alt.os.windows.xp,
alt.os.windows-xp, microsoft.public.windowsxp.customize,]
alt.windows-xp:

Until now I have used Windows 2000, and these days I switched to
Windows XP SP2. Now I'm having the following problem with the
Windows Explorer Search in WinXP (I'll describe the steps to
reproduce):
- create a directory eg MY_DIR
- create in this dir a file momo.txt in which write the text "lolo"
- make a copy of momo.txt in the same dir and rename it to momo.pm
- use Windows Explorer to make a search into MY_DIR directory for all
files that contain the "lolo" string
=> even if the content of momo.txt and momo.pm is identical, only
momo.txt is found. In Windows 2000 this was not a problem.

I used TweakUI to change the search to be like Windows 2k, but this
doesn't really affect the actual search. How can I change the
behaviour, so that in the above scenario both files to be found as
containing the "lolo" string?

Not reproducible here (NT5.1-SP2, fully patched, indexing disabled),
both files are listed as found.

[F'up set to ng where found.]

Groups snipped by usenet nazi Michael Bednarek restored.

 

[Viviana Vc]

Thx Tom,

I actually followd the steps from:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173 -> "Method 2"
and now everything seems to work as Win2k.

Viv

I tried also with indexing service on, but still didn't work. This is
pretty annoying as I can't trust anymore the Windows Explorer search.

You can get it to work with a one line registry hack.
If you are not comfortable editing the registry do this:
Create a blank text document, copy and paste this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex]
"FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions"=dword:00000001

Close the document, change extension from TXT to REG, right-click and select ' Merge '.

(To undo, change the 1 to a 0 in the last line.)

Major Tom.

 

[Sinner]

I tried also with indexing service on, but still didn't work. This is
pretty annoying as I can't trust anymore the Windows Explorer search.

You can get it to work with a one line registry hack.
If you are not comfortable editing the registry do this:
Create a blank text document, copy and paste this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex]
"FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions"=dword:00000001

Close the document, change extension from TXT to REG, right-click and
select ' Merge '.

Excellent fix.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Keep having fun, Viv. ;-)

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Major Tom]

I tried also with indexing service on, but still didn't work. This is
pretty annoying as I can't trust anymore the Windows Explorer search.

You can get it to work with a one line registry hack.
If you are not comfortable editing the registry do this:
Create a blank text document, copy and paste this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex]
"FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions"=dword:00000001

Close the document, change extension from TXT to REG, right-click and
select ' Merge '.

Excellent fix.

Just between you and me I pinched it from here!
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/tools/

Major Tom.