XP searching for files (ZIPs and CABs)

J

Jim Carlock

I'm looking for a particular file...

afx.h

I know which cab it's in. I can see it using an archiver.

However...
when I click on Search,
then upon For Files or Folders...

The search mechanism doesn't see it nor find it. I tell it
what folder to look inside. I tell it to search for a specific
filename:
afx.h

I put check marks in everything under Advanced Options,
except Case sensitive.

Nothing turns up. I double click on the cab file... and the
archiving program displays the file. I extract the contents
of the cab to a subfolder and the file appears all in the
search window now. I compress that folder INTO a ZIP
file and the search window still shows the file as existing.

Now... this means that the XP search engine on this machine
searches through .Zip files but doesn't search through the
Microsoft defined compressed file archives.

What's up with this? I've seen the problem where I couldn't
turn off searching through Zipped files and I always assumed
that it also searched through .cab files but I say it isn't so.

Is this a bug with ONLY my systems?
 
D

David H. Lipman

Install WinZIP http://www.winzip.com/ and you can tell it to look for the string 'afx.h' in
files instead of for file names.

--
Dave




| I'm looking for a particular file...
|
| afx.h
|
| I know which cab it's in. I can see it using an archiver.
|
| However...
| when I click on Search,
| then upon For Files or Folders...
|
| The search mechanism doesn't see it nor find it. I tell it
| what folder to look inside. I tell it to search for a specific
| filename:
| afx.h
|
| I put check marks in everything under Advanced Options,
| except Case sensitive.
|
| Nothing turns up. I double click on the cab file... and the
| archiving program displays the file. I extract the contents
| of the cab to a subfolder and the file appears all in the
| search window now. I compress that folder INTO a ZIP
| file and the search window still shows the file as existing.
|
| Now... this means that the XP search engine on this machine
| searches through .Zip files but doesn't search through the
| Microsoft defined compressed file archives.
|
| What's up with this? I've seen the problem where I couldn't
| turn off searching through Zipped files and I always assumed
| that it also searched through .cab files but I say it isn't so.
|
| Is this a bug with ONLY my systems?
|
| --
| Jim Carlock
| Post replies to newsgroup.
|
|
 
J

Jim Carlock

David, can you do me a favor?

Download a cab file from Microsoft...
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/MSCOMCTL.CAB

Then
1) click on Start
2) click on Search
3) click on For Files or Folders...

Then for the name of the file you'd like to find: MSCOMCTL.INF
Point it to the path where you've downloaded the .CAB file.

Let me know if your system can find it inside of the CAB file?

On my system, it doesn't find anything inside of CAB files, but
it DOES find them inside of ZIP files.

Let me know what's happening on your system?

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to newsgroup.

Install WinZIP http://www.winzip.com/ and you can tell it to look for the string 'afx.h' in
files instead of for file names.

--
Dave




| I'm looking for a particular file...
|
| afx.h
|
| I know which cab it's in. I can see it using an archiver.
|
| However...
| when I click on Search,
| then upon For Files or Folders...
|
| The search mechanism doesn't see it nor find it. I tell it
| what folder to look inside. I tell it to search for a specific
| filename:
| afx.h
|
| I put check marks in everything under Advanced Options,
| except Case sensitive.
|
| Nothing turns up. I double click on the cab file... and the
| archiving program displays the file. I extract the contents
| of the cab to a subfolder and the file appears all in the
| search window now. I compress that folder INTO a ZIP
| file and the search window still shows the file as existing.
|
| Now... this means that the XP search engine on this machine
| searches through .Zip files but doesn't search through the
| Microsoft defined compressed file archives.
|
| What's up with this? I've seen the problem where I couldn't
| turn off searching through Zipped files and I always assumed
| that it also searched through .cab files but I say it isn't so.
|
| Is this a bug with ONLY my systems?
|
| --
| Jim Carlock
| Post replies to newsgroup.
|
|
 
D

David H. Lipman

Jim:

With WinZIP 9.0 SR1 installed on Win2K SP4 I had no problem finding the INF file in that CAB
file.

I don't have an WinXP box on hand to test with :-(

--
Dave




| David, can you do me a favor?
|
| Download a cab file from Microsoft...
| http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/MSCOMCTL.CAB
|
| Then
| 1) click on Start
| 2) click on Search
| 3) click on For Files or Folders...
|
| Then for the name of the file you'd like to find: MSCOMCTL.INF
| Point it to the path where you've downloaded the .CAB file.
|
| Let me know if your system can find it inside of the CAB file?
|
| On my system, it doesn't find anything inside of CAB files, but
| it DOES find them inside of ZIP files.
|
| Let me know what's happening on your system?
|
| --
| Jim Carlock
| Post replies to newsgroup.
 
J

Jim Carlock

I'm using PowerArchiver instead of WinZip. I wonder if I
should send the guy who made the program a message. I
thought it was a bug in XP. I think it behaves this way on
Win2K as well.

I'll have to send Ivan Petrovic a message and see what he
has to say. I don't see the options to tell Explorer to search
specific archives or whatnot. I wonder if it's possible to put
an option in the registry so that people can tell Explorer to
search archives or not search archives...

Thanks for helping. I'll be sending Ivan an email asking him
about it.

--
Jim Carlock
Post replies to newsgroup.

Jim:

With WinZIP 9.0 SR1 installed on Win2K SP4 I had no problem
finding the INF file in that CAB file.

I don't have an WinXP box on hand to test with :-(

--
Dave


:
| David, can you do me a favor?
|
| Download a cab file from Microsoft...
| http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/MSCOMCTL.CAB
|
| Then
| 1) click on Start
| 2) click on Search
| 3) click on For Files or Folders...
|
| Then for the name of the file you'd like to find: MSCOMCTL.INF
| Point it to the path where you've downloaded the .CAB file.
|
| Let me know if your system can find it inside of the CAB file?
|
| On my system, it doesn't find anything inside of CAB files, but
| it DOES find them inside of ZIP files.
|
| Let me know what's happening on your system?
|
| --
| Jim Carlock
| Post replies to newsgroup.
 
D

David Candy

Zips are treated as folders. Folders are searched so thus are zips. If you remove the namespace extension then zips will be unknown files (but Windows can still open them as there are a set of failsafe open commands) and not searched by default, but if they are it will be searched as text files.
 
R

Ron Sommer

I found MSCOMCTL.INF by searching for the file or searching for a word or
phrase in a file.
 

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