In windows 7 - I want to search for all files containing "A word or phrase in the file". The standard XP search box.

Anonymous

In Windows 7 - I want to search/find all files containing "A word or phrase in the file". The old standard XP search box.

I do NOT supply: file name; file type; drive letter; etc. - nothing.

I tried searching for this - just can't find any discussion. And of course, not having this search would be insane. It is precisely what we have a computer for.

And no 3rd party programs are allowed.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

I've been looking into this because I know the search has been failing for me. I think the difference in whether Windows search works or not depends on the FILE EXTENSION which contains your search text. For example, if you look for the word "spam", it will be found if it is in a whatever.doc file, or whatever.txt file. However, if you were to rename the file to whatever.xyz, it will no longer find the word.

Here are all the steps I think you need to follow to actually search:

Make sure that Windows 7 is actually going to search files with your extension, and it appears that using this list properly is important *whether or not you are looking in an indexed location*!!

a. Hit the start button and type "search" in the search box.

b. Select "Change How Windows Searches"

c. Hit "Advanced"

d. Select the "File Types" tab.

e. Make sure the file extension for the files you want to search in is on the list *and* is set to "Index Properties and File Contents" (yes, pick your jaw up off the floor). I know this appears to be for file indexing, but it does seem to make a difference on whether you find the file in non-indexed locations as well.

f. Say "Ok" and exit all the dialog boxes

2. Actually perform your search on the folder in question. Depending on some other settings you may have to type "content: spam" to find "spam" *in* the files instead of files with the word "spam" in the name. Alternately, if you press the "Alt" key when you're exploring in the folder, you can choose "Tools / Folder Options" go to the "Search" tab and select "Always search file names and contents".

If what I have written is actually correct, then IMHO Microsoft has coughed up the ball bigtime on this one. Personally, I now recognize that I can't use the search feature, and I'm installing Cygwin so I can use "grep" to search the contents of files. Not cool and not amused.

Good luck to all the searchers.

~Pete

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Anonymous

To get your suggestion to the right people at Microsoft, please go to the Give Us Feedback for Windows 7 page.

Boulder Computer Maven

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Volunteer Moderator

There is an option that seems to match what you're looking for:

If this was helpful, please vote by clicking the green triangle. If it solves the issue, click Propose as Answer. Thanks!

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Anonymous

To find "phrase in the file" type content:"phrase in the file" in the searchbox.

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Anonymous

2013-01-09T20:21:53+00:00

Actually, when I did it, I used the colon. I just typed it incorrectly in the message.

To be sure, I did it again. content:~="Soon, a doctor visit"

Same response - no items match your search.

Then I actually went to the folder where the file was. Did it again. Same response.

I looked at the search box where I typed the statement. This is what it said:

content:~="Soon, a doctor visit""

Notice the second quote. I didn't put it there. I deleted it. Pressed [Enter] to search again. The second quote reappears. I don't know why. It's obviously causing the statement not to work.

But you see my point. There's always SOMETHING. I spent WEEKS trying to get Windows 7 Search to work in some kind of normal fashion (go back through the threads and you will see everything I tried). No matter what I did, there was always something else that needed to be tweaked. Reading through the 32 pages of comments (which may be 33 by now) compiled over three years and you will find dozens of tweaks, reasons it didn't work right, settings that need to be changed, syntax that has to be perfect.

At what point do we just say "It doesn't work."? I passed that point years ago.

Why can't Microsoft just put the Windows XP search back? No syntax to get perfect. No command lines to remember. No limited list of extensions it will search. No settings to change to get it to look in more than one folder. No indexing to slow down your machine. Just go into search, click on the options, type what you are looking for and voila! the list of files that meet your criteria was there. Every Time. Reliably. Never failed. It is so senseless that Microsoft took a wonderful well-working program and replaced it with garbage.

It's only because of the poor design of this discussion board that people come here, read the first few posts, and don't realize that there's 32 more pages of posts to read before they get the whole story. If the ending posts showed up first instead of the beginning posts, people would know, without reading 32 pages of threads, that the answer is "It doesn't work". At least they wouldn't end up wasting all the hours that I have wasted trying to get Windows 7 search to work reliably.

And did anyone notice how the interface for this discussion board now uses HTML instead of text? So now, each time I type up my post, I have to put extra carriage returns between each line. The interface removes single carriage returns and puts everything into a single paragraph. How annoying!

Just my opinion

CJ Rhoads
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