Win7 Search Function

As a long time user of WinXP, I got used to being able to search inside text files for a common term, and the result list would be all the text files containing the term. For example: lets say I have 100 text files all in one folder, and I want to search each file containing the term "live recording". In XP, I'd set the Search feature to work like the Windows 2000 search, right click on the folder, select "Search", and type "live recording" into the box for "Search for file containing text:". How do I search a group of 100+ text files for a common term/word in Win7? In Win7, there is no "Search" option when you right-click on a folder.

THANKS!

 

Hmm... The one "Search" option I do know of is the one by default which is the "Search" box up on the top right of any Windows Explorer window you have open.

For example, say you opened "Documents". When you have that window open, look at the top right and it should say "Search Documents".

When you make a search query inside that box, you can filter your results by "Kind:", "Date Modified:", "Type:", and "Size:".

Hope this helps!

 

Oscuro's suggestion works well, though it isn't even necessary to have the folder window open. With just my username highlighted in the left explorer pane I could enter filenames or text and it found all occurrences. Pretty neat.

 

Or you can hit 'F3' to search.

Or add the location of the docs to your indexed files and use it from start.

 

Thanks, but not what I need. I need to be able to search inside text files for a certain word, term, or phrase.

Hmmm.... my user name does not show up in the left pane of Explorer. :confused

I tried F3, and it did open the Search dialog, but I couldn't seem to get it to inside the files for a certain word/term. After a bit of messing around, I found that if I entered a term not listed as one of the file names, an option to search "File contents" appeared, when I clicked it, I was given the option to add the folder to the files index. I thought "AHA!! Here it is!" and entered my search term.... nothing. I know for a fact that this folder contains over 25 files with my search term in them, and I was totally unable to use any of the Win7 search functions to look inside the files. This kind of pisses me off. Whatever. I found a freeware 3rd party search tool called Agent Ransack and it did what I needed to do, but I still would like to be able to do this with a built-in Windows function.

[dlb]

Oh, yeah- THANKS!!! I always appreciate any suggestions as I tend to learn something new! If the suggestions work or not is almost secondary, learning something new is what it's all about.
:-D

 

Like this?

 

As an aside: I've used Agent Ransack for several years - good, solid little program...

 

Solution: Type the word or phrase into the start menu search. It will list all documents that contain the word or phrase (I am not sure if it can read third-party filetypes, though)

 

In order to search for text within document files, you need to use "Advanced Search" (not just "Search").

You can't go directly to Advanced Search. From anywhere in Vista, press the Windows Key + F (or go into the Start Menu, and from inside the Search pane, press F3). That brings up the Search page - click the Advanced Search button to the far top-right, to open the Advanced Search Set Up page.

To do a general search to LOCATE any files: On the Set-Up page, check the 'Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files' option.

Under Location, select C Drive, or Computer, or Everywhere, and in the Name box, fill in the name of the file you’re looking for, or some text from within the file. Click on the Search button, and that's it.

If you want to narrow your search to locate one type of source (i.e. email, document, picture, music, other, at the top of the screen, go to Search Only, and check which one of those categories you want to search.

To do advanced screening, filtering, specialized kinds of searches etc. see the How to Use the Advanced Query Language to Improve Windows Search Results tutorial, and from approximately one-third of the way down the page (starting with the Advanced Search section), it goes into great detail of how to do those kinds of searches.

To search titles and/or CONTENTS OF DOCUMENTS, music, emails, and other personal files:
1. Select: Location - Indexed Locations You can further narrow the selection of the files you search by opening the Indexed Locations drop-down menu box and select: "Choose search locations"
2. At top of screen, select: Show only - Documents (or whatever you’re searching)
3. UNcheck the “Include Non-Indexed” box
4. Type the search word in upper right-hand search box (not the one below it).

(After this first search is completed, if it was only partially successful, do additional searches for any other key words you think might be associated with that file.) The search could take 20 seconds or 20 minutes, depending on how many files/folders there are to go through, but you'll eventually see extensive search results.

 

All very informative, but the question was about Win 7, not Vista.

 

My understanding is that the Advanced Search function of both Vista and Windows 7 are virtually the same.

 

You don't need advanced search in Win 7 to search for text. See earlier responses.

 

You most certainly do, if its not indexed.

 

Unless you've gone out of your way to turn it off, user files are indexed.

 

I've read over this thread several times, and if I missed it, I apologize, but I do not see anywhere where dlb specifically said these were stored under his user profile.

So moot point, as far as I am concerned.

dlb,

When you added the folder to the index, how long did you wait before searching again? Are these basic text files, or something else? A total pita, but you might want to rebuild your index in your free time after adding the folder.

 

Here is a thread that makes it not look promising for the right click option dlb was looking to find. It is not authoritative but sounds right from what I have seen so far.

I did find on my Win 7 that Collinsl solution of using the main search function in the Start menu did work to find keywords in documents but of course it didn't limit results to one folder.

I couldn't find a way to make it work on a single folder.

I haven't see that "File Contents" option yet but Adrynalyne's reminder that Indexing takes a long time could be relevant. Indexing seems to stop/severely slow when you are doing anything on the PC.

 

My tests are telling me that Oscuro's post #2 is the key to this. Using the search box top right of an Explorer window I've just tried searching a network folder for embedded text - most definitely not an indexed location - and it initially throws up filenames containing the search term but also gives you more options, including File Contents. That threw up all files in that network folder whose text contained the search term. In this example the network folder contained Word files.

N.B. I haven't bought Win 7 yet - still using the RC in a VM - but on this evidence I'm starting to think about it.