Win11/64: Better File Search?

Hi! I sometimes have need to search files by other than a name contains method. For example, right now, I want to search my Downloads folder for archive files containing Amiga Disk Images--files with a .adf extension. How do I do that?

 

Windows file explorer can index zip if you enable "Search inside compressed (zipped) folders" in advanced search options.
https://dngrep.github.io/ - Search for files in archives - zip, 7z, rar, jar, and many more

 

I downloaded it. Thank you.

 

You might want to try "Everything" (everything.exe). It's free, contains no ads, fast and extremely flexible. I've been using it for many, many years on my Win 10, 7 and 11 computers without problems.

 

Thank you. Is there a version for Win98SE? I had one at my mother's house, but she's homeless right now.

 

While there is an x86 version of Everything, a Windows 98 machine may not have enough "oomph" to run it and still be truly useable.

 

Try this:
1. Open your Downloads folder.

2. Sort the folder by Extension by clicking once on Extension. You'll find it at the top of the Downloads window (and also at the top of all the other windows too).

3. Look for ".adf". It should be near the top of the list.

You can also sort a folder's contents by Name, Date modified, and other stuff.

 

I can search for ".adf," but at least most of the files are zipped. Don't worry, I was able to find a lot of them: the files are named in a special way, and I am able to tell which ones are probably adf files. I could also use help with zipped dsk files as well. Thank you, though. DangitallRedux: is there a similar program that will work on Win98SE?

 

Not that I recall. The basic problem would be one of hardware: RAM amounts and bus speeds were not anywhere near what they are today.

 

Okay. It's not essential: I'd just like the option.

 

Type https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/installing_everything/ and then click Enter.
Download and run it. See what happens.
If it cannot run on a WinSE computer...

I hope you get this worked out!

 

I finally changed the mentioned Explorer setting and scanned my Downloads folder for .adf files and found too few. Also, the Grep program seems to just scan text files for strings: I see no option to scan archive files.

 

According to the grep help page it shows screen shost of the tool that have a toggle towards the top to "Search in archives". Did you try that?

 

I couldn't find the option, but dnGrep still looks like a text searcher. I want to find files of a certain extension within archive files.

 

Here's a Powershell script that will search zip, rar and 7z archives for *.adf files and output the results to a file on your desktop.
You will need to have 7-Zip installed.
Adjust $folder to whatever folder you like and make sure the path to 7z.exe is correct.
To run it, you can copy and paste to a Powershell window then click enter, or save it in a text file with extension ps1, then right click the ps1 script and "Run with Powershell".

Code:

$7z = "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
# the folder to search
$folder = 'D:\Downloads\*'
$logfile = "$([environment]::getfolderpath('Desktop'))\output.txt"
$exts = @('*.zip', '*.rar', '*.7z')
# search for *.adf files
$pattern = '(.+\.adf)$'

Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Include $exts -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
    $allMatches = & $7z l -ba "$($_.FullName)" | Select-String -Pattern $pattern -AllMatches

    if ($allMatches.Matches.Count -gt 0) {
        Add-Content -Path $logfile -Value "Listing files in $($_.FullName)"
        $txt = $allMatches.Matches | ForEach-Object { ($_.Groups[1].Value -split '\s{2,}', 5)[3]}
        Add-Content -Path $logfile -Value $txt
        Add-Content -Path $logfile -Value "---"
    }
}

 

Thank you. I'd better try that soon.

 

I had forgotten about $filename. In days of old when knights were bold, and Windows SE was sold, I used the "$" to hide whatever folders I wanted to hide. Then I forgot about those folders