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Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Printable Version

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Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Taem - 11-23-2009

When I use Firefox, I can Cntl-F to bring up a "Find" menu which allows me to find all instances of the word on the current page I am viewing. In Windows, there are some folder I have, such as family picture folders, music files, etc., in which I would like to search and highlight just the word as it appears on screen, not the file or file name or part of the file. When you try searching in windows explorer, it only searches for files, and the make matters worse, it searches the entire hard drive, not just the folder your in. I can't figure out how to add this "Find" function from the web browser to windows explorer, but I thought windows explorer was a glorified web browser anyways? Well, if anybody knows how to do this, I'd appreciate their input.


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Tal - 11-23-2009

Quote:When I use Firefox, I can Cntl-F to bring up a "Find" menu which allows me to find all instances of the word on the current page I am viewing. In Windows, there are some folder I have, such as family picture folders, music files, etc., in which I would like to search and highlight just the word as it appears on screen, not the file or file name or part of the file. When you try searching in windows explorer, it only searches for files, and the make matters worse, it searches the entire hard drive, not just the folder your in. I can't figure out how to add this "Find" function from the web browser to windows explorer, but I thought windows explorer was a glorified web browser anyways? Well, if anybody knows how to do this, I'd appreciate their input.

What Microsquish OS you using? In XP it allows you to search for type of file and via folder.


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - LochnarITB - 11-23-2009

assuming XP:

click start
select search/for files or folders
ignore "search for files or folders named" box
enter text you want to find in box labeled "containing text" (can use wildcards)
on the drop down list labeled "look in" go all the way to the bottom of the list for "browse" - this will allow you to pick the drive and folder to look in

if this still doesn't locate the text, you might have to go one step further:

with the search window up, at the bottom of the search options box, you'll see a link to "indexing service" - click it - you don't need to turn the service on if you have it off - click on the advanced button - select the menu item action/properties - put a check next to "index files with unknown extensions" - you don't need to have the indexing service on but, apparently, the known file extensions still control what files are searched - doing this will make searches take longer because it will now search every file


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Lissa - 11-24-2009

Ctrl - F or F3


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Taem - 11-24-2009

Quote:assuming XP:

click start
select search/for files or folders
ignore "search for files or folders named" box
enter text you want to find in box labeled "containing text" (can use wildcards)
on the drop down list labeled "look in" go all the way to the bottom of the list for "browse" - this will allow you to pick the drive and folder to look in

if this still doesn't locate the text, you might have to go one step further:

with the search window up, at the bottom of the search options box, you'll see a link to "indexing service" - click it - you don't need to turn the service on if you have it off - click on the advanced button - select the menu item action/properties - put a check next to "index files with unknown extensions" - you don't need to have the indexing service on but, apparently, the known file extensions still control what files are searched - doing this will make searches take longer because it will now search every file

Alright, that works, but it seems rather archaic compared to how easily web browsers can do it... And no highlight feature! I'm disappointed in Microsoft.

And yes, it's Windows XP SP-3.


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - Lissa - 11-24-2009

Quote:Alright, that works, but it seems rather archaic compared to how easily web browsers can do it... And no highlight feature! I'm disappointed in Microsoft.

And yes, it's Windows XP SP-3.

As I stated below, F3 will bring up find/search.


Anyone know how to "Find" in windows explorer? - LochnarITB - 11-24-2009

Quote:As I stated below, F3 will bring up find/search.
that just does the same thing as

Quote:click start
select search/for files or folders
my understanding of the question was how to get the search to look inside files for text - the search built into windows is rather clumsy for the task, but can do it, and I'm sure there are other programs/utilities that would do it better (googled)