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Find file by contents, htm and pdf, W2k and Xp


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Hello everyone and everybody!

Many file formats contain information not displayed to the user, say formatting instructions. The search (F3) for a file containing a certain string should better sort out what information is displayed and search for the string only there. Here are my observations:

  • W2k and Xp return nearly every .htm if searching for charset.
  • W2k returns nearly every .pdf if searching for Arial.
  • Xp returns nearly no .pdf if searching for Arial. It also misses fewer .pdf files that do contain the searched string.
  • Installing Sumatra with its "Pdf search filter" changes nothing, Foxit neither. Windows seems to do everything.
    http://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/download-free-pdf-viewer-fr.html
    http://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/download-prev.html
    v1.51 installs on W2k if Gdiplus.dll v5.1.3102.1360 is added near the installer and deinstaller, v1.1 doesn't need it.

Though, I experimented on one W2k and one Xp only:

  • I shut off the indexation on W2k and Xp long ago, both as a service and from the volumes. Maybe the "Pdf search filter" acts there?
  • Foxit v2.2 was put on W2k by pasting, v4.3 on Xp by installer, later v4.3 on W2k by installer.
  • I've Firefox 38, ie7 and half a dozen browser on Xp, Ff12 and ie6 on W2k.

Maybe you want to compare and share your observations?

Edited by pointertovoid
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What is "botched" (just so you know) is the XP "Search", it is a known issue, it simply doesn't do what it is supposed to do.

For "pure" file searching (by filename/extension) given that most XP's work on NTFS formatted volumes, NOTHING can beat a "Pure" $MFT parser, such as:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/

There are of course many more, some were listed here:
 


 

If you want to search for text inside files, apart the name, searchmonkey is IMHO not-so-shabby (though not "perfect", as an example it only does a volume at a time):
http://searchmonkey.embeddediq.com/index.php

The good thing is that opens in a lower pane a preview of the selected file with the line where the match was found.

I wouldn't use it as "everyday tool", but when I need to really search for some text into files, it is handy.

jaclaz
 

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That Xp's search function is clumsy, inefficient and plain annoying is clear. It needs heavy tuning before getting half-way usable, and I haven't found up to now how to disable the search within the zip files.

I didn't try Search Monkey because something (Firefox, Avast or Comodo) claims the site is a nest of malware, and even after pass-by, it blocks the download.

Is there information about the F3 search (of W2k and Xp) skipping the non-displayed metadata when searching for a string? From my observations, only Xp does it with the pdf files. That behaviour would be useful for htm files too, and on W2k too.

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11 hours ago, pointertovoid said:

That Xp's search function is clumsy, inefficient and plain annoying is clear. It needs heavy tuning before getting half-way usable, and I haven't found up to now how to disable the search within the zip files.

You cannot AFAIK, but you can unregister zipfldr.dll.

You can get searchmonkey from Sourceforge, in case:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/searchmonkey/files/Searchmonkey2/
 

jaclaz
 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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