Windows Explorer's feature to find text within a file fails

[steve]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Window Explorer has a feature where you can enter in "A word or phrase in the
file" and run a search and it will return back the files containing that
string. I have found, over and over, that this feature usually fails. I was
looking for a substring within a directory and a file with the .vproj
extension contained the string but Explorer just couldn't find it. I tried
numerous time and tweaked the advanced options settings to ensure that it was
searching everywhere and it failed no matter what I did.

..vproj files are text, so it should not have been ignored. I knew this file
contained the string but I wanted to see if any other file also contained the
string. The search process wouldn't even bring up the vproj file that I knew
used the string. I know if did because I opened it and did a "find" on the
opened file and *bing* there it was! (This was to prove that I didn't
mistype the text in the Windows Explorer search feature)

Is this a documented bug with any hope of being fixed soon?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_s.htm

Scroll down to...

Search - All File Types

Even http://www.filext.com doesn't know what .vproj files are.

File Extension Details for .VPROJ
http://www.filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=vproj&Submit3=Go%21

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:FF42E000-FB58-4C6D-BF59-C552D6838B3F@microsoft.com,
Steve <Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> hunted and pecked:
> Window Explorer has a feature where you can enter in "A word or phrase in
> the file" and run a search and it will return back the files containing
> that string. I have found, over and over, that this feature usually
> fails. I was looking for a substring within a directory and a file with
> the .vproj extension contained the string but Explorer just couldn't find
> it. I tried numerous time and tweaked the advanced options settings to
> ensure that it was searching everywhere and it failed no matter what I
> did.
>
> .vproj files are text, so it should not have been ignored. I knew this
> file contained the string but I wanted to see if any other file also
> contained the string. The search process wouldn't even bring up the
> vproj file that I knew used the string. I know if did because I opened
> it and did a "find" on the opened file and *bing* there it was! (This
> was to prove that I didn't mistype the text in the Windows Explorer
> search feature)
>
> Is this a documented bug with any hope of being fixed soon?

 

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Steve wrote:

> Window Explorer has a feature where you can enter in "A word or phrase in the
> file" and run a search and it will return back the files containing that
> string. I have found, over and over, that this feature usually fails. I was
> looking for a substring within a directory and a file with the .vproj
> extension contained the string but Explorer just couldn't find it. I tried
> numerous time and tweaked the advanced options settings to ensure that it was
> searching everywhere and it failed no matter what I did.
>
> .vproj files are text, so it should not have been ignored. I knew this file
> contained the string but I wanted to see if any other file also contained the
> string. The search process wouldn't even bring up the vproj file that I knew
> used the string. I know if did because I opened it and did a "find" on the
> opened file and *bing* there it was! (This was to prove that I didn't
> mistype the text in the Windows Explorer search feature)
>
> Is this a documented bug with any hope of being fixed soon?

Using the "A word or phrase in the file" search criterion may not work
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309173

An alternate approach is to use something like the free search tool,
Agent Ransack: http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

It's a feature. Why would users want to search a vproj file. Does it contain their wedding photos, their email, resume, or assignments. So all users will get is irrelevent hits if vproj files were searched. Likewise it will only search what users can see (no html formatting codes can be found). This is very smart searching, extensible and very configurable (by programmers). It is the web server search software. It can generate abstracts of results, determines relevence rankings, has at least 3 query languages (type in Containing Text field to use a query language), long and short form of a search query and SQL.

So no it is not a documented bug as it is entirly by design.

Stop thinking that windows is designed for programmers' use. It is designed for users to use and as a platform for programmers to write programs to run on.
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http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html
=================================================
"Steve" <Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:FF42E000-FB58-4C6D-BF59-C552D6838B3F@microsoft.com...
> Window Explorer has a feature where you can enter in "A word or phrase in the
> file" and run a search and it will return back the files containing that
> string. I have found, over and over, that this feature usually fails. I was
> looking for a substring within a directory and a file with the .vproj
> extension contained the string but Explorer just couldn't find it. I tried
> numerous time and tweaked the advanced options settings to ensure that it was
> searching everywhere and it failed no matter what I did.
>
> .vproj files are text, so it should not have been ignored. I knew this file
> contained the string but I wanted to see if any other file also contained the
> string. The search process wouldn't even bring up the vproj file that I knew
> used the string. I know if did because I opened it and did a "find" on the
> opened file and *bing* there it was! (This was to prove that I didn't
> mistype the text in the Windows Explorer search feature)
>
> Is this a documented bug with any hope of being fixed soon?

 

[RobG_theLastOne]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

> It's a feature. Why would users want to search a vproj file.

Wow, that's arrogant. Users want to search because they want to search, what other reason is needed?


> Stop thinking that windows is designed for programmers' use. It is
> designed for users to use and as a platform for programmers to
> write programs to run on.

It's not just programmers who want to search. This "feature" is extremely annoying when searching Word files too—open a document from a search result and the search is run again, removing the document from the results. Close the document and the search is run yet again, putting the document back if it still meets the criteria.

That is extremely unintuitive behaviour. Windows could do a search on the particular file when closed to see if it matches the search criteria and add or remove it from the results at that point. Running the entire search again every time a file is opened or closed is a bad design "feature". And to exclude a document because it is open is irrational.

 

[dhanyatmarath]

You can either add the file extension in the file types or change the file type to .txt if possible. Thats how it works .. tough!