Microsoft's search function in Windows has always been useful in scanning for text within files. Whether it was for some information in something you saved, or if you were checking to see if your name was used in a program. Using the Windows FIND or SEARCH to scan within files worked, prior to Windows XP. Now, you notice that Windows XP will not find the text you are scanning for... why? Well, here's the reason, and the FIX...
Microsoft designed Windows XP to be faster, and therefore, eliminated the capability to search all files. There are only a number of file extensions that the Microsoft Windows XP Search function will actually check.
To correct this 'feature,' Microsoft requires that an application register a filter for it within the registry. However, not all applications are written to do this. In that case, you will need to play with the registry.
Luckily, the fix only requires a few lines...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.XXX\PersistentHandler]
@="{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"
Copy the above to 'searchfix.reg' (or other name, remember to keep the .reg extension to be able to import). You can also DOWNLOAD IT HERE. Change the '.XXX' to the extension of the files you wish to be able to scan within. Sorry, there is no magic 'all extensions' key that will work. You may need to restart the browser, logoff, or restart Windows for the registry update to take affect.
Windows XP will only search the following extra extensions (if you have installed the latest updates only) in addition to the built in documents (plain text documents that Notepad works with, Microsoft Office documents, HTML 3.0 and earlier files, and MIME files):
.386
.aifc
.aiff
.asm
.asx
.au
.AudioCD
.bkf
.bmp
.c
.cda
.cpl
.cpp
.css
.cur
.cxx
.def
.DeskLink
.dib
.drv
.dvd
.emf
.fnd
.folder
.gz
.h
.hpp
.hta
.htt
.hxx
.idl
.inc
.ivf
.jfif
.jpe
.jpeg
.js
.latex
.log
.m1v
.m3u
.MAPIMail
.mid
.midi
.mp2
.mp2v
.mpa
.mpe
.mpeg
.mpg
.mpv2
.mydocs
.pl
.rle
.rmi
.png
.rc
.rtf
.sit
.snd
.tgz
.url
.vxd
.wax
.wm
.wma
.wmp
.wmv
.wmx
.wmz
.wsz
.wvx
.xbm
.xml
.xsl
.ZFSendToTarget
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