document search

stonefly said:

I looked for previous posts on this subject, but they're old. I tried the suggestions in those posts, however, but they didn't help.

Sometimes the search box in windows explorer will find a document containing a word. Sometimes it won't, even when I know the document I'm looking for is somewhere in my documents file. The one thing it will not do is find a string of text. I know, from memory, that at one time, on my older computers, I could find any file at any time in an instant, just by typing in a string of text. This was invaluable to me. I might not remember the name of the document, but I could usually remember a few words that were in the document. I considered this an extremely valuable feature of windows. There was never a time when I couldn't call up a document based on a few words of text. Emphasis on "was never."

I can't do it any more. The file search does not work. How can I find a document by typing in a string of a few words?

You should try using Everything search tool, its much better than Windows search tool. Its also a Free app.

Everything Search Tool
voidtools

lx07 said:

They want to search file content - that is look for the phrase "Hali said" contained in all Word or pdf files for example.

From my experience Windows search is by far the fastest way to do this.

Everything will find it but it is slow - from their FAQ

Ahh, ok Hali, didn't catch that part I guess. Still like Everything better thou. Hope you are doing well old friend. :)

lx07 said:

I too rely on searching for text snippets within pdf documents. Before Windows 8 you needed to install an extension (called an iFilter) to do this - I used the Adobe and then (at the time faster) Foxit filters to search for text strings in pdf.

In Windows 8 or 10 there is no need for these old programs any more - just make sure the "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected and use the default Reader Search Handler.

Attachment 145660

It works perfectly well.

Hi lx07, just wondered if you could explain how to select this Reader Search Handler please? (I don't recall seeing this).
I had previously had pdf's indexed, but changed pdf reader. So I found in Indexing Options, File Types, no filter assigned for pdf's. (Not every pdf reader has one, so changing readers seems likely to prevent pdf's being indexed). So I installed the Adobe ifilter.

You seem to have Sumatra as your pdf reader; I reassigned it as default to see what would happen, but still see 'PDF Filter' in Indexing Options, File Types, as before.

Thanks.

Thanks- seems to be the case that once that default is lost there's no obvious way to restore it; it seems setting certain readers (or maybe installing them) causes it to be lost.

It was because I didn't have one (but know I used to!) that I installed the Adobe filter.
I used to use Foxit - which is referred to in your posted link.

As you say, setting Edge as default doesn't cause the default filter to reappear.

PDF Search Stops Working In Windows 8 64-Bit | Bruceb News


Fix to restore default handler:
PDF search breaks after 11.0 install of Adobe Acrobat or Reader
from
Has Adobe Acrobat DC broken Windows 8.1 pdf search again - Microsoft Community

Excellent! It is somewhat frustrating that one has to fiddle with spanners and screwdrivers to get these things to work.