Nothing like elaborating the problem to solve it myself. From the Microsoft knowledge base:
Using the "A word or phrase in the file" search criterion may not work View products that this article applies to.Article ID : 309173 Last Review : December 1, 2007 Revision : 4.1 This article was previously published under Q309173 Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows registry On This Page SYMPTOMS CAUSE RESOLUTION Method 1 Method 2 MORE INFORMATION SYMPTOMS When you search for files that contain text by using the A word or phrase in the file search criterion, the search results may not contain files that contain the text that you specified. For example, .log, .dll, .js, .asp, .xml, .xsl, .hta, .css, .wsh, .cpp, .c, or .h files, or files with no file name extension, may not appear in the search results even if the files contain the text that you specified. This problem may occur even if you specified the file name or type in the All or part of the file name box. Back to the top CAUSE A filter component is not registered for the file type that contains the text that you specified, or the filter component ignored the text that you specified. For a file type to be included in the search results when you use the A word or phrase in the file search criterion, a valid filter component must be registered for that file type. Windows XP registers filter components only for file types that are associated with common document types. The standard filter components in Windows XP include: • Mimefilt.dll: Filters Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) files • Nlhtml.dll: Filters HTML 3.0 or earlier files • Offfilt.dll: Filters Microsoft Office files (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint) • Query.dll: Filters plain text files (default filter) and binary files (null filter) Filter components may ignore some text because of the format or content of the text. For example, the HTML 3.0 filter (Nlhtml.dll) ignores text that is contained in comments in an HTML file (for example, a file with an .htm or .asp extension) because the text is not displayed when you open the file in a browser. In Microsoft Windows 2000 and earlier versions of Windows, all files are searched for the content that you specify. Windows XP does not search all file to enhance the performance of searching and to avoid extraneous results. This behavior occurs whether or not you use the Indexing service when you search. On 12/3/07, Devon McCormick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It looks like it does have something to do with the "ijs" extension - if I > change my sample file to have a "txt" extension, the search finds my word. > > On 12/3/07, Devon McCormick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Has anyone else had a problem with the Windows (XP) search tool? I've > > found that when I search, e.g. the J directory for a word I expect to > > find in a script (.ijs) file, I get no hits even when I have a file with > > that word in it. The newer tool that comes with Office 2007 is even worse - > > there is no apparent option to search file contents - but the older tool is > > still available. However, this is a moot point if the older tool doesn't > > work. > > > > For example, I create the file "testSearch.ijs" containing the single > > line: > > > > NB. Test if Windows search can find "discombobulate". > > > > then I right click on a directory above the one where this file is > > saved, enter "discombobulate" in the entry field for the "A word or phrase > > in the file:" option, and click on the "Search" button. This finds no > > files. > > > > I find myself using ancient DOS tools - "sweep" and "grep" - for an > > effective search. Is there anything about the "ijs" suffix that might > > quietly exclude these files from consideration by Windows? > > > > -- > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > ^me^ at acm. > > org is my > > preferred e-mail > > > > > > -- > Devon McCormick, CFA > ^me^ at acm. > org is my > preferred e-mail > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail
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