When searching for a file in Windows XP that contains certain information, XP only searches files of certain extensions. Read on to see how to turn on the feature to search all files…

When searching for a file that contains certain text in Windows 2000, it is sufficient to perform the search by entering the desired text in:

Start->Search->For Files and Folders…->A word or phrase in the file

…and the search performs its duties on ALL files on the system.

Users of Windows XP, however, might be frustrated that this functionality is somewhat limited in that it only searches files of certain extensions.

According to Microsoft, this is a feature, not a bug, because it makes the search excruciatingly slow. This, I agree with.

What I don’t agree with is the fact that in order to revert back to the Win2000 style of text-searching, advanced settings from the Indexing Service need to be modified. How about a checkbox??! Or even –gasp– a regex filter?!?

Anyway, my rants aside, here’s how to revert back (taken from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309173):

1. Click Start, and then click Search (or point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders).
2. Click Change preferences, and then click With Indexing Service (for faster local searches).
3. Click Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced). Note that you do not have to turn on the Index service.
4. On the toolbar, click Show/Hide Console Tree.
5. In the left pane, right-click Indexing Service on Local Machine, and then click Properties.
6. On the Generation tab, click to select the Index files with unknown extensions check box, and then click OK.
7. Close the Indexing Service console.

There are multiple methods described in that article. The steps described above have been successfully tested on two of my machines.