Fix the Windows XP Search

[Rbreb13]

Fix the Windows XP Search

When you use the Search option on the Start menu to find files containing specific text, the results may not include files of all types. In fact, if you haven't installed any service packs, quite a few file types will be omitted. Microsoft created this situation deliberately, to avoid having you find "irrelevant" files, but in the initial release of Windows XP the software company overdid the limitation. Updating with the latest service pack will allow Windows XP to search several dozen more file types.

The Search function relies on an internal filter to find words; file types that don't have a defined filter won't be searched. If you find that certain file types don't appear in the search results, you can try assigning the plain-text filter to those types. To do this, launch Regedit from the Start menu's Run dialog and navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.??? (where .??? is the extension you want searched). If you don't find a subkey named PersistentHandler, create one. Double-click on the value "(Default)" for that subkey and set its data to {5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}. Repeat the procedure for any other file extensions you want included.

You can also change a setting in the Content Indexing Service to index all files. Select Search from the Start menu. Click on the Change preferences link, then on the With Indexing Service link. Scroll down to Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced) and click on it (you don't have to turn on indexing).

Now select Customize from the View menu, check the Console tree box, and click on OK. Right-click on Indexing Service on Local Machine in the left-hand pane and click on Properties. On the Generation tab, check the box Index files with unknown extensions and click on OK. Close the Indexing Service console.

Note that both of these techniques require that you first update your system to the Windows XP Service Pack 1.