Windows 7 search doesn’t find text strings

[Odd Ramos]

I’m not able to find any text strings starting not from the beginning of word in filename or in file content using Windows 7 search.

My Windows 7 search configuration:

Let’s say I’m searching for a documents containing word “content”.

I’m able to find those documents when searching for “content”, “conte”, “con” (as long as the string includes the beginning of the word).

"content"

"con"

But if I search for “ontent”, “tent” or any other combination that doesn’t include the beginning of the word, Windows search won't find it.

I've tried other indexing/searching software such as Copernic Desktop search, Google desktop search.
Those programs also weren’t able to find part of the word starting from the middle of the word. For instance, it finds “conte”, but doesn’t find “onte”.

Finds “conte”

Doesn’t find “onte”

I got the same problem using Copernic desktop search.


On the other hand, when I use non-indexing content search software such as Agent Ransack or FileSeek, I get the same results when searching for “conte” or “onte”:

“conte”

“onte”

Why do all pre-indexing content search applications (Windows search, Google desktop, Copernic desktop search) fail to search for a string inside the words?

Why do non-indexing applications find text strings wherever they are: in the beginning, middle or end of the word?

How can I make Windows search find strings from any part of words?

Thank you.

 

[c627627]

Windows 7/8 Search is a nightmare. http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=616264

Let’s say I’m searching for a documents containing word “content”.

content:content

To look for something specific, be sure to add * before and after search term and * as an extension.

For example, if searching for a + sign:

Enclose the plus sign(s) within asterisks, for example *+*.*, *++*.*, *+++*.*, etc., and make sure to either add an asterisk as the extension, or include a known extension like *.jpg for example.

 

[Odd Ramos]

I've tried using wildcards and other constructions with no luck.

*onte
*onte*
“onte”
content: onte
content:*onte*
content:~*onte*

All these searches doesn't find the word “content” when searching inside files.

However, I've found that *onte will find the word "content" in the filename, but I'm mainly interested in searching inside text files not in the filenames.

Could somebody try the search examples I've made and see if Windows 7 search will give correct search results for you and find a string in the middle of word inside text files like txt, docx, pdf?

 

[redduc900]

You'd probably be better off w/ something like Super Finder XT...

Super Finder XT Is A Fast Index-Free Search Tool For Windows
http://www.addictivetips.com/window...is-a-fast-index-free-search-tool-for-windows/

 

[habbajabba]

Never heard of SuperFinder but I use either AstroGrep;
http://astrogrep.sourceforge.net/
or FileWorkshop;
http://www.fileworkshop.com/
FileWorkshop is a tiny exe and is lightning fast.

 

[c627627]

When Win7 first came out I tested every single one of them I could get my hands on and found Agent Ransack to be acceptable. Looking forward to testing everything suggested n this thread.

Win7/8 search engine is powerful but cannot be used without taking a six month course on how to actually use it . It has no GUI, like Windows XP's search engine which actually works whereas Win7/8 is not reliable. It sometimes misses search hits that are actually there. So for all its power, it is not more useful than Win XP's search engine which both actually works and has a GUI.

 

[TransformedBG]

Never been a big fan of that part of windows 7. What do you need it for anyways?

 

[c627627]

Searching for files and contents of files is *crucial* for some people's work.

Others have a lot of personal files. It's an important feature for a lot of people.

 

[Odd Ramos]

First of all, thank you people for your input and willingness to help.

Super Finder XT is suitable only for file name search not file content search.
IMHO, for file name search the best program is Everything by Voidtools.

File workshop and AstroGrep search for file contents, but both programs don’t find all results.

I’ve made a test.

All text containing files (pdf, doc, txt etc) have the same text in them:
“I’m testing content search software.”

When I search for “onte” File workshop finds all 6 files. GOOD.
When I search for “oftw” File workshop finds only 2 files. BAD.

When I search “onte” AstroGrep finds all 6 files. GOOD.
When I search for “oftw” AstroGrep finds only 3 files. BAD.

On the other hand, Agent Ransack (now called File Locator Lite) finds everything no matter what you search for: “onte”, “oftw” etc. If the text string you are searching for is in the file content, Agent Ransack (File locator lite) will find it.

But Agent Ransack doesn’t index your files.

I’m looking for a file indexing and search software that would be as reliable as Agent Ransack and search the text string anywhere not just in the beginning of words.

I want to index my documents in order to search their contents faster.

I need this to make my research more productive. Let’s say I’m searching for the term “phleb”.

Windows search would give me results only with the words “phlebitis” or “phlebitic”. But I know that in my papers there are other words such as “thrombophlebitis”, “postphlebitic” etc. and windows search would miss all those documents containing these words.

I’ve tested 4 indexed search applications: Windows 7 search, Google desktop, Copernic desktop search, X1 professional client. All of them search for a string only from the beginning of word and not in any part of the word.

I simply can’t believe that all these indexing apps only search the beginning of word. It makes me think that something is wrong on my side. Maybe it has something to do with filters that these programs use to build indexes?

Because all non-indexed search apps I’ve tested search for a string anywhere and all indexed search apps only look at the beginning of word.

To sum up:

File name search: Everything by VoidTools
Non-indexed search: Agent Ransack (File locator lite)
Indexed search that would search for a string not only from beginning of word: Haven’t found yet.

Could somebody please make some test files in pdf, doc, docx, txt, ppt, pptx,xls formats with the same sentence: “I’m testing content search software”.

And search those test files with some indexing apps such as Windows search or Copernic desktop search or Google desktop and see if it finds the string “oftw” in the contents of those created test files?

Because I can't believe that indexed-searched apps only search the beginning of word. It would be fast, but totally impractical. It simply cannot be true.

 

[c627627]

I am not at home for a few days or else I would. I also would like to find out which search engine/program can do what you are asking about. If you are doing a comprehensive test, it would be interesting to include Windows XP Search Engine, Although I no longer use Windows XP, I kept it on a multi boot and reboot into it whenever I need to do a reliable search on my system. It has never failed to perform quickly and accurately. Both Windows 7 and 8 Search engines are not reliable. They are more powerful but not reliable. I can catch them missing hits and take screenshots but cannot repeat their failures. They happen randomly.

 

[habbajabba]

In that case give locate a try. It has both 32 & 64bit versions which are portable and highly configurable and use indexing on custom db's of your choice.
http://locate32.cogit.net/

 

[c627627]

Immediately after Windows 7 was released and I relaized it had no useable search engine, I installed every single search program I could to find Agent Ransack most useable:
http://mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?page=download&type=agentransack



After all these years, time to compare it to everything suggested in this thread:
Original poster, please post if you find a third-party program that can do indexing.

I've always turned indexing off and was able to find what I was looking for relatively fast. if you must have indexing then if possible, install Windows XP in a dual boot then do this:

Spoiler

It takes two minutes to reboot into Win XP and do a reliable indexed search.

Windows 7/8 is supposed to be able to do what you want. To find files containing text 'hello' for example, search should be done like so:
content:hello

But you may find out the hard way if you haven't already that Windows 7/8 Search Engine may not always be reliable.


I still find Agent Ransack most useable:
http://mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?page=download&type=agentransack


1. http://locate32.cogit.net/ is OK. I still find Agent Ransack easier to use, so I'll leave it up to you to post what advantages it has if any.

2. Super Finder XT *WARNING* not only does the Tucows download install multiple startup programs, changes your home pages, Super Finder XT itself is constantly trying to Phone Home and I find its GUI difficult, although that may be subjective.

3. AstroGep and File Workshop do not beat Agent Ransack's GUI.


Original poster, are you sure that Agent Ransack cannot find the word 'content' on C drive if you did this:

(by the way if you know the extension of the file that obviously speeds things up tremendously, for example for text files by adding *.txt for file name.)

 

[habbajabba]

Agent ransack looks ok but I dislike softwares which have a pro and a free version. I think Archivarius3000 is what might work for op. It can easily create any number of db's and will, on schedule, update the db (file contents) with only newer and changed files. It handles what seems to be any file format and has a plethora of options for fine tuning either the db contents or the search criteria. Most importantly it has a remote search server capabilty via browser to any other pc. It can also use compression and encryption if desired.
http://www.likasoft.com/document-search/
I believe it's also rather inexpensive.

There is also OpenSearchServer but I could not figure it out. At least it's free. OpenKM(.com) is the same thing but has a limited free version. This page: http://lerablog.org/technology/the-best-open-source-document-management-systems/
has some document management system softwares. Worth taking a look at.

 

[Odd Ramos]

Archivarius 3000 is AMAZING

Archivarius 3000​

I’ve tested Archivarius 3000 and I must say it’s amazing!

Archivarius 3000 does exactly what I wanted: it indexes my text containing files and search their contents for a text string anywhere in the word.
That is: if I search for *phleb* I would get text files containing “postphlebitic”, “thrombophlebitic”, “phlebitis” etc.

Archivarius 3000 searches in .pdf, .epub, .mobi, .chm, doc, docx., txt etc.
To give you understanding how good Archivarius 3000 is I’ll give you this example:

I’ve indexed 2031 ebooks in .pdf format. Of course, indexing took a while.

Then I searched for *phleb*.

Archivarius finished search in 0.859 second and gave me 169 ebooks containing the string “phleb”.

It took 0.859 second to search through 2031 books!

Just imagine how long would non indexed search take in order to complete this task… Imagine that you have search many times...

Well this is the real power of indexed search. Spend some time building the index and then search in super fast speeds!

Here’s a screenshot of this search example in Arhivarius 3000:

Windows 7 search​

Now a short comment on Windows 7 search.

I’ve found that if I index files, then Windows search would search for a text string only in beginning of the words, that is if I search for ball or ~~ball it won’t find text files containing the words “football”, “basketball” etc.

On the other hand, if I don’t index files, and use non-indexed Windows 7 search, and search for ~~ball (~~ before ball is a must) then it would find text files containing the words “football”, “basketball” etc.

Test it please. Do you experience the same?

Short review of various search applications I’ve tested​

Non-indexing searches​

File Locator Lite (Former Agent Ransack)​

Sees .chm file as one file, therefore search in .chm files gives clean results.

Nice and simple interface.

Searches all mainstream text formats except .Epub

Best for non-indexed search daily use.

PowerGrep​

PowerGrep sees every .chm as many files, therefore search in one .chm file gives many different results showed as different files.

PowerGrep searches in .epub and all other mainstream text formats. Searching in one .epub file also gives many different results showed as different files. The same as with .chm format.
This complicates searching in .chm and .epub formats.

Sometimes PowerGrep fails to search in .pdf, but gives a message that particular .pdf file was skipped, because it’s “proprietary format”. This problem only happens on particular pdf files. Other pdfs are fine. Don’t know why.

PowerGREP is very powerful, therefore it has a little bit complicated interface for frequent use.

Windows 7 search in non-indexing mode​

As other non-indexed search applications search is capable of searching for a text string anywhere in the word.

~~ should be used before the text string. For instance searching for ~~ball would find the words “football”, “basketball”. Searching for 'ball', won't find the words “football”, “basketball”

Indexing searches​

Archivarius 3000​

The only program I’ve found so far, that indexes files and searches in file contents for a text string in any part of the word, not just in the beginning of word, for instance the program would find the words “thrombophlebitis, “postphlebitic”, “phlebitis” if you search for *phleb*.

Searches in .Epub and all other mainstream text formats.

Archivarius 3000 sees every .chm and .epub as many files, therefore search in one .chm or .epub file gives many different results showed as different files. This complicates searching in .chm and .epub formats.

Other indexed search applications​

​

All other indexed search applications I’ve tested: Windows 7 search in indexing mode, Copernic desktop search, Google desktop, X1 search only search for a text string in the beginning of the word.

Let’s summarize this thread​

Application best suitable for file name search (for a regular search to find a particular file with specific filename) is Search Everything.

Application best suitable for non-indexed file content search is File Locator Lite (former Agent Ransack).
File Locator Lite searches in .pdf, .mobi, .chm, doc, docx., txt etc., but doesn’t search in .EPUB.

PowerGREP is another very nice application for non-indexed file content search that searches everything that File Locator Lite does + .EPUB format.

Application best suitable for indexed file content search is Archivarius 3000.
Searches in .pdf, .epub, .mobi, .chm, doc, docx., txt etc. for a string anywhere in the word.

Greetings goes to habbajabba and c627627 for their help. Thank you.

 

[c627627]

I am looking forward to getting back home next week and testing everything you said.

Quick comment on your search terms. It should be *ball* not ~~ball when searching using Windows 7/8.

 

[Odd Ramos]

In my case Non-Indexed Windows 7 search wouldn't find the word 'football' in file content if I searched for *ball* (I triple checked it).

On the other hand, searching for ~~ball would find the word 'football' in file content.

I run Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1 with current updates.

I must say it's kind a strange situation.

Could you check *ball* ~~ball issue and confirm that you get the opposite from what I have written above?

 

[c627627]

Did you use:
content:*ball*

 

[Odd Ramos]

I've used 'content:*ball*' and '*ball*' both didn't find 'football'.

'~~ball' and 'content:~~ball worked fine and found 'football'.

Kind a strange, huh?

I wonder what results other people would get.

 

[c627627]

Try copying the file containing that text into a new folder elsewhere.

Go inside that new folder and do a search there. I assume that * works for contents as well as file names.

 

[Odd Ramos]

Attached a new HDD and created a new folder there with one a.docx text file containing the word "football".

Searching for content:*ball* or *ball* found nothing.

Searching content:~~ball or ~~ball found the file.