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How to Search for words within files on Windows 7 Home → Articles → How to Search for words within files on Windows 7 Searching for a particular document containing certain words or phrases by scanning through each file yourself, can be both time consuming and frustrating.
Windows 10’s Start menu can search your files, but it seems like Microsoft is more interested in pushing Bing and other online search features these days. While Windows still has some powerful search features, they’re a bit harder to find—and you might want to consider a third-party tool instead.
The Start Menu (and Cortana)
The Start menu search functionality on Windows 10 is handled by Cortana, and it searches Bing and other online sources in addition to the files on your local PC.
In the initial version of Windows 10, you could click a “My Stuff” button while searching to search only your PC. This feature was removed in the Anniversary Update. There’s no way to only search your local PC’s files while searching your PC—not unless you disable Cortana via the registry.
However, you can still use the Start menu for some basic file searches. Search for a file stored in an indexed location and it should appear somewhere in the list.
This won’t always work because the Start menu only searches indexed locations, and there’s no way to search other areas of your system from here without adding them to the index.
By default, the Start menu searches everything it can—indexed files, Bing, OneDrive, the Windows Store, and other online locations. You can narrow this down by clicking the “Filters” button and selecting “Documents”, “Folders”, “Photos”, or “Videos”.
The problem is that there’s no way to search just all your local files. These categories are all narrow and include online locations, like your OneDrive.
RELATED:How to Choose Which Files Windows Search Indexes on Your PC
To improve the results, click the “Filters” option in the menu and then click the “Select locations” button at the bottom of the menu. You’ll be able to choose your indexed search locations. Windows automatically scans and monitors these folders, building the search index it uses when you search via the Start menu. By default, it will index data in your user account’s folders and not much else.
File Explorer
If you frequently find yourself frustrated with the Start menu search feature, forget about it and head to File Explorer when you want to search. In File Explorer, navigate to the folder you want to search. For example, if you just want to search your Downloads folder, open the Downloads folder. If you want to search your entire C: drive, head to C:.
Then, type a search into the box at the top right corner of the window and press Enter. if you’re searching an indexed location, you’ll get results instantly. (You can make this a bit faster by telling Windows to always start searching when you type in File Explorer.)
If the location you’re searching isn’t indexed—for example, if you’re searching your entire C: drive—you’ll see a progress bar as Windows looks through all the files in the location and checks to see which match your search.
![Search words in multiple files Search words in multiple files](http://gnoted.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/search-inside-files-windows.jpg)
You can narrow things down by clicking the “Search” tab on the ribbon and using the various options to choose the file type, size, and properties you’re searching for.
Note that, when searching in non-indexed locations, Windows will only search file names and not their contents. To change this, you can click the “Advanced options” button and enable “File contents”. Windows will do a deeper search and find words inside files, but it may take a lot longer.
![Words Words](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125791674/340332477.png)
To make Windows index more folders, click Advanced Options > Change Indexed Locations and add the folder you want. This is the same index used for the Start menu search feature.
Everything, a Third Party Tool
If you’re not thrilled with the integrated Windows search tools, you may want to avoid them and go with a third-party utility. There are quite a few decent ones out there, but we like Everything—and yes, it’s free.
Everything is very fast and simple. It builds a search index as you use it, so you can just start searching and it will work immediately. It should be able to index most PCs in just a few minutes. It’s a lightweight, small application that uses uses minimal system resources. Like many other great Windows tools, it’s also available as a portable application.
Its one downside, compared to Windows’ built-in search, is that it can only search file and folder names—it can’t search the text within those files. But it’s a very fast way to find files and folders by name on your entire system, without dealing with Cortana or telling Windows to index your entire system drive, which could potentially slow things down.
Everything works very quickly. It builds up a database of every file and folder on your computer and searches happen instantly as you type. It runs in your notification area (aka the system tray) and you can assign a keyboard shortcut to quickly open the window from Tools > Options > General > Keyboard, if you like. If you want to quickly search all the files on your PC, this is a much better solution than the integrated Windows search tools.
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- Search options:
On other pages:
Displaying the Search/Find Window Pane
When a PDF is opened in the Acrobat Reader (not in a browser), the search window pane may or may not be displayed. To display the search/find window pane, use 'Ctrl+F'.
When the Find window opens, follow these steps and refer to Figure 1 below:
- Click the small arrow on the right side of the box.
- Select the drop down item - 'Open Full Acrobat Search'.
Figure 1
Search Options
There are several ways to search for information within a PDF document. These include the following:
- Basic Search
- Advanced Search
Basic Search Options
To execute a basic search request complete the following steps:
- Type your search term(s) inside the 'text box' where you are asked: 'What word or phrase would you like to search for?'
- Click the 'Search' button to execute the search request.
Advanced Search Options
To get to the Advanced Search feature, click on 'Show More Options' at the bottom of the search window pane.
Brief explanation of the options available in the advanced search are:
- Match Exact Word Or Phrase - Searches for the entire string of characters, including spaces, in the same order in which they appear in the text box.
- Match Any Of The Words - Searches for any instances of at least one of the words typed. For example, if you search for each of, the results include any instances in which one or both of the two words appear: each, of, each of, or of each.
- Match All Of The Words - Searches for instances that contain all your search words, but not necessarily in the order you type them. Available only for a search of multiple PDFs or index definition files.
- Boolean Query - Uses the Boolean operators that you type with the search words into the What Word Or Phrase Would You Like To Search For box. Available only for searching multiple PDFs or PDF indexes.
Note: You cannot run wildcard searches using asterisks (*) or question marks (?) when searching PDF indexes.
Click 'Use Advanced Search Options' near the bottom of the search window pane to display the advanced search information. To execute an advanced search request complete the following steps:
- Type your search term(s) inside the 'text box' where you are asked:'What word or phrase would you like to search for?'
- Select an option from the drop down menu for 'Return results containing:'
- Click the 'Search' button to execute the search request.
Sample Search Request Using Advanced Search Options
For the purposes of this example, steps are provided to illustrate how to execute a search request for finding information about diazinon and kaolin in a PDF document. Assume that a PDF document is opened in the browser. If the search window pane is not displayed, please refer back to 'Displaying the Search Window Pane' for assistance.
The Search Criteria
Below are the steps to be followed for completing a search request to find information about diazinon and kaolin. Refer to Figure 2.
- Click 'Show More Options' near the bottom of the search window pane. (Step 1)
- Select 'Match Any Of The Words' from the drop down menu for 'Return results containing:' (Step 2)
- Type 'diazinon kaolin' inside the 'text box' where you are asked: What word or phrase would you like to search for?' (Step 3)
- Click the 'Search' button to execute the search request. (Step 3)
Figure 2
The Search Results
In this example, the search results produced 10 items in the PDF document for information about diazinon and kaolin. See Figure 3 below.
Figure 3
Additional Information
Setting a Preference for Displaying the Advanced Search Option as the Default
- Select 'Edit' from the menu option at the top-left of the computer screen.
- Select 'Preferences'.
- The Preferences popup window is displayed.
- Under Categories: select 'Search'.
- Refer to the 'Search' section and check the box 'Always show more options in advanced search'.
- Click the 'Ok' button to save.
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