Looking for good desktop search program that can search within files

[yamangman]

The 'file and contents' setting is per-extension, this is often overlooked, just FYI. I would suggest using windows for this task, as it will handle all the other bumf that composes a word document behind the scenes.

Failing that, notepad++ does an admirable job. Just Ctrl+F then find in files: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/. If we're talking docx though, you might never get any luck with plain text searches.

Because it doesn't work. In Windows search I chose the option to "Always search file names and contents" but when searching for some words in my Word file, it returned no results. My hard drive with the file in was indexed as well.

I have .NET framework 4 which is supposed to include previous versions as well. I already have 3.5 SP1 enabled also so I can't understand why I can't get Astrogrep to work. I had to uninstall Directory Opus as it was freezing my PC even when not open. All I want is a way to search for text within files!

[nichomach]

Have you tried Agent Ransack?

[watercooled]

Because it doesn't work. In Windows search I chose the option to "Always search file names and contents" but when searching for some words in my Word file, it returned no results. My hard drive with the file in was indexed as well.

Do you mean the 'allow indexing' checkbox was filled, or was it actually added to the search index? Because the checkbox doesn't add it to the index. To actually add something, search for 'index' in Start and click Indexing options, and it should be fairly self-explanatory from there. I wouldn't just add entire drives though as it may slow down searches and add to the index size.

I've had no problems just using Windows search for stuff like this myself; I always find random documents by typing in a few words I remember from the contents.