Searching PHP files with Windows Search

August 25th, 2005

I use the default search engine in Windows XP. It’s not great, but it works. It saves the hassle of deciding whether to use Google, Copernic or MSN and the overhead of having another program installed. It’s also more logical to use – I don’t need to open up my web browser to search the contents of my PHP files.

Windows Search, by default, does not allow you to search PHP. This is because PHP files are a unknown file type. I searched and found the solution.

  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.

About the Author: Hi! I'm Ken. I've been using mobiles for over 10 years and technology for a lot longer! I'd love to hear from you.

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11 Responses to “Searching PHP files with Windows Search”

  1. # Blog Readeron 25 Aug 2005 at 3:44 pm

    Great, always wondered why you weren’t able to search through your PHP pages.
    Thanks cow ^_^

  2. # Eric Blairon 13 Aug 2006 at 5:31 am

    Thanks a lot.  You saved me a ton of time at a very late hour of the day.

  3. # Paulon 16 Dec 2006 at 2:47 pm

    Thankyou.  

    Sincerely,

    Paul 

  4. # Mr Nullon 28 Dec 2006 at 12:21 pm

    Extremely useful – been wonderong why windows was doing that – you’re a star!

  5. # Molly Mockfordon 10 Mar 2008 at 3:11 pm

    Many thanks – I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why all my searches on PHP files failed!

  6. # Michaelon 22 Sep 2008 at 1:08 am

    Simply awesome. Thanks.

  7. # Ozhon 01 Nov 2008 at 1:53 pm

    Perfect. Thanks for this, it was slightly driving me mad :)

  8. # Sergio Torreson 10 Mar 2009 at 4:35 am

    Thank you very much,

    You’re solution has been very helpful.

  9. # aon 26 Jun 2009 at 7:17 pm

    you rock.

    i wonder who’s the kickin brain-dead mamagüevo engineer that decided that setting would be off by default.

  10. # hendryon 25 Jul 2009 at 9:07 am

    Help..!! I can’t find “For Files or Folders” button…
    I also cn’t find “Change Preference” button..
    Please, help me… Thx

  11. # Mostafaon 09 Mar 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Very Helpful for my same problem!

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