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This wikiHow teaches you how to search for files by their content instead of just their titles on a Windows computer. You can easily do this on a case-by-case basis by using a folder's search bar, or you can enable content searching for all searches.
Steps
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Open the folder that you want to search. In order to search a specific folder for a file's contents, you'll first need to open that folder.
- For example, if you wanted to search for a file inside of the "Documents" folder, you'd open Documents .
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Click the search bar. It's in the upper-right corner of the folder's window.Advertisement
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Enter the "content search" prompt. Type in content: into the search bar. Anything that you type after this prompt will be used as a content search term.
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Enter the content search term. Immediately after the "content:" prompt, type in the word or phrase that you want to use to search the folders' files' contents.
- For example, if you're looking for a file that has the phrase "An elephant never forgets" in its body, you would have content:an elephant never forgets in the search bar.
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Review the results. Each of the files in the search results will be indexed by content, meaning that you should see your preferred file somewhere near the top of the window if you entered correctly the word or phrase.
- You can narrow your search results by typing in a longer or more distinct phrase from the file that you want to find.
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Open Start . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen. The Start menu will open.
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Type change search options for files and folders into Start. The search bar is at the bottom of the Start window. Doing this will search your computer for the option you'll need to change in order to search by contents.
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Click Change search options for files and folders . You'll find this near the top of the Start window.
- You might instead see Files and folders here instead. If so, click that option.
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Check the "Always search file names and contents" box. It's in the "When searching non-indexed locations" section of the window.
- If this box is already checked, file contents searching for Windows is currently enabled.
- You may first have to click the Search tab at the top of the window.
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Click Apply , then click OK . Both options are at the bottom of the window. Doing so will save your settings and close the window; from this point on, Windows will search both for titles and for file contents.
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Open Start . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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Type in change how windows searches . You'll do this in the search bar at the bottom of the Start window.
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Click Change how Windows searches . It should be near the top of the Start window. Doing so opens the Indexing Options window.
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Click Advanced . This option is at the bottom of the window. A pop-up window will open.
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Click the File Types tab. You'll find this option near the top of the window.
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Select your preferred file type. Scroll through the list of file types near the top of the window until you find the one that you want to use, then click the file type's name to select it.
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Check the "Index Properties and File Contents" box. This option is below the "How should this file be indexed?" heading near the bottom of the window.
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Click OK . It's at the bottom of the window. Doing so will save your changes and close the window. You should now be able to search for your selected file type both by title and by contents.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhen I search I get no results, what should I do?Community AnswerChange your keywords. Windows search isn't like Google. If you are searching, let's say, "password" and no results come up, try "passcode."
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QuestionThis is not working on Windows 7; maybe my Trend Micro software is blocking it. What could I do?Community AnswerWindows search is often not working well, you can try other tools, such as docfetcher, anytxt, dtsearch, etc.
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Tips
- After updating your indexing options, you may have to wait some time before your results will appear as expected, as Windows must rebuild its index with the contents of the new files. Restarting your computer may help expedite the process.Thanks
- You may also add additional folders to the list of indexed locations from the Indexing Options window.Thanks
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Warnings
- Enable file contents-searching may dramatically slow down your computer. This is because your computer must now search within each file as opposed to scanning only the files' titles.Thanks
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About This Article
Article Summary
X
1. Open a folder in which you want to search.
2. Click the search bar in the upper-right corner.
3. Type "content" followed by your search word or phrase.
4. Review the results.
Did this summary help you?
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 1,528,749 times.
Reader Success Stories
- "I spent close to 20 minutes trying to find a file that I couldn't remember the title for. I had the printed version, so knew content words. This article helped me enable content-based searching, and I found the doc within 10 seconds! Awesome." ..." more
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"I spent close to 20 minutes trying to find a file that I couldn't remember the title for. I had the printed version, so knew content words. This article helped me enable content-based searching, and I found the doc within 10 seconds! Awesome."
..."
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"Being able to specify folders for indexing and how to index contents helped. I feel better about the search function, which is the only aspect of Windows 7 I don't like."
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"Thank you! I have been wondering how to search multiple Excel files for data, and you just gave me the solution."
"Liked the clarity of the description and awesomeness of the pictures in the discovery process. Thank you."
"Excellent: it was easy to follow, with great pictures. And, most importantly, it worked!"
