XP Search Function

When you use the Search option on the Start menu to find files containing
specific text, the results may not include files of all types. In fact, if
you haven't installed any service packs, quite a few file types will be
omitted.

Microsoft created this situation deliberately, to avoid having you find
"irrelevant" files, but in the initial release of Windows XP the software
company overdid the limitation. Updating with the latest service pack will
allow Windows XP to search several dozen more file types.

The Search function relies on an internal filter to find words; file types
that don't have a defined filter won't be searched. If you find that certain
file types don't appear in the search results, you can try assigning the
plain-text filter to those types.

To do this, launch Regedit from the Start menu's Run dialog and navigate to
the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.??? (where .??? is the extension you want
searched). If you don't find a subkey named PersistentHandler, create one.
Double-click on the value "(Default)" for that subkey and set its data to
{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}. Repeat the procedure for any other
file extensions you want included.

You can also change a setting in the Content Indexing Service to index all
files. Select Search from the Start menu. Click on the Change preferences
link, then on the With Indexing Service link. Scroll down to Change Indexing
Service Settings (Advanced) and click on it (you don't have to turn on
indexing).

Now select Customize from the View menu, check the Console tree box, and
click on OK. Right-click on Indexing Service on Local Machine in the
left-hand pane and click on Properties. On the Generation tab, check the box
Index files with unknown extensions and click on OK. Close the Indexing
Service console.

Note that both of these techniques require that you first update your system
to the Windows XP Service Pack 1.