Expand Search Results in Windows XP

When you perform a search for a file in Windows XP. The default setting is for XP to ONLY return files in the "Search Results" pane - when they are registered file types to a program on your PC.

In other words if you are looking for a file that is NOT registered with an application on your PC, it will not be found using the default search settings. However, you can turn off the default by a quick Tweak of the registry!

Open the Registry editor (type regedit from the Run command) and navigate to:

HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

Double-Click the value named: FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions and change the value from 0 to 1

Exit the registry editor and reboot!

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Posted: 2010-11-14
By: FortyPoundHead
Viewed: 2,007 times

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