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Broken search function
Posted: 28 Jan 2026 20:35
by Motueka
I bought XYPlorer 28.10.0500 64-bit a few days ago. I'm using it in Windows 11.
I'm trying to search for a Japanese term in a directory containing Japanese doc and docx files. I've tried Standard, Boolean, and RegExp modes. The only filter selected is Contents.
ALL IT GET IS HUNDREDS OF FALSE POSITIVES.
I also get false positives searching for English terms.
It doesn't help that every time a put in a different search term or change the settings, the Name filter is automatically selected.
Re: Broken search function
Posted: 28 Jan 2026 23:16
by highend
No false positives here so:
Type, bitness and version of the installed MS Office package?
Show screenshots of the "Name & Location" & "Contents" tabs (when using an english search term in "Contents")
Provide two .docx files that were found that are false positives for that search
...
Re: Broken search function
Posted: 29 Jan 2026 00:35
by Motueka
highend wrote: ↑28 Jan 2026 23:16
No false positives here so:
Type, bitness and version of the installed MS Office package?
Show screenshots of the "Name & Location" & "Contents" tabs (when using an english search term in "Contents")
Provide two .docx files that were found that are false positives for that search
...
The directory contains thousands of files from every Office iteration since 2003, including files created by me and others using both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Word, Excel, and PPT. There are also lots of PDFs.
I checked half a dozen hits each from searches using Japanese and English terms. None contained the search texts. I've since written a Word macro that sends quoted search terms to Windows Explorer. I had to uninstall XYPlorer because it wouldn't give up the default file explorer status even after I unchecked the option and rebooted.
So thanks for replying, but I'm done with XYPlorer.
Re: Broken search function
Posted: 29 Jan 2026 09:00
by admin
Motueka wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026 00:35
So thanks for replying, but I'm done with XYPlorer.
We're here to help you with an obvious usage problem, so I'm not sure what to make of your reply. You asked for help, didn't you?
Re: Broken search function
Posted: 29 Jan 2026 20:02
by Motueka
admin wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026 09:00
Motueka wrote: ↑29 Jan 2026 00:35
So thanks for replying, but I'm done with XYPlorer.
We're here to help you with an obvious usage problem, so I'm not sure what to make of your reply. You asked for help, didn't you?
Is there a quick, simple way to make XYPlorer do a literal search of a search term without thousands of false positives? I tried all the options and filters.
In Windows Explorer, a search for Statue of Liberty (no quotes) would get separate hits for "Statue", "of", and "Liberty", which is functionally useless. I could avoid that by using "Content:" + quotes, but that's extra time and typing. Somebody told me that XYPlorer does literal searches by default. In reality it was chaotic. Two of the hits for one of my text searches were MP4 video files with no text content and no matching terms in the file names.
Re: Broken search function
Posted: 29 Jan 2026 22:00
by WirlyWirly
What part of the XY interface are you using to perform these searches? Have a screenshot?
There are a few different ways to search, but by default XY only does
filename searches.
If you're using the
[ctrl+f] Find Files tab of the Info Panel, the checkboxes to the right will toggle each sub-tab and whatever options you have set for that tab. So checking the "Contents" checkbox will enable whatever you have typed into the "Contents" sub-tab of
Find Files.
Keep in mind that checkboxes can be auto-enabled and may persist until you un-check them. That means whatever you configured for an old search may interfere with a new search if you forget to uncheck the boxes.
2026-01-29_12-58-50.png
If you're using the QuickSearch dialogue, then that is done with flags and triggers, which can get more advanced but also more flexible...
/contents="Find this string inside a file"