Search panel is the most important area in XSearch. You use the search panel to specify options to search for files. Basically, you must at least select one folder to search for files in it. You can leave other settings in their default values. This will let XSearch get all files in the folder you selected.
You can specify what to find in the first input box . It supports wildcard characters and multiple parts, so the following are all valid examples:
You can leave the file name box blank. If you don't specify any file name, it means that you want XSearch to search for all files in the selected folder(s).
The file name options work like Google advanced search, you use one of those options to tell XSearch how to use the file name parts. The default one is , a found file must contain all of the file name parts.
In Windows system, file names are all case insensitive, but you can enable this option to force XSearch to perform case sensitive search.
You can specify words in the input box , to let XSearch search for files which contain those words. Word box works like the file name box, only it doesn't support wildcard. The wildcard characters will be treated as the characters themselves.
The logical options in word options work in the same way as file name logical options, except the default option is .
This option by default is enabled. This can save a lot of time for word searches.
Once this option is enabled, XSearch treats the inputted words as hexadecimal values. The words you provided must be valid hexadecimal values, otherwise XSearch won't work correctly. Valid hexadecimal values can be starting with "0X" or "X". XSearch still supports multiple words in hexadecimal search.
Valid hexadecimal value examples:
When hexadecimal is enabled, XSearch can not perform case insensitive search, neither search for Unicode or utf-8.
With this option enabled, XSearch will try to search for the Unicode and UTF-8 version of the words you specified. Note it will still search for the basic ANSI version of the words, this means it will search for all of the ANSI, Unicode and UTF-8 versions of the words.
Before XSearch can perform a search, you must first select one or multiple folders in the box. This is the most important area, XSearch won't start search if there is no at least one valid folder specified.
You can input a folder directly into this box, or select a folder from the drop down box. The drop down box has listed all the drives in the system, and the folders it has searched (history). You can click to browse and select a folder.
XSearch supports to perfrom one search for multiple folders. You can specify multiple folders in this box, each separated by . You can click the arrow icon of button, then choose to select a folder to append it to the existing folder(s).
XSearch version 0.1 used ';' (semicolon) to separate multiple folders, it has been changed to '|' since version 0.2 to avoid confusion (because folder names can contain ';' too). The ';' can still be used in most cases for compatibility, XSearch is smart enough to understand and make the correct choices.
To use Size options, you must first select a size type: Bytes, KB, MB or GB. The default value is so XSearch won't care about file size when performs searches.
There are two size areas can be used. You can combine them with logic AND, or use any one of them, and leave another one to be "Don't care".
The arrow icon next to the size type drop box is for quick size selection, you click it and a shortcut menu will display, you can select a predefined size range such as "Large (1 - 16 MB)" then XSearch will automatically fill the size options for you.
Date time options are similar to the Size options, by default it's so XSearch won't use date time. You must first select which date time you want XSearch to use if you want to use date time options: date modified, date created, or date last visited.
Like Size options, XSearch provides two date time areas so you can combine them with logic AND, or use just one of them and leave another to be "Don't care".
You can let XSearch search for files by date and time, date only or time only. For example if you select and specify the time to be 12:00 AM, it then will get files that the (specified type of) time is 12:00 AM, doesn't care the date.
There is also a quick selection icon next to the date time type drop box in this section, you can click it to quickly select a date time range such as "this week".
The advanced options are useful when you want to get only the files with special attributes. All options are selected by default, if you disabled all options in this area, XSearch won't find any file.
These options let XSearch search for the files with the selected attributes.
This is a very important option, if you disable it then XSearch won't search files in sub-folders of the folders you specified. It's not recommended to disable this option unless you know what it means.
You may have already noticed that XSearch (and most other search programs) will also list the found sub-folders in the search result. Sometimes it's just useful to only show the found files, so we provide this option in XSearch. If you disabled this option, XSearch will only show found files in its result window.
By clicking button, XSearch starts to search with all options you have set in the search panel. This button will become during searching. You can click it to cancel the search at any time.
If you click on the arrow icon of this button, it will pop up a menu and give you more options:
Cancel current search, same to clicking the button while the search is in progress.
It can be used to filter the search result with new search settings. XSearch lists search result in its main window after it has done a search, or loaded a search result file. You then can specify new search settings such as new file name parts, new date time options etc., and then choose this menu item to let XSearch get the new result from the existing result, items don't match the new options will be removed from the result.
It's possible to undo the previous "Search in Result" operation with this feature. However, XSearch only records one level result history, so if you did multiple "Search in Result" operations, XSearch can only undo one level.
When a "Search in Result" or "Undo Search in Result" operation is in progress, you can click to cancel the operation too.
Search results can be saved by choosing menu → . The saved search result files can be loaded by choosing menu → later.
You also can export the current search result to a text document by choosing → , the exported file can be loaded by Microsoft Excel or similar programs as a tab delimited text file.
Search result files can be opened by XSearch directly when you double-click on them, if the file type has been registered to system. See Shell extensions.
XSearch supports common file operations on the found items in its result window, such as copy, cut, rename and so on. Common hotkeys also are supported.
You are also allowed to drag the selected items to desktop, any explorer window, or any program that support drag and drop.
You can switch the view mode of the result window, such as Details, List, Tiles, Icons and large Icons, under the menu .
Not all view modes can be used on old systems, the Tiles and Large Icons modes may not work under Windows 2000.
You can sort the result by choosing menu → , and group the result by choosing menu → .
Sorting can also be done by clicking on column headers in the result window. Clicking on those column headers will also affect groups if groups have been enabled for the result.
Default Search is the default search settings the XSearch will load each time it starts. Default search is actually a search result file with empty file items in it. Each time XSearch starts, it tries to load the default search file.
To create the default search file, setup the search settings on the search panel, then choose menu → → . You can save any search result as the default search. When saving search result as default search, found items will always be discarded, only settings will be saved.
XSearch loads the default search at startup, you also can load the default search at any time manually by using menu → → .
The under the same menu can be used to save search settings to a file. This is actually similar to saving the search result under File menu, the only different is that this menu item won't save found items. You can use those search settings files to keep your most used search settings so that you can re-load them quickly, or use them with command line switch /In=[filename].
XSearch doesn't need to be installed. It won't register itself to the system, so that search result files created by it can not be opened directly when you double-click on them in Explorer window, because Windows doesn't know what those files are.
You may also want to register XSearch to the context menu of Windows Explorer, so that you can right-click on any drive or folder and choose XSearch to search files in it directly.
These can be done by using the menu → . The dialog box itself already explained these features. The only thing we need to explain here is the UAC (User Account Control) of Windows Vista and later:
Because enabling these features needs to register XSearch to system, administrator privileges are needed. With UAC enabled, you are actually a limited user under Windows Vista/7 and later, even your account is in administrators group. Thus, XSearch needs to elevate access rights. When it does that, Windows will ask you to confirm. You must allow it so that it can register itself to the system.
Choose menu → to open options window.
If you have done sorting and/or grouping with the previous result, XSearch will perform same sorting and grouping with the result after it completed a new search.
Performs the default sorting operation after finished a search. The default sort is sorting by file name in ascending order. Note if the "Keep last sort and group states" is enabled and performed, this option will be skipped.
Performs the default grouping operation after finished a search. The default group is grouping by modified date time in ascending order. Note if the "Keep last sort and group states" is enabled and performed, this option will be skipped.
Treats folders as files, so folders will not be kept on top (or bottom in descending order). Most search programs including XSearch will keep the folders on top/bottom of the list when you sort the found items, XSearch provides this option so you can overwrite that behavior.
When XSearch loads an previously saved search result file, it checks each item in the file, and removes items that are no longer existed in the system.
If you selected more than one item in the list, the following menu commands will be disabled: Open, Open Containing Folder and HexView. With this option, XSearch will allow you to use those menu commands when multiple items are selected.
Pops up a window to ask you if you want to cancel the search.
Those special files contain additional information. XSearch will automatically obtain those information in addition to the basic information. The information will be shown on details panel (status bar) if you select a file, or be shown in a tool tip window when you point mouse cursor over a file.
If you enabled this option, XSearch will not obtain those information. It treats those special files as normal files. This can save time and system resources.
Does not show search progress information on the details panel during searching.
Searching large files for words will take many extra times. XSearch needs to open those files and read each byte of them. If you specify a value other than 0 (zero) here, then all files that larger than that size (MB) will be skipped when XSearch needs to search words in files.
By default this value is 0, all files will be scanned.
menu item will show other programs that can be used to open the selected file. Each time you select a file, XSearch reads the system registry database and constructs that menu.
It will affect the speed of menus, so you can enable this option to turn "Open With" feature off.
Search history such as the inputted strings in the file names box, words box and the folders box, will not be saved, if you enabled this option.
Note: existing search history will NOT be automatically deleted even if you enabled this option. You need to use menu → to clear existing history.
You click button to change font for XSearch. The selected font will be used by most of the user interfaces of XSearch.
You can use XSearch in command scripts (.CMD or .BAT files) with its command line switches. command line format:
XSearch.exe [Folder] /switch[=value] ...
Example: XSearch.exe C:\Windows
If you specify a folder in command line, XSearch automatically uses it as the folder in the "Search in" box.
It also can be a search result file. XSearch will load the result file instead. In this case it is same to switch /In=filename.
Example: XSearch.exe /In=D:\MyResult.xsearch
XSearch loads the specified result file when it starts. Normally this is a search settings file created by menu .
Example: XSearch.exe /Out=D:\MyResult.xsearch
XSearch will perform the search and save result to the specified file, and then quit. If you use this switch, XSearch will always quit after finished search.
XSearch will perform the search immediately after its main window is displayed, does not wait for you to click the "Search" button.
Forces XSearch to quit. We normally do not use this switch, it's for special tasks.
Starts the HexView and opens the file specified in filename. If you do not specify a file name to it, then it starts a blank HexView window.
Switches can be combined, for examples:
XSearch provides a HexView tool to help view files in hexadecimal. With its buffering technology, HexView can open huge files (2 GB or larger) immediately, and there is no size limit.
To view a file in the result list, select a file in the list, then choose menu → , or you can right-click on the file, then choose
HexView can be used to view any file, not only those files in the search result of XSearch. You can choose menu → or of HexView, to open a file.
HexView also can be used directly without launching XSearch, by using the command line switch /HexView=[FileName]. For more information, see Command line switches.
There is no need to learn how to use this tool, because it works as a read-only editor, you can easily use it as using other editors.
Choose menu → to copy selected portion to clipboard, to copy selected portion in hexadecimal to clipboard.
HexView also supports to search for words in the opened file, with menu item → . The searches in HexView also support ANSI, UTF-8, Unicode and Hex, only please note that you can only specify a single word to search, the SPACE character will be treated as space character itself.
is a useful command, you can use it to jump to a specific offset of the file quickly without using scroll bar.
The options groups such as "File name options", "File Size" etc. in search panel, can be expanded and show additional options.
If you changed the default setting under an options group, its caption will become bold when you clicked it again to collapse it. Changing default settings will affect search results. You can easily know if anything was changed under an option group with this feature.
Double-clicking on the icon of details panel (the status bar) is same to clicking button. You double-click it to start the search, and double-click it again to cancel an in-progress search.
This can be useful if the search button has become invisible because of some option groups on the search panel have been expanded. Instead of scrolling search panel to bottom to find the search button to start a search, you can double-click on the icon.
It's possible to exclude files with the format when specify file names. The excluding string must be enclosed by quotation marks and start with a leading minus sign. It supports wildcard characters and there also can be multiple excluding strings.
For example: will exclude all files that the file name contains 'abc' and the first character of the file name is 'k', while searching for all .txt files.
By default, XSearch allows you to specify the time in format HH:MM when search by date time, which means it won't care about the seconds in the file time. You can click on the quick selection icon (right after the first drop down box under File Size options group), and choose .
That option will enable XSearch to use seconds in time, such as "12:00:01 AM".
In order to work on both 32- and 64-bit systems, XSearch was created as a 32-bit program, because a 32-bit program can work on both 32- and 64-bit system, but a 64-bit program can only work on 64-bit system.
This causes a problem with Windows X64 system and the WOW64 file redirection. Some of its features may not work correctly when you search for files in the Windows folder (C:\Windows) under a 64-bit system. XSearch can find the files without problem, but you may not be able to access those files found in System32 folder (in XSearch only, of course, the system won't be affected).
We didn't create a 64-bit version XSearch because we think that most of you will not need to search files in Windows folder. However, if you do want to do that, let us know and we will consider to create a 64-bit version.
XSearch can rename multiple files. If you select more than one items in result window and choose menu → . It works by calling a system API. There will be no problem if you use this feature under Windows Vista/7 and later, but it may not work correctly under Windows 2000/XP.
By using XSearch, you can perform many advanced searches that Windows Search and most other search tools can not accomplish.
For example, if you want to get all non-ready-only files in a folder, you only need to change the settings under options group, clear the selection of option (and if you only want it to return files, clear option "Include folders in result" too).
XSearch is a freeware. You can use this software without any fees to pay.
Your donations are always important to us, donations can help us improve the software, and create new products.