Search php Files With Windows XP
If you’re a web developer or you enjoy designing themes and templates you’ve probably realized that the Windows XP search features doesn’t search php files by default. With the release of WordPress 2.7 i’ve been reading a lot of questions by people upgrading their blogs relating to finding lines of code.
For example, if you want to remove the “view all posts filed under” or “posted in” type of title text from sidebar category links you’re out of luck if you rely on regular Windows XP search settings. WordPress 2.7 removed a lot of things like this from the template level and placed them inside core files. If you’re getting frustrated in finding a particular line of code and wish you could just use your computers search feature on an entire wordpress folder to find a specific file… here’s what you do.
#1 – make sure you have the latest service pack for Windows XP.
#2 – Go to your start menu and click Search.
#3 – Click on “Change preferences” and then click “With Indexing Service (for faster local searches)”.
#4 – Click “Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced)”. You do not have to turn on Index service.
#5 – On your toolbar click the “Show/Hide Console Tree” button.
#6 – Next, in the left window, right click over “Indexing Service on Local Machine” and select properties.
#7 – From the Generation tab select the “Index files with unknown extensions” check box and press OK.
#8 – Close the Indexing Service controls and try searching for a line of code you know is inside a .php file.
To speed searching up a great deal limit your search to a single file or a folder of files (such as an entire wordpress folder) so that you’re not waiting while Windows XP searches your entire computer for that one line of code.
If you’re worried about security issues, though I haven’t heard of any being caused by this, save these instructions so that you can undo the changes when you’re done coding.
edit: If you found this page looking for “view all posts filed under” for wordpress 2.7 or above sidebar category widget links it’s in a folder called wp-includes/classes.php. The “posted in” tag on category links within articles or on the index page is stored in wp-includes/post-template.php. There are other ways of changing or removing these title tags however that is where they are located. Click Here for the official Microsoft version of these steps.