A File Finder Failure to find files

tullik

To inspect the three hidden backups created by Initial Setup, I tried these File Finder specifications:

Files to find: Entries.reg

Search in: C:\Program Files\Macecraft\V\jv16 PowerTools X\4.0.0.1486\Backups\

Search by contents: __SystemRecovery

The search results window showed "(No files found)".

I tried again using Search by contents: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00.

The search results window again showed "(No files found)".

I did the same searches with jv16 PowerTools 2012 and jv16 PowerTools 2014. In both, the expected files listed in the results window.

tullik

Today, I had several other occasions to use File Finder-->Search on contents. PT X (4.0.0.1486) always gave the "(No files found)" result.

The workaround (use a prior version of jv16pt) found the files I needed.

jv16

This is actually by design: PowerTools skips its own backup directory when doing file search operations. If you try the Search By Content to any other directories, you will see it works 8)

If you tried a previous version of PowerTools to search for files from the Backups directory of PowerTools X, it works, because PowerTools only skips the backup directory of the current installation. That is, if you use PowerTools X, you can use it to search for files inside PowerTools 2014's backup directory but the backup directory of PowerTools X is skipped and no files are listed from there. But you can use PowerTools 2014 to find files from PowerTools X's backup directory, but not from the backup directory of PowerTools 2014.

jv16

A future version of PowerTools will notify/warn about this, in case user attempts to search data from the program's backup directory, as I think this issue has been discussed before. Unfortunately, such error message / warning / hint does not exist in the current program GUI translation files, so we cannot add the feature to PowerTools X :|

tullik

There are good reasons for needing to search the Backups folder. For example, part of an application stops working. A suspected cause is a registry change. To investigate further, one needs to examine all the entries.reg files in the Backups folder to see which ones contain the application name.

Next time, I won't need to use a prior version of Power Tools to get the job done. There is a another way. A few minutes ago, I copied the Backups installation directory to the Desktop and searched it. That worked, using Power Tools X.

Even if a GUI message is not implemented for some time, the design policy should be described in the Handbook, along with the search-of-a-copy technique.

jv16

You are correct, we will update the handbook to mention this.

mihaibarbulescu

Your suggestions have been applied to the jv16 PowerTools X Handbook, detailing the role and scope of all the File Finder filters, including the "Search by contents" feature, its design limitations and others. The updated content can be found on page 74 of the handbook and will be rolled out alongside more updates to PowerTools X (Build 1487).

Thank you for raising this to our attention and being active in our community forums!