Searching Java files on Windows

In late June 2002, Microsoft announced that "its [Windows] operating systems will no longer support [the] Java programming language." One of the consequences of this "desupport" of Java by Microsoft is that, starting with Windows XP, the Search Companion in the operating system, as supplied by Microsoft, will no longer search files with certain extensions, such as Java source code files, which end with .java. For example, if you search for the word package, which appears near the beginning of almost every Java source file, the Search Companion will find it only if it is part of the file name.

To fix this "feature" requires a change to the Windows registry that is described in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. The registry changes can be made with a file that contains the following data:

FixSearchForJavaFiles.reg

                        Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
                        

                        

                        [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.java]
                        

                        "PerceivedType"="text"
                        

                        

                        [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.java\PersistentHandler]
                        

                        @="{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"
                        

                     

Any other file extensions that are being skipped can be fixed in the same way simply by replacing both instances of .java with the extension to be fixed.

Double click on the file name to run it and update the registry, or else execute it using the regedit command:

                        regedit FixSearchForJavaFiles.reg
                        

                     

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Last updated Wednesday November 22, 2006