Scans Searcher | Searcher 27 Help | Search | Results | Statistics | Options

## Page ‘Search’

### Search for strings

Words or phrases you want to search for in the directory and file names. Only those lines will be included in the result list which contain all the given strings, each one at any position (overlapping is allowed). In the editbox, strings must be separated with single or more spaces. To include the space character in a phrase, surround that phrase by quotation marks “…”. To include the quotation mark character, type it twice and surround the phrase in quotation marks. At most 31 strings can be specified.

### Extensions

File types you want to search. Files whose extension is not in the list will be ignored. In the editbox, separate the extensions with single or more spaces. Do not include the period (.) to the extensions. Do not use wildcards. The number of specified extensions is not limited. To search all files, leave the editbox empty. Custom extension groups can be defined on the Options page.

### Movie list

Creates list of movies. No settings have influence on movie list creation except the computer lifetime option. Directories are added to the list according to their name and the number of video and subtitle files they contain. (The method is quite precious but not sure.) Search results and movie list are listings of the same kind; thus, any of them will clear the contents of the Results page.

### Name matching options

directory names only
  Searches for the strings in directory names only. If extensions are specified, only the names of those directories will be searched which contain at least one file with a suitable extension.
whole words
  Searches for the strings as whole words. The strings are found only at positions where they are surrounded by non-alphanumeric characters. In this context, native characters such as é are also treated as alphanumeric.
case sensitive
  Makes the searching case sensitive. Searching for hura will not find the file that was scanned as HurA and vice-versa. Since FAT and NTFS file systems are case insensitive, this switch has no greater meaning, but it is supported.
native symbols
  Makes the searching sensitive to interpunctual symbols. Searching for hura will not find the file named hurá and vice-versa.

## Page ‘Results’

### Menu button

create movie list
  Does the same as the Movie list button on Search page.
copy all to clipboard
  Copies all lines to the clipboard. You can then paste the list in another application.
save to file
  Saves the contents of the listbox to a text file. You will be asked to enter the filename each time you want to save the results.
font
  Sets the font of the results window.
ignore ping result
  For unknown reason, when searcher is running on specific machines, pinging may report all the computers in the network as offline. If checked, this option gives you a chance to run the open and explore commands even for offline items. However, if the computer is really not accessible, it may take several seconds to recover from the halted state. You should have no reason to use this option unless you often see all the computers in red.

### Context menu

open
  Opens the file with the associated program. This command is only visible for files, not for directories. If “ignore ping result” is not checked, the command will not be executed for offline items.
explore
  Opens the directory of the selected file using the default or custom browser. If “ignore ping result” is not checked, the command will not be executed for offline items.
copy directory
  Copies the directory part of the selected line to the clipboard (without trailing backslash). You can then paste the directory name in another application.
copy string
  Copies the selected line to the clipboard. You can then paste the filename in another application.

### Line number reduction

To sufficiently reduce the number of lines in the list, some lines are grouped together and only the directory name is listed in the results. Such redundancy is made in two cases:

- no strings occur deeper
  This happens when all the requested strings appear in a directory name or its path, but none of them appear in any of the subdirectories nor in the files inside that directory. In such case, only the directory will be listed. Of course, every directory that is listed in the results contains at least one file that has the requested extension.
- already in list
  If a directory name with its path contains all the given strings and some of its subdirectories or files already appear in the results, the directory will not be listed again.

The purpose of line reduction is to avoid boring lists of files at unimportant depth. The principle of line reduction is to minimize the result while still holds that if a fully qualified filename contains all the strings and has an appropriate extension, either itself or one of its superdirectories is listed.

### Coloured lines

The lines are drawn in multiple colours to indicate the status of the computer to which the line belongs. A check is made every 3–5 minutes. Possible states are:

pinging
  The computer is being queued for the pinging thread. These lines are going to be repainted soon.
online
  The file or directory is currently accessible and can be opened.
offline
  The file or directory is currently not accessible and can not be opened.
special entry
  The line contains a colon (:). This is a tricky way to include additional (given) lists in the database like FTP or CD/DVD scans.

If there are any problems with colouring or you just want everything in default colour, turn the checkbox off.

## Page ‘Statistics’

### Database properties

These are: the filename, the file size, the file’s last modification (when the database was built) and the database timestamp indicating the time of the latest scan.

### Computers (bars)

computers / within x lifetime
  The total number of computers and the number of computers that fall into the specified lifetime limit. Computers whose lifetime has expired will not be searched. See the lifetime option on Options page.
IP addresses known
  Pinging through IP addresses is much faster than doing so using computer names. Knowing more addresses results in faster computer status detection. IP addresses are collected by the database builder and are stored in the database.
online – offline
  The purpose of computer status detection is to mark those lines in the result list which contain links to currently accessible files and directories. Status detection is performed by a low-priority pinging thread that runs in the background unless the status of all computers are known. Pinging restarts about every 3–5 minutes.

### Computer statistics table

The computer statistics table shows summary information about scanned data. Click on a header to sort lines by that column. Column meanings are described below:

computer | name of the computer
status | @ means online, — means offline
days | age of scans for the given computer
IP address | IP address saved in database, empty if unknown
files | total number of files
dirs | total number of directories
max (f) | maximal number of files in a directory
avg (f) | average number of files in a directory
max (d) | maximal number of subdirectories in a directory
avg (d) | average number of subdirectories (zeros don’t count)
max (*) | maximal number of whatever in a directory
avg (*) | average number of whatever in a directory

At runtime, the database is not refreshed. Only the online status of computers is checked periodically.

## Page ‘Options’

### Lifetime

Lifetime option serves to ignore computers with too old scans. If the time elapsed since the computer was scanned until the database was built is more than the specified lifetime, the computer will not be searched.

### Custom browser syntax

User-defined syntax for the explore command. The target path will be inserted at the end unless `%1` is used as the insertion point. The target always ends with a backslash. If the box is left blank, the following is used:
`%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe`

### Predefined extension list

This is where you can edit predefined extension groups for the extensions entry on Search page. Each line contains one group in following form:
group name = ext1 ext2 ext3 …
The left side is going to be shown in the combobox, while the right side will be pasted on request into the extensions input area. Spaces next to the equal sign are optional and don’t count. Do not include the period (.) to the extensions. Do not use wildcards. Use empty right side for all files.
Keep in mind that without saving settings, any changes will be lost when the program quits.

### View documentation

Opens the PDF documentation, located in the program’s directory.

### Window position / Settings

save settings (or window position) on exit
  Saves actual settings (or window and splitter position) each time the program is being closed. Clearing this box will not remove already saved settings.
load now
  Loads saved settings (or position) immediately. Anyway, settings are automatically loaded each time when the program starts.
save now
  Saves current settings (or position) immediately, leaving the “save on exit” option unchanged.
restore default
  Restores default settings (or position) by deleting related fields in the registry.

### Registry

registry entry
  Indicates the presence of the following registry key:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Thomas Lackó\Scans Searcher
  By default, registry key is not created unless you explicitly allow saving.
delete
  Deletes the registry key and turns the two “save on exit” options off. Use this if you want to remove the software’s hidden fragments from the system.