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I'd like to use Windows Search for searching through multiple PDFs in one go, but I see that in the Indexing Options' Advanced Options screen, PDF files don't have a registered IFilter: Registered IFilter is not found

What is an IFilter, and where can I get the appropriate one?

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2 Answers

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IFilters allow Windows Search to search within file contents.

Here are three popular PDF IFilters. They are ordered by search performance according to this article:

  1. Foxit PDF IFilter (commercial, fastest)
  2. TET PDF IFilter (free/commercial, fast)
  3. Adobe PDF IFilter (32-bit / 64-bit) (free, slow)

After installing one, you should be able to search within PDF files in the same way that you can for other types of files.

PDF Filter

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I tried this but it did not work for me. I'm on Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), with Adobe Reader X. I installed the iFilter, added it to my PATH environment variable, restarted my computer, and waiting until Windows was indexing, but I still couldn't search within my PDFs. I did have to install under my PC's administrator account, which is a different user, I wonder if that affected it. – M. Dudley Jul 2 '12 at 17:03
Did Windows finish indexing? – Louis Jul 2 '12 at 19:52
@emddudley, if you want the PDF contents to be indexed, you should ensure that in the above screenshot, "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected for PDF files. Also, if you're searching non-indexed files, you may have to prefix your search query with content:. – Sam Jan 17 at 23:41
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An alternative way to search through PDFs is to use the search function of PDF-Viewer. It does not need indexing neither. This is my choice.

Search PDF in PDF-Viewer

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