FileSeek Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you pass a folder name to fileseek with no switches, FileSeek will treat that the same as -d. To pass a command line parameter value that includes spaces use quotes, like this: -d "C:\My Folder". Here is the complete list of command line parameters:

Set Search Directory: -d [path] (separate multiple paths with the | symbol)

Set Exclude Directory: -xd [path] (separate multiple paths with the | symbol)

Set Include Files Filter: -f [files] (separate multiple file filters with the | symbol)

Set Exclude Files Filter: -xf [files] (separate multiple file filters with the | symbol)

Set Query: -q [query]

RegEx Query: -r [query] (use this instead of -q if you want to do a RegEx search)

Load Search Profile: -l [profile name] (This starts FileSeek with the specific Profile. Any other command to modify search criteria happens after this, so you can load a profile then modify the criteria. This is only available to Pro users.)

Output Results to File: -o [filename] (This option loads FileSeek, starts a search, and outputs a file with the filename the user specified with the search results to the specified folder, then closes FileSeek. You can specify .csv, .html or any other extension for a text file. This is only available to Pro users.)

Execute the Search: -start

Start FileSeek Minimized to Tray: -tray

FileSeek allows you to query file contents using RegEx matching. If you'd like some more info on RegEx metacharacters, operators, and quantifiers, please see the C# Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet.

If you'd like to test out your regex strings before running your search in FileSeek, the following site has an excellent RegEx tester: Regular Expressions 101.

Starting with FileSeek 3.0, we've added a bunch of useful options to the silent installer. Please click one of the links below to view the details for that installer type.

Older versions of the DLL required for searching within Microsoft Office documents have an issue where Excel cells formatted as numbers cannot be found. This issue can be resolved by installing the hotfix for Microsoft KB915800.

The following is a list of third-party File Handlers (iFilters) known to work in FileSeek. If you've successfully installed and used a third-party File Handler that isn't on this list, feel free to send the info to us and we'll add it to the list.

If you've got files with unknown file extensions, but know that they can be searched using existing File Handlers, you can do the following to allow FileSeek to search them. In this example, we'll use the ZIP File Handler to search MAFF files. NOTE: You should only perform the following steps if you're comfortable working with the Windows registry. Always make a backup first!

For some unicode text files, the Windows file handler for .txt files (query.dll) doesn't guess the correct encoding. To work around this issue, you can disable the .txt file handler by following these steps:

FileSeek uses the same installer for both the Free and the Pro version. If you don't enter a license key during the installation, you'll get an automatic 30-day trial of the Pro features.

After the 30-day trial is up, FileSeek will automatically revert to the Free version. If you'd prefer to revert FileSeek to the Free version before the end of the trial, please follow these steps:

After performing the steps above, FileSeek will revert to the Free version, with the Pro features disabled. After reverting to the Free version, you'll no longer receive message box prompts to upgrade to the Pro version.

A FileSeek Pro license key can certainly be transferred to a different computer! The license key can be installed on a different computer if you have done any of the following on the old computer first:

Basically, as long as DisplayFusion is no longer in use on the old computer, you're good to use your existing key on a new computer.

The text query syntax section has moved here.

The privacy policy has moved here.