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How to search inside PDFs with Windows Search?

Fresh3 days ago
Mar 15, 2026138224 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

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

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1 Fix

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Fix for: How to search inside PDFs with Windows Search?

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IFilters allow Windows Search to search within file contents. Here are three popular PDF IFilters†: Foxit PDF IFilter (commercial) TET PDF IFilter (free/commercial) Adobe PDF IFilter (32-bit / 64-bit) (free) After installing one, you should be able to search within PDF files in the same way that you can for other types of files. †:This article from 2009 has performance numbers, but they may not apply to current versions of the filters.

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