FindInside
Free Windows Search Tool for Finding Text Inside Documents
Current version: 1.1 | Freeware for Windows 10 & 11
FindInside is a free Windows file content search tool that helps you find information hidden inside your documents, folders, and files — including PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, and many more formats.
Key Features
- Free Windows file content search software
- Search inside PDFs, DOCX files, office documents, text files, logs, source code, and many other formats
- Finds files by actual document content, not only by file name
- Built-in text preview for found documents
- Highlights the searched phrase in the preview area
- Previous and next match navigation
- Search selected folders and subfolders
- Wildcard file name masks
- Date and file size filters
- Optional hidden file search
- Simple, lightweight Windows interface
- Freeware for personal and commercial use
Search Inside Almost Any Document Format
The main strength of FindInside is its ability to search inside a very wide range of file types. FindInside is especially useful for searching inside:
- PDF documents
- Microsoft Word DOC and DOCX files
- Excel spreadsheets
- PowerPoint presentations
- OpenDocument files
- RTF files
- TXT, CSV, XML, JSON, HTML, Markdown, and other text-based files
- Source code files
- Log files
- Configuration files
- Many additional document and data formats
See the Found Text in a Built-In Preview
FindInside does more than show a list of matching files. When you select a result, the program displays the document content in a readable text preview area. The searched word or phrase is highlighted in the preview, so you can immediately see where the match appears inside the file. You can quickly review the surrounding text, confirm the context, and move between matches using the built-in previous and next match navigation.
Flexible Search Options
FindInside includes useful filters that help narrow your search and reduce irrelevant results:
- File name mask — use wildcard patterns such as *.*, *.pdf, *.docx, *.txt, *.log
- Text inside files — enter the word, phrase, number, code fragment, or expression you want to find
- Folders and subfolders — search in selected folders and optionally include all subdirectories
- File dates — filter by created date, modified date, or accessed date
- File size — limit results by minimum or maximum file size
- Hidden files — optionally include hidden files in the search
Version History
| v1.1 | Fixed bug with line breaks in Preview |
| v1.0 | Initial version of FindInside |
Product Video: Watch FindInside on YouTube
Download FindInside — Free for Windows | All Products