Searching for content within PDFs using Windows Explorer

[jmt356]

I have a folder in Windows Explorer that contains both Word documents and PDFs. When I search for a term, Word documents with the search term in the file name or in the file's contents appear, but only PDFs with the search term in the file name appear. How can I get the PDFs with the search terms in the file contents to appear as well, as the Word documents do? I want to avoid having to open each PDF individually to search for the terms in question.

[Rudi]

Seems one needs an iFilter installed and to set the indexing service to search for files and contents for that file type (*.pdf).

See this article for a step by step
See here for Adobe iFilter (64bit)

I can also recommend FileSearchy for searching inside various file types. I use it a fair amount to locate specific articles I write and need to track down specific paragraphs. its a great tool and very accurate.

[HansV]

By the way, Windows 10 can search the contents of PDF files (at least those whose contents are stored as text) without needing third-party software.

[DaveA]

Also note, that some if not most "Protected" pdf's are NOT searchable.
This is the result of the power of using "Protected" pdf's.