I am currently using Vista Home Premium on a PC.  Previously (a couple of computers ago) I was able to search through a folder containing several files to find a particular word.  Now I am no longer able to do that.  I must search each file separately.  I think it is because of changes made by Microsoft.  I understand that Vista has an advanced search capability, but I doubt it does what I want (or I don't know how to set it up.)  I don't have Word; most files are in Wordperfect or text.  

---

Answer from Richard Rost:

Vista and Windows 7 both have more advanced search capabilities than any previous version of Windows.

You should be able to search the text within a file by just typing the text in the search bar of any window. Make sure you're in the folder (or parent folder) where the file exists.

Beyond that, I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. Can you give me some more details?