Search Contents of MSG Files of Outlook by iFilter Indexing

There are many individuals or organization who backed up their Outlook email messages in MSG file format for their future reference. All the emails are saved in a folder or a drive that can be difficult to find if accessed after a long time. Sometimes, it is also required to open and search contents of MSG files and view Outlook MSG files on Windows OS.

Once a user asked, “I have too many MSG emails with me that are saved in my system. Now, I have am unable to get the specific email from that folder as there are thousands of emails. It is hard to find that email along with the attachment. Can anyone suggest me any method to search within MSG files easily? Thanks in Advance!”

There are many methods to do search contents of MSG file. In the following blog, we have discussed various methods to search and open MSG files in order to read Outlook messages in a simple and effective way.

Parameters to Search Contents of MSG Files

There is an application which is available from Microsoft website i.e. iFilter. This utility is very useful in order to set the location of the file that is required to be indexed by Windows. It is easy to read .msg files so as to index and search in MSG files. This application totally depends on the Outlook as well as Windows version. There are some parameters that involved the case:

• - If a user is using Outlook 2003/2010 on Windows Vista/7, then no installation of anything is required. The system, as well as the application, is designed in such a way that it can search within MSG files.
  
• - If a user is using any of the available versions of MS Outlook on Windows XP, then it required installing Windows Search.
  
• - If a user is using MS Outlook 2003 or any versions of Windows, then iFilter is required to be installed.
  

Search MSG Files Using iFilter

You need to follow some steps to change the Windows indexing in order to identify and search contents of MSG files:

1. 1. First of all, launch Indexing Options dialogue box. Follow undertaken steps:
   
   • - Windows XP: Click on Start >> Control Panel >> Indexing Options.
     
   • - Windows 7 and Vista: Click on Start >> Type >> Indexing Options.
     
2. 2. In Indexing Options dialogue box, click on the Advanced button to search .msg files.
   
3. 3. After that, click on File Types tab.
   
4. 4. From the left column, choose MSG extension. Filter Description should be Office Outlook MSG iFilter or Microsoft MSG iFilter.
   
5. 5. At the bottom, Indexing option should be Index Properties and File Contents.
   

Alternate Solution to Search in MSG Files

There is a big priority for many companies to save their time and efforts. They look for a simple solution to open and read MSG file data without wasting much time. They don’t go for temporary solutions or add-ins to download and run for important data. Instead of the manual method, they prefer SysTools MSG Viewer which is a simple utility to open, search contents of MSG files and view Outlook messages. There are multiple search options to scan uploaded folder/files and sort them by certain attributes. It works on all the Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP or below versions.

The Last Words

Sometimes, there is an important conversation or messages that are stored as the backup. It can be urgent to reference and search within MSG files any email message or attachment anytime. It can take time to find anything particular from the huge mailbox. A manual method is discussed in the following post but instead of it, the mentioned automated solution can be used by technical as well as non-technical individual and is more helpful. It takes very less time and efforts to open and search contents of MSG files.