ContextReplace

There are various scenarios which might require you to find specific text strings in file names or content, and you might not want to take the time to work with Windows search. Luckily, there are a ton of specialized applications like ContextReplace which help you initiate a search operation directly on a folder of choice.

The setup process doesn’t keep you busy for a long time, only asking for a location. By the time it’s over, the application is already included in your system, without the need to perform a system restart. All you have to do is call up the context menu on any folder, and look for the option to replace.

A pretty compact window shows up on the screen, and even though the layout is simple, things are pretty clear from the start. Unfortunately, the path is locked on the initial folder, without an option to change, leaving the only available option here to start over from a different location.

Since the path is pretty much cleared by the application launch, the next step is to fill in the two fields, which stand for the target string, as well as the one to replace with. Below you find a set of options, and be careful with case sensitivity, because it’s enabled by default, which might cause some confusion at first.

You can choose to limit your search to full words only, use a regular expression, include subfolders in the process, replace strings in file names, and to replace in file content where possible. The process is initiated at the press of a button, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to finish.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that ContextReplace is a reliable application when you simply need to find text strings in file names or even content. It integrates into the context menu, thus saving you some effort in locating the source folder, deserving a try overall.