searching inside files

a very common operation while exploring code is searching inside all of the files in a folder for a specific bit. by default, windows xp (and perhaps windows 7) will not search files with unknown extensions (it also hides extensions, which is also annoying). i have read more than one tutorial on android cracking that suggests renaming all .smali files into .txt files for searching. this is not necessary. here's a link describing how to fix it titled (just it case it gets moved) "Using the ``A word of phrase in the file`` search may not work": http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309173