Actual Search & Replace is an advanced software tool that gives you the possibility to search and replace text across multiple files at the same time. It's backed by many search filters and lets you generate reports as well as save projects to resume them later.
This powerful tool provides search and replace operations across multiple ASCII (text, HTML etc.) files.
Actual Search and Replace works under Windows 95/98/Me/2000/NT/XP/Server 2003/Vista/7/8/10/11 operation system.
You can find files by specifying the path, name masks, and a query. You can search documents for a phrase or several words, multiline or regular expression and use the search engines style queries.
Actual Search and Replace displays abstracts from the searched files and highlights the search words/phrases in them.
The tool allows to find files within the previous search results.
Once you find the documents, you can replace, insert, and delete text in them.
The preliminary search feature, ability to undo the operations and files backup help users to control the files modification process.
Files can be filtered by their size and last modification date.
You can save the report about the found files and detailed information about the occurrences found in them.
The batch replace operation allows to execute a lot of various replacements with one click.
Actual Search and Replace can be used also as a command line utility.
Quick setup and outdated GUI
The installation procedure is a swift and simple task that shouldn't impose any difficulties. As far as the interface goes, it's obvious that Actual Search & Replace hasn't been updated for a long time, since it adopts a classical-looking window with a plain and simple structure that doesn't put emphasis on appearance.
Narrow down search results by setting filters
You can indicate the drive or directory to include in the scan scope, narrow down files by specifying names and formats to take into account, as well as ask the program to look for a phrase, one or more words, search engine, multiline or regular expression.
What's more, you can include or exclude subfolders, use modification intervals for the listed files, ignore leading and trailing spaces, ignore whitespaces in regular expressions, create backups in case you accidentally delete or edit something, as well as specify the size and date range.
Generate reports and save projects
Apart from replacing text, you can just search for occurrences, insert new text before or after the target, delete it, or clear everything. In addition, the utility implements a function for replacing text in batch mode. You can save lists and lines, compile reports with the search results, as well as save the project to file and resume it at a more convenient time.
Evaluation and conclusion
We haven't encountered any unpleasant surprises in our tests as far as stability goes, thanks to the fact that Actual Search & Replace didn't hang, crash or prompt error messages. It conducted search operations in reasonable time while remaining light on the system resources.
Unfortunately, the app doesn't implement options for simultaneously scanning multiple directories from different locations on the disk. On top of that, the interface needs some major improvements. Nevertheless, Actual Search & Replace comes bundled with powerful and advanced text search features for experienced users.
Whats New
Windows 11 compatibility
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/6b107f3832696188ffc37ff56f6b9022ff9c1fde772ebdfe67348d39eb444a44
