Search all files indexed by the windows search service right from visual studio. Install this addin, restart VS, and type control+comma; then type your search query in the search box.

Windows search results are appended at the end of regular NavigateTo results
Hold the shift key and hit enter to open the result in its default program
Hold the control key and hit enter to open the containing folder

Enables searching in files not part of the VS solution. In fact, you can start searching in the IDE without even opening a solution file.

More information at https://navigatetosearch.codeplex.com/documentation

Version 1.3.1

Fixed few bugs related to searches for special characters

Tuning Windows Search

1. Windows search by default doesn't index all folders on your computer. To add folders to the index go to "Indexing Options" in the control panel and add your source code folders. You may also want to modify the list of file extensions that are "full text" indexed. More information here.

2. For xml based files, windows search only indexes the content between xml tags, not the tags themselves. This is not desirable for searching. To enable windows search to index xml files as full text, follow the instructionshere.

3. Windows Search comes preinstalled in the client skus (Windows 7 and Windows 8) but not on windows server. To install Windows Search on the server skus, follow the instructions here

NavigateToAll Menu (Tools->Options)

For ideal performance, set RestrictToSolutionFolder to true only when all projects in the solution are under the folder containing the .sln file