here's what I came up with while waiting to see if someone else could knock something out:

vb.net Code:
  1. Imports System.IO
  2.  
  3. Public Class Form1
  4.  
  5.     Dim srcFilename As String = ""
  6.  
  7.     Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
  8.  
  9.     End Sub
  10.  
  11.     Private Sub replaceButton_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles replaceButton.Click
  12.         Dim path As String = "MyFilePath"
  13.         Dim dDir As New DirectoryInfo(path)
  14.         Dim fFileSystemInfo As FileSystemInfo
  15.         For Each fFileSystemInfo In dDir.GetFileSystemInfos()
  16.             Dim fs As New FileStream(fFileSystemInfo.FullName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite)
  17.             Dim ioFile As New StreamReader(fs)
  18.             Dim myText As String = ioFile.ReadLine()
  19.             If myText = "stringImsearchingfor"
  20.                 myText.Replace(myText, "replacementtext")
  21.                 filesListbox.Items.Add(fFileSystemInfo.Name)
  22.             Else
  23.                 Me.notEditedTextbox.Text &= Environment.NewLine & fFileSystemInfo.Name
  24.             End If
  25.             ioFile.Close() 'Close file
  26.         Next
  27.     End Sub
  28. End Class

the condition is being met correctly and the files (edited and nonedited) get added to the correct control (listbox if edited, textbox if not edited) but the files themselves are not being updated. am i missing something?