What is the syntax of Windows 7 file search (wildcards, logical signs...) ?__

Anonymous

Hello,

I am looking for it everywhere but I can't find it.

When in Windows search and you are looking for a file, you can type in *.txt to look for a '.txt' file.

But it seems that the syntax of file name to look seems more complex that it looks first.

For instance, the quote character (") and the equal sign (=) seem to have there own significance.

And I think I have heard that it was possible to use 'not' and 'and ' signs.

Please, where can I find the complete syntax of the search paterns?

Thank you a lot

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Anonymous

Follow this link:

~~http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx~~

[EDIT: Moved to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965711(v=vs.85).aspx ]

This should be included in Help and Support.

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55 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-10-12T14:42:27+00:00

How does a windows 8 advertisement help me?
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Anonymous

2013-10-12T07:00:38+00:00

This page helped me with something similar to wildcard search.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows7/advanced-tips-for-searching-in-windows
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Anonymous

2013-09-12T14:33:35+00:00

It's so fitting that questions like this are NOT answered on MSFT's own website. Thanks MSFT for stomping on older links that might have divulged useful information.

This is a reminder to me that if I have a question about Windows, the LAST place to go is its creator.
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Anonymous

2013-08-15T13:17:39+00:00

I can not agree more. It is so frustrating!
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