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

Anonymous
2009-11-16T14:40:26+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-13T23:53:41+00:00

    So I want to put in a query using wildcards like this...  ~*.* . But this search will find ALL files - the tilde (~) isn't recognised.

    The query to find that is

    name:~<"~"

    Tilde + less than finds items beginning with the specified string. The little-known syntax is documented here: Using Advanced Query Syntax Programmatically. Scroll down to "Query Operators" to see the rest.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-14T19:11:43+00:00

    Well this is a real POS for searching.  If I wanted to search for all files with the extension of .rss and use the following search, *.rss, Windows 7 returns nothing at all.  WHo was the mindless idiot that thought this would be better.  IT departments live off of wildcard searches, this was built for users not IT.  Is there a way of searching for all files with an certain extension?  And if the MS support bots reply with this,http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx , then this whole community is a facade.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-11-18T23:54:53+00:00

    WOW! So you're saying that this Windows Search is now included in Windows 7 for all users???????????? This is GREAT!! However, there's nothing about it in the help files (well at least I haven't been able to find). Only advanced search query reference I found in Help and Support was for Advanced search of Media files.

    I've just tested this and it's fabulous!! It works!! WOOHOOO! Why hasn't anybody mentioned anything about this???????????

    Thank you!

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-11-17T05:12:12+00:00

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