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
    2017-01-19T11:57:15+00:00

    "when I show people these features they are amazed each time"

    Which sums up the problem people are complaining about.  If the most common search concepts had a proper GUI support for them, or if there was a proper help function in windows (or maintained in the same place for the lifetime of Windows versions on microsoft's site) then you wouldn't find it so easy to 'amaze' people.

    As for Linux - A lifetime ago I used to be a whiz with certain ancient CLI-based OSs, and never got on with unix because I was irritated by what seemed to be a deliberately obscure and in-joke based syntax.  But when GUIs like Macs and Windows came along I thought that was a huge improvement, on account not being an elitist who liked obscurity for it's own sake.

    This move back to CLI approaches is just bizarre to me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-19T11:40:59+00:00

    Years after the original post, but, yup, this continues to annoy the heck out of me.  Every time I want to do a search I have to look up the syntax again (hence finding this page).  I feel like I've gone back in time to my past of using VMS or MVS or early unix.  In those days you took for granted having to memorise CLI syntax, but why has Windows gone backwards?  I don't get it.  At least allow CLI commands as an option but leave some obvious functions in a GUI style.

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  3. 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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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-13T15:41:37+00:00

    this article exposed me to wonderful additional search filters, but it did not appear to cover the basic wild card symbols

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