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
    2009-11-17T05:12:12+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-11-17T12:38:58+00:00

    Hello,

    I am not talking about programmatical way of search.

    I am talking about the small area on top of the windows explorer where you can specify files to search for.

    I have seen a Video where the speaker types in the following words :

                                          water authors:Dave

    and he gets all the files which name contains "water" and which authors field containing "Dave".

    All this in the windows explorer.

    If I type in

                                   :*.mp3 :music

    I will have all my mp3 files with the word "music" in it.

    If I type in

                                   :*.mp3 :authors:=Dave

    I will have all my mp3 files where the field "authors" is equal to "Dave" (not only containng "Dave")

    What I'd like is something explaining all this syntax.

    I have found this at random.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-11-18T20:18:10+00:00

    This is cool! Didn't know about this either! I too tried to find info, but in the Keyboard shortcuts I found in MS Help, these are not mentioned.

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  4. 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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