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
    2012-02-17T08:51:50+00:00

    If you don't prefix the search string with an attribute and a colon, Search will look for the search string in all file properties and file contents (depending on your settings). If you want to find only files with the search string in the file name, you have to use a prefix like file: to restrict the search to file names only.

    If this is what you were doing and the search was not restricted to file names, there's something different in your settings from mine, where

    file:"~"

    finds only files whose name starts with a tilde.

    These are my basic settings:

    ![](https://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1piVJCtP4skTIOXPLvSAdzs2h-l2PGILo0liJkqPGw8jeY5Y4OqypoljNEiBJJsXv3UY_o4WqK6RFfW00wRgIVcA/W7-Folder-Options-Search.png?psid=1)

    Noel

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-19T22:48:04+00:00

    Noel, my apologies. Your solution does work. I overlooked the "file:" bit. I guess I was still expecting the old simple search method, excluding content.

    Actually, I think that a search engine for text contents should be a completely different beast from a file name search engine. After all, it is a quite different task.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-20T00:05:27+00:00

    Your solution does work.

    Good to hear.

    I think that a search engine for text contents should be a completely different beast from a file name search engine. After all, it is a quite different task.

    In what way is it a completely different beast? You are trying to find files fitting a certain pattern, which you use as criteria for a search. That pattern might be

    • files by a particular author
    • files created in a particular period
    • files containing a particular string
    • files of a particular type
    • files of a particular size
    • files whose file name starts with a particular string

    or any combination of these, and so on. Why should this not all be handled by a single function designed to filter results by the criteria given? W7 allows you to specify around 300 different attributes for a file, so it should be possible to craft a search that will find whatever you're looking for. Windows Search is immensely powerful.

    Noel

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-10-29T16:28:37+00:00

    The unbelievable worthlessness of Windows 7 file search is astounding. I can not think of a better example to show how out of touch Microsoft is with computer users. Windows XP file search worked just fine. Now if you want to find a file and you do not know the exact file name or location --- you actually have to learn a special search syntax!!! If people are going to have to start learning things like this to do something as SIMPLE AS SEARCHING FILES - there is no reason at all they should not just use something like Linux or FreeBSD.

    Riiiight... grep is so much easier to use than just typing some stuff in a box.

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