This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
when I run a search in Windows 7, only one folder at a time is searched. How do I broaden a search to a folder and all of its subfolders? Vista did that automatically; Windows 7 does not seem to do so.
Thanks!
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I had the same prob & none of the answers on this page helped. I mucked around a bit & ticked a box in the search options folder Called "Don't use the index when searching in file folders for system files" Problem fixed... although the title of the tick box has nothing to do with searching sub folders, whenever it's not ticked I can't search any subfolders.
Ok here is the scoop. If you are searching in a folder selected from underneath the "Libraries" folder (Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, Etc.) it does not search subfolders. I do not know why, but if you go to your "C:\Users'username'" and open the needed folder (or even just in your UN folder), it will search subfolders. I think it is either a glitch, or because Libraries is just a phantom name for a grouping, the search doesnt work. You have to be directly in the folder, or the folder directly above it, not in a windows "cloud" version of it like the ones in Libraries.
Sorry if this is hard to follow, i'm a better techy than a teacher. Hope this helps
Rick Flach
Live Out Loud Media & Design
Hi Rick
Open Windows Explorer.
Select Organize / Folder and Search options.
Select the Search Tab.
In the How to search section, select the Include subfolders in search results when searching in file folders option.
Regards
Hello,
Entering an asterisk (*) in the search box immediately returns all files in the current folder and all its subfolders.
Lisa
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
Ok here is the scoop. If you are searching in a folder selected from underneath the "Libraries" folder (Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures, Etc.) it does not search subfolders. I do not know why, but if you go to your "C:\Users'username'" and open the needed folder (or even just in your UN folder), it will search subfolders. I think it is either a glitch, or because Libraries is just a phantom name for a grouping, the search doesnt work. You have to be directly in the folder, or the folder directly above it, not in a windows "cloud" version of it like the ones in Libraries.
Sorry if this is hard to follow, i'm a better techy than a teacher. Hope this helps
Rick Flach
Live Out Loud Media & Design
This is the only thing that has worked for me (including every other "fix" on the 4 pages before my post). Clearly the search functionality is borked if you start your journey by clicking on one the the "Library" folders.
I am also astounded by the off-target answers. Psychologists tell us that reading is actually a listening activity for our brains. So perhaps I can help shed more light on what is going on here, since those who've done the workaround seem to have given up and left the thread. People are going to come looking for the solution and get fed up with no Microsoft solution, so please, listen up.
I also had this very same problem - on a brand new computer, with a FRESH FACTORY install of Windows 7 Home Premium. I am by profession, an electronics technologist, one who isn't afraid of going into my registry with a monkeywrench and who could, if I had the time, write a routine to return that Group Policy Settings functionality MS took away from us Home Premium plebes (hint hint). Suffice it to say, I hadn't had my computer long enough to get in there with my wrench to pull some teeth. So here's my experience:
As a techie, I've got loads of reference material to search through - about a terabyte worth, on its own drive. I can't afford to wait until the indexing gets done. So I turn it off for a time so I can get what I need to do my job. When I have the time to spare, I turn it back on, with all Folder Options set to factory defaults. That's all I did. And ever since I've had the problem this thread describes.
There should have been no need to reinstall or use the FixIt, so I didn't do this. But I did fiddle with the Folder Options ONCE (which is really buried, btw):
What to search: Always search file names and contents...
How to search: everything checked but the Don't use the index when searching...
When searching non-indexed locations: include system directories & compressed files
No change in ability to search filenames using the type= syntax. Meanwhile, thank God I've got humanly intuitive directories I can navigate to.
I went back in and checked the workaround given here, and presto! Now the syntax works. Since when is a .doc or .wpd or .jpg a "system" file? They're just filetypes. I blame the tech writers who did the GUI. "System files" ohhh... scary. Gimme a break. No computer owner should be terrorized out of tweaking the h*ll out of his own system.
I can only think what Scotty (Star Trek) said once about engineers: "The more they overtink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." I can say that - I'm one of them. And, as one who must keep up in a field that inflates faster than my mind can accommodate, I sometimes long for the simplicity of the Win98 Find GUI and the humanity of people who are paid to help but don't listen because they believe the rest of us are quite stupid. Welcome to the Big Data Era, where even the techies don't know what's going on (but will never admit to such).
Now if you have any suggestions about getting our systems to play nice AND use the indexing, I'm all ears. Try writing your suggestions out as a stepwise instruction listing, a personal solution, as if this was YOUR problem, instead of asking us questions (which comes off as "what did you do to disable your own system, you twit?"). Meanwhile, the real duel-question that needs addressing, at least in my case, is "Why did we feel we needed to modify our systems in the first place, and more importantly, why do these setting changes (turning indexing off and then "on") appear to be irreversible?"
I'll start you off:
If this was my system, here's what I'd do, and the order I'd do them in... (Don't be afraid to use IF/THEN or flowchart ideas - we can deal).
