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.
How do I search a folder WITH ITS SUBFOLDERS in Windows7 please?
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!
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage
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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
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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.
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Anonymous
2014-01-13T17:34:14+00:00 RonJr\_TamiLind - for your reply/question on Jan 12, 2014.
I don't have a USB drive to check this out, but it searches sub-folders for me on a networked drive. Perhaps USB isn't the same as Ethernetworked drives. The network drive is "mounted" or as Windoze calls it, mapped. Perhaps you can map the USB drive. Click on it in the left-hand panel of Explorer and select Tools> "Map networked drive...". Because I don't have a USB drive, I can't check if USB drives can be mapped. I am unable to map a USB flash drive.
It might be that you have to set up folder options for that drive, or the PC might have to index it first. I doubt the later as I just started a network drive search and it took right off. It took a while (large drive) but eventually found 183 items.
I kind of think that non-resident hard disks (USB, networked) don't get indexed but I haven't found issues with searching.