Want to search ONLY file names in Windows 7 Explorer?

It was simply a helpful tip.  The original question had already been answered, but I thought it'd be helpful to include how to allow searching for other file types -- or even, as is much requested, return the XP functionality of searching inside files even in non-indexed locations.

Considering that original question-askers have confirmed me as providing a solution more than 2300 times in the past year, as well as 1059 additional helpful posts (such as the suggestion above), I think I'm doing well to provide relevant contextual information to the community.

It's odd that you would complain about a post from over 3 months ago.  Did you have some question that isn't answered?  If so, please head to the http://answers.microsoft.com homepage and either search or post a question -- this post is already answered and retired.

<THIS PART IS FOR SHAWN ONLY>

Shawn is missing the point.  I am delighted he is a successful responder.  I don't find it useful to hear how successful he has been when my issue remains unsolved.

It is not odd that someone would comment on an old post because it shows up for a long time at the top of a search for this problem.  I am commenting on it now because I am having the same problem and there is nowhere in this thread that an answer appears.

<THIS PART IS FOR SHAWN ONLY/>

You can see from the following posts that it does not work.  Microsoft search and indexing is overly complicated when trying to simply locate a file by its name.  For users who don't remember their file names, it may work if they can use the default search and indexing options.

The two options for search are: search file names and contents -OR- search file names and contents. The option needed is: search file names only. 

So back to Shawn's attempt to help us.  How can Windows Explorer find all files with a particular name? 

For example:

.mp3 - find all files with .mp3 as part of their filename

happy*.txt - find all files with happy as part of their filename and .txt ALSO part of the filename after happy

What about searching for HAPPY?  Can it return: Happy.txt, Happy.TXT, happy.txt, and HAPPY.txt?  That is, can you enable or disable case-sensitivity?  This isn't really necessary if it is always case insensitive.

I hope this clarifies the problem.

How can I have it search only the file or folder name?

Folder:

foldername:example

 

Word in name:

name:example

 

 

I miss the Windows XP search feature in Windows 7 Explorer!

Let Microsoft know you want Windows Explorers features returned:

Since many people seem to agree that some or all the changes made to Windows Explorer have actually made it less user friendly, you can go to the Windows 7 Feedback page and (politely) let them know your suggestions for improving it:

http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195

Note: don't make the message too long, there is a size limit to your message even though the page doesn't tell you about it.

 

 

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Thank you. This helped quite a bit.  I did try to find mspaint.exe as a test using 'name:paint', 'name:*paint', and 'name:*paint*' with very amusing and unsatisfactory results.

Nope.  Not in my case.  Typing a keyword in the search field brings back any file with that keyword in the content.  Files with that keyword in the filename are scattered throughout the results.