Want to search ONLY file names in Windows 7 Explorer?

Hey guys, found this again years later. You're right I didn't understand why the web-search Google-style results (show a ton of results and just use the best hit) didn't cut it. That might be because it's not sorted by relevance anymore (first entry below).  I see that TrekDozer filled the direct question perfectly.  I want to also come back and share literally everything I know or have learned about search since this conversation began. As someone in this thread said, it's the level of quality in a reply that users and the community should expect from an MVP.

Sort by Relevance

Typically, there's no need for anything complicated.  Just type what you're looking for.  If it's in the filename, those results will be returned first, above any results where your search term is inside the file.  Easy.

Non-indexed locations such as stick drives can still be searched, but take a little more time to show up in the results if you're searching internal contents in them (sort of like XP).

If you find for some reason that the exact-name matches are no longer showing up first (similar to how a Google result might), you can add the relevancy column, and sort by it (exact filename matches are treated as more relevant).

Search Only by Filename and Other Special ModifiersType something like these.  Note there are several modified examples of the same modifier.

You can search by almost any file properties too. Or combine these, such as***.doc author:shawn** would file every doc file I made.  This is very useful in an office environment where you're searching folders many people share.  Try even more like *.ppt author:shawn modified:this week and such.  It's powerful, and you can do the same thing inside the full Office Outlook against emails. I do this constantly, dozens of tiles a day in email especially. Need to quickly filter the emails I'm seeing from:joe or subject:acquisistion.

In Outlook and in Windows Explorer, many of the common properties like subject, from, received, author and more are shown as buttons you can click (which also progressively provide mouse interaction like a calendar to choose that date, or a list of authors in that folder already).  Typically I just type it because my hands are already on the keyboard, but you can click those buttons.  I usually need to only click in Outlook when I want to enter the hasattachment:yesfilter, because c'mon, that's way too long to type.  In fact I even pinned that to my Quick Access bar so I could press Alt+1 to "press" it.  More about that here: http://cmdrkeene.com/use-quick-access-from-the-keyboard

Special Meanings

The * asterisks anywhere in the search terms are variable-length wildcards and will mean that any text could come at that point (but doesn't have to).  Example: *book would find "facebook", or just plain "book", but not "bookstore" because there's no asterisk at the end.

Question marks ? anywhere in the search terms are fixed-length wildcards that mean a single character occurs there (and must).  Example: book? would find "books" but not "book".

**Special note:**unless you're using a specific override, Windows will work like a search engine and find anything containing your search term. In otherwords, unless you specify otherwise with these search examples, it will always find bookstore when you type book.

Search Contents Even in Unindexed Locations

By default, Windows only searches inside files if the location is indexed (so it can return near-instant results). You can tell Windows to do an intensive search (just like XP would have done).

1. Open Folder Options (type 'folder' into the Start menu to find it).
2. On the Search tab, click the 2nd option ("Always search file names and contents"), then click OK.

After that, using quotes to phrase-search inside files should work, even in un-indexed locations.  Searches may take a while (just like XP), but they'll be complete and should return the results you want. More here: http://cmdrkeene.com/enable-full-file-search-in-non-indexed-folders

Search Inside More File TypesIf the location is indexed, but your phrase isn't being found.... do this to make sure the file type is getting indexed.  Do this, for example, if you are trying to find a phrase inside a non-standard file like a JavaScript or PHP file:

1. Type 'index' into your Start menu to find the Indexing Options, then click the Advanced button.
2. On the File Types tab, find the file type you want to be indexed (tip: click in the list, then type the file type letters like JS to jump to it).
3. With the file type selected, make sure the 2nd option is selected "Index properties and file contents", then click OK to close each box.

I believe these two setting changes would resolve about 90% of search frustrations people commonly have with Windows 7.  Please let me know if this helps for you. More here: http://cmdrkeene.com/instant-search-in-more-file-types

Windows 8: Search without leaving desktop

A key advantage to 7 (and to a lesser extent, Vista), was that you can search from the Start menu with a tap of your pinky finger.  Windows 8 does this too, but full-screen.  If you'd rather do it on the side in a small box like 7, you can by pressing Win+S before you search.  You can also narrow-scope your searches with Win+W (search Control Panel only), Win+F (search Files only), Win+S (search everywhere), or Win+Q (search current app, if it can).  More here: http://cmdrkeene.com/start-an-app-without-leaving-the-desktop

Fix: Search Not Returning Control Panel results:http://cmdrkeene.com/fix-windows-8-1-returning-settings-results

Related:  I also want to point to this great info: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-customize-windows-7s-search-settings.html

No need for anything complicated.  Just type what you're looking for.  If it's in the filename, those results will be returned first, above any results where your search term isinside the file.  Easy.

Non-indexed locations such as stick drives can still be searched, but take a little more time to search (sort of like XP).

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If this solves your issue, click the 'Propose as Answer' link below, and vote as helpful by clicking the green triangle to the lelft. Thanks!

This does not solve the problem and doesn't answer the question.  I don't want to see any file that contains the word I typed in the search box - I just want to see filenames that match my search.  Otherwise, it is information overload and just an annoyance.

This is not true.  I get a list that is alphabetical by file name and if the file I'm looking for starts with "bob" then it is after all the files that start with the letter "A" and contain "bob".