Windows 10: Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer

Discus and support Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer in Cortana to solve the problem; This used to work really well for me until an update and now new computer. It hasn't worked well since, but now it's not working at all. I thought it... Discussion in 'Cortana' started by Mark17MI, Apr 2, 2021.

  1. MARK17MI
    Mark17MI Win User

    Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer


    This used to work really well for me until an update and now new computer. It hasn't worked well since, but now it's not working at all. I thought it used to work by putting a single quote around the string for which I wanted to search.


    I have a folder with Word files. How do I search for any string with 'xyz' in it?


    The approached described in this thread does not work at all for me: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/searching-windows-explorer-10-file-contents-for/aa7e860e-7e7a-4fc0-a43a-362380b6b114 .


    Thank you!

    :)
     
    Mark17MI, Apr 2, 2021
    #1
  2. TRYX3
    Tryx3 Win User

    Search string

    Use ~ [tilde] to denote an exact search

    • enclose the search term in "
    • include * if there is anything before the string / after it otherwise the search will think you are looking for a string at the start / end
    • include filename: if that is relevant [it speeds things up by avoiding contents searching].

    For example, these both found the correct result

    ~"*o p*"

    filename:~"*o p*"


    Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer 5f4fd96b-c9a3-4938-a7da-e8b9dfd144ed.png


    Denis
     
    Tryx3, Apr 2, 2021
    #2
  3. DALCHINA
    dalchina Win User
    dalchina, Apr 2, 2021
    #3
  4. DALCHINA
    dalchina Win User

    Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer

    exact search

    Here's a really simple intuitive way using Locate 32: just enclose the search string in " "


    Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer [​IMG]


    (Locate32 is a free find-as-you-type indexing tool).

    Unfortunately file explorer search does seem to recognise \ as an escape character, or the use of hex representation, for example.
     
    dalchina, Apr 2, 2021
    #4
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Searching for exact strings with Windows Explorer

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