File Explorer Search Filters Every Windows User Should Know

The most common way to search in Windows File Explorer is to plop a word in the search bar, and the File Explorer will spit out the results. The File Explorer’s search bar is far more powerful than you think. Though there is nothing wrong with the general approach, you can further improve the search results using Windows Advanced Query Syntax, or what is simply known as search filters. Here are some of the most useful File Explorer search filters that every Windows user should know.

Find Files with a Specific Extension

When you want to find files with a specific file extension, then all you have to do is use the *.fileExtension search filter. The * in front of the file extension is called a wildcard and helps to ignore the filename. For instance, if you want to find all the MS Word documents on your hard drive, all you have to do is type *.docx in the File Explorer search bar and press the Enter button.

Since we are already using the wildcard, if you know part of the file name, you can add it before or after the * symbol. For instance, a search like ra*.mp3 shows all the mp3 files with the letters that start with “ra.”

Find Files Based on File Size

When your hard disk is filling up, it is time to find all those big files and either delete them or move them to other locations. To help you with that, File Explorer has a specific filter to find files based on their file size.

To find files based on file size, enter size: fileSize in the search bar. Replace “fileSize” with the actual file size, like 100MB. You can also use greater than (>) and less than ( size: >1GB .

Though you can manually enter the file size as needed, File Explorer has some built-in easy-to-remember pre-defined properties to make things a tad bit easier. They are as follows.

• Empty: Files that are empty or 0KB
• Tiny: Files between 0 to 10KB
• Small: Files between 10KB and 100KB
• Medium: Files between 100KB and 1MB
• Large: Files between 1MB and 16MB
• Huge: Files between 16MB and 128MB
• Gigantic: Files larger than 128MB

To use the above properties, type size: medium and press Enter. Of course, you can replace “medium” with any option you want.

Find Files Based on Date

Other than file size, you can also use the File Explorer’s search bar to find files that are created on, after, or before a certain date. Just like with the file size filter, you have to use the keyword date: to search files based on date. To be helpful, as soon as you type “date:” in the search bar, File Explorer will show a simple calendar so that you can quickly choose the date you need.

Use the > and =” and “

Find a Specific Kind of Files

While the file extension filter helps you find all the files with that specific extension, the “kind” filter helps you find all the files of a specific kind, regardless of their extension. For example, if you want to see all the images on your hard disk regardless of their file extension, like JPG, PNG, PSD, ICO, etc., then all you have to do is type kind:=picture .

There is a whole boatload of the “kind” properties. They include but are not limited to calendar, communication, film, music, note, video, task, program, email, and feed. The good thing is you don’t have to remember all these properties. Just place your mouse cursor in the search bar, click on the “Search” tab and then select the “Type” option to see all the available properties.

Find Files with the Specific Tag

I’ve recently shown how to tag files in Windows. Once tagged, you can find those files using the tag: property. For instance, if you want to find all the photos that are tagged as “vacation,” you simply type tag: vacation in the search field.

Additional Search Operators

Apart from the above search filters, File Explorer also offers additional search operators like “AND,” “OR,” “NOT,” and “[search term]” to further refine the search experience. If you have basic programming knowledge, you might’ve already guessed what these search operators can do. Other than “[search term],” these search operators are used to combine two search filters.

AND: when used, it will show results that satisfy both search filters. For example, *.mp3 AND size: >100MB will show all the MP3 files that are over 100MB.

OR: while the AND operator only shows results that satisfy both parameters, the OR operator shows results that satisfy at least one parameter. For example, using financial OR banking in the search bar results in files that have the word financial or the word banking in their name.

NOT: the NOT operator is useful when you want to exclude an item or search filter. As an example, a search like financial NOT banking will show all the files that contain the word “financial” but not “banking” in their name.

“[search term]”: When you know the exact phrase, you can use the “[search term]” filter and replace [search term] with the actual search term. A search like «family vacation» will result in files that have the exact phrase “family vacation” in them names.

Conclusion

The File Explorer’s search bar is a very powerful tool. The above search filters and operators are good enough for day to day usage. However, there are a lot more things you can do with the File Explorer’s search bar. Thankfully, Microsoft has detailed documentation regarding its Advanced Query Syntax and how to use it. So, spend some time with it and refine your search skills.

Comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences regarding using the above search filters to search in File Explorer.

Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.

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.

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.

42 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

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.

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.

16 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How to Fix File Explorer Search Not Working in Windows 10

October 4, 2020 By Admin

Is Search box of File Explorer not working on your computer? If you are facing this issue at your end, you are not alone. Some Windows 10 users are also complaining about similar kind of issue at their end. Follow the fixes of this article and the problem will be solved quickly. But before going ahead for the main solutions, check out these simpler workarounds and check if they works out for you or not.

Workarounds–

1. Press “Esc” key when the Search box is not responding on your computer. It will offer some temporarily fix for the problem.

2. Reboot your computer and check if it helps or not.

3. Check if any Windows Update is pending or not. If any of the updates are pending on your computer, update your system, check if it is working or not.

If any of these workarounds didn’t work out for you, go for these solutions-

Fix-1 Modify File Explorer options-

Modifying File Explorer Options on your computer may solve this issue.

1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run window on your computer. Now, type or copy-paste “control.exe folders” in Run window and then hit Enter. File Explorer Options window will be opened.

2. In File Explorer Options window, go to “View” tab and then toggle the option “Launch folder windows in a separate process“. (You can check/ uncheck the option.)

3. Click on “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.

Relaunch File Explorer on your computer. After opening File Explorer window, type to search something in File Explorer and check if the error is still there or not. Your problem should be solved.

Fix 2 – via Powershell

1. Press Windows key + R key together to open RUN.

2. Write powershell in it .

3. Press CTRL + Shift + Esc keys together from your keyboard to open elevated powershell window.

4. Write the following command given below and hit enter key.

Wait for some time to get it executed fully.

Fix 3 – Rebuild Search Index

1. Press Windows key + R together to open RUN command box.

2. Copy and paste the following code in text field and click OK.

2. Click on Advanced.

3. Choose Tab File Types

4. Select Index Properties and File Contents

5. Click OK.

6. Choose OK when the Confirmation prompt pops up.

Fix 4 – Make sure Windows Search Service is Running

1. Press Windows key + R together to Open RUN.

2. Now, Write services.msc in it and Press OK.

3. Locate Windows Search Service, right click on it and Click on Properties.

4. Make sure the Startup Type is Automatic. If it is not Change it to Automatic.

5. Make sure that Service is running also. If it is not running, Click on start to start it.

Fix 5 – End Cortana Process

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys together to Open Task manager.

2. Now, Locate Cortana and do a Right Click on it and Choose End task.

Doing this will restart the Cortana process and will Fix the issue.

Fix 6 – Install KB4532695 update to fix this

Microsoft have released KB4532695 update which seems to fix this issue for the PC affected by this bug. Just download ans install KB4532695 from this official Microsoft website.

Fix 7- Add System permission to a folder

If this problem persists with a particular folder then , system permission may be missing from the folder. To set this do this:

1. Do a Right click on the folder

2. Click on Properties

3. Click on Security Tab.

4. If you do not see System in the List of Group or User Name, Click on Edit.

5. Click on Add.

6. Write system in the text box and Click on Check names.

7. Keep Clicking on OK and Close every Open box so far.

Fix 8 – Troubleshoot Search and Indexing

1. Press Windows key + R together and write Control Panel in RUN command Box and Click OK to Open Control Panel.

2. Select Large icons in View by .

3. Click on Troubleshooting

4. Click on View all from the Right Menu.

5. Locate Search and Indexing and Click on it.

6. Choose Files Don’t appear in Search Results

7. Proceed with On Screen instructions.

Fix 9 – Default Apps by protocol

1. Press Windows key + I to open settings

2. Click on Apps.

3. Click on Default Apps from the left menu. Now, scroll in the right side and click on Choose default apps by protocol.

4. Now, scroll and and in the left side look for windows search protocol. After locating it just select windows explorer from the right, if it is not selected.

Saurav is associated with IT industry and computers for more than a decade and is writing on The Geek Page on topics revolving on windows 10 and softwares.

Related Posts:

Reader Interactions

Comments

Rombout Versluijs says

Does some one know or how i can make it stop refreshing or restarting the search everytime it looses focus. So for example i have 2 windows, ill do a search in on window and let it run and get results, that all works fine. Now ill focus on that second window browser through some folders and return to that other window. Why does it restart the search and clears all the results? THis is really counter intuitive, its making me go nuts

Thanks so much for this! By the time I got into fix 3 it my search was back!

Fix #2 actually worked for me!! I work a lot with a huge album of product photos so not being able to search was getting to be a real time suck. Thanks!

Fix 2 worked for me, thanks!

Thank you, option #3 finally got it working again. many thanks

John — Manchester says

Jan, some people cure diseases, some people save people from burning building, you have saved my keyboard from being smashed to bits and my poor cat for being pushed off my desk when she’s looking for strokes – which I believe is on par with the others.
Thanks for that, nothing worked for me until I ran that command and I’ve been trying for 3-4 hours today and 3-4 hours for the best part of another day a month ago (that time Indexing worked).
All the best 🙂

Jan’s solution is only one that worked for me. Windows 2004.

@Jan
You are a hero to me. I looked for days to find a solution. Nothing, realy nothing worked for me. As everything failed, why not try your solution.

What should I say; the only working solution.

Thanks so much for this powershell script.

Wow, had to get all the way down to Fix 8, but that fixed it! This File Explorer Search issue just happened with the last Windows update. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

Thanks a bunch Jan, ran the powershell script you left and worked. Did absolutely everything else everyone else suggested and no luck.

For me it was the SearchApp.exe process that kept crashing. That process was previously called SearchUI.exe, I think, and was a part of Cortana. Microsoft.Windows.Cortana has now changed name to Microsoft.Windows.Search, located in C:\Windows\SystemApps\.

To fix this issue for my user in Windows 10 2004 I ran the following command in PowerShell:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Search | Foreach

Athanasios Chaldoupis says

I had also problem with explorer’s search. I solved it this way:
Open the Registry Editor. Find the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
1) Go to “ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin” value , double click on it and set the data to 0 (zero).
2) Go to “EnableLUA” value double click on it and set the data to 0 (zero). If the value “EnableLUA” does not exist you must create it with right click as DWORD (32-bit).
Reboot your system to activate the changes.

RUSSELL CAROLLA says

I have tried out all the possibilities => without success

Why Microsoft? Windows 7 never had this issue

None of the steps above worked, though I did have an interesting time. Along with some other users, I tried to restart File Explorer from the Task Manager without many expectations. But, surprise surprise, it worked 🙂

Tried looking at default apps by protocol. Doing so immediately overrode all my custom defaults; hence I now have to contend with that, as well as the original fault

which remains unfixed. I suspect a buggy program… Sigh…

Finally the search is working. My problem was a little different in that I added a couple of file extensions (file types) but Windows Explorer wasn’t finding files in known searches. Specifically the new file types were .php files. Known searches would find strings in .css and .html files but not .php files. It was as if Windows Explorer was still blind to .php files. I tried everything, including running the PowerShell fix-it script, but none of it worked.

What seemed to make a difference was to go into Indexing Options, under “Index these Locations” I removed an entry for something that was no longer on my computer. When re-ran the index, the count of the number of items indexed increased dramatically. Now File Explorer searches were getting hits in the newly added (.php) file types.

I’ve been at this so long, now I can’t remember the problem for which I needed this capability. Ugh.

Fix-1 did the trick !!

Thank you very much, saved a lot of trouble !

I have manage to fix this issue in my windows10 (amd64)

1º step – Restore indexing services
2º step – make a shortcut of %windir%\System32\ctfmom.exe and place it on startup folder ..

( now everytime my pc startup it will auto run the ctfmom.exe allowing me to use the search functions )

Is enabling search indexing for SSD disk any good?

Restart Explorer worked 4me!
Cortannnnnna is OFF.

Tried all steps but Cortana as I do not want it running on my computer. Restarted Windows Explorer too and nothing has helped! Submitted issue (along with 100s of others) on Microsoft support page. Still waiting for fix!

Follow all steps in thegeekpage.com above, once done, you now have experience on skills. Click file explorer and try to click in search box. Still you can’t type in example *.jpg ? Or *.exe ? Do what post from Julia said. Opentask manager and find task Windows Explorer. Right click for menu popup. Click restart. Go to destop, click icon file explorer, click your path, say C: drive, then search box type in *.exe or *.jpg
Wow it freakin works now bill gates.

Robert Eckerlin says

I have the same problem. It is especially after an attempt to search my whole C Partition, that the the Search function stops to work. To work around this problem of not being able to search the whole C partition, I reboot the PC.

This happens much too often

I too, i am currently extremely disatisified with Windows 10 and I regrtet very much my very stable Windows / (that I gave up. because the end od its support period by Microsoft).
.
By the way: I resent very much that various excellent well functioning piece of Hardware are not supported under Windows 10: my excellent compact Bluetooth (=Bluetooth V3) K810 Keyboard, my excellent compact flatbed Canon Lide 200 Scanner, my excellent 10 year old PC….As if a Hardware Manufacturing Mafia took advantage of the end of windows 7 supporft to enrich itself by focring us or pushing us to buy new Hardware: new bluetooth keyboards, new Flatbed scanner, new PCs. is that ecological?

I have the same problem. When I turn on my computer, search box in file explorer stops working after a while. I think it began after the last update of my WIN 10.
Could not find a proper solution for this till now.

Having same problem on my home desktop Windows 10. (I don’t know how you find the 1903 version people keep referring to.) Very interesting, though, that I’ve never had one search issue on my work laptop Windows 10. Are we using some different, business version of Windows 10 that was properly tested, unlike the home version?

I went into the task manager and right clicked on Windows explorer and clicked on restart. This worked.
We shouldn’t have to do this and it only started going wrong after the last windows update.

When I type in FE to name or rename a file, it’s nonsense. I can hit the same key over and over and different characters/numbers will type each time. What the heck?

Julia’s fix worked for me:
I went into the task manager and right clicked on file explorer and clicked on restart. This worked for me after none of these did.

Broak Navi says

Like many others this didn’t work for me.

The amount of bugs in windows 10 is staggering.
I currently work as a contractor at Microsoft and even though I reported this issue months ago (which they came back with won’t fix) it won’t be fixed anytime soon. They (MS higher ups) needs to get their act together and fix their core systems. I’ve had calculator stop working, windows randomly not opening as expected, this search issue, clicks not working, just type from start menu not doing anything.
Staggering amount of bugs..
This is due to internal shifts removing more and more testers. Their hope was the devs would do the testing as well.. but most devs make crappy testers.

Answer is easy. Shift focus back into the OS. Make the OS super stable/solid and then go from there. Lots and lots of cool features.. but half working or not working at all just frustrates us to no end. 10 years here.. and the bubble is slowly collapsing. I just hope they reach their goal before it does.

I went into the task manager and right clicked on file explorer and clicked on restart. This worked for me after none of these did.

Mark Geller says

Having same problem with File Explorer…nothing happens when I click search box or try to type something into search box. Very frustrating especially when I need to search a folder with many, many, many files.
I started experiencing problem towards end of November.

Kendall DeMott says

None of this worked, Win 10 64 bit, latest updates. Can’t type in Explorer search window, this also goes for the search window in the Control Panel. I have no idea what the Ms people have done, but Win 10 has become a piece of crap, and years of Explorer working without issue, its now very buggy, and crashes a lot. Bill, please fire, and hire someone that can do a proper job!

I also have the issue since the November 2019 update

Cortana’s Frenemy says

Unfortunately none of these helped – when I click on the search box in Explorer nothing happens, I cannot type anything into the box. Also the Start Menu/Taskbar search appears to be affected; sometimes it closes as soon as I type a letter, other times it works.

I have gone to great (and varied) lengths to disable Cortana and it appears that one of the changed settings/hacks I did has disabled search in the most recent Windows update. I’m going to try re-enabling Cortana as much as possible to see if that helps.

The problem started roughly the last week of November 2019, so probably something in the Version 1903 update.

Hoping someone can find a solution, as I’m sure this has impacted a bunch of people.

I have tried out all the possibilities => without success 🙁

Milan Patnaik says

Thanks.
It helped me to resolve my issue.