Windows 7: Search for a single extension

This is going to sound strange - but I was just trying to organize my files on my drives and thought.. "I should move all my MOV's to one place and back them up..."



But I was surprised to find the results of a search on "*.mov" seems to find all sorts of files and not just my MOV's that are spread out all over the place...
Same goes with *.MP3 and others.

So whats the secret to find files ONLY by a single extension?? It should be simple - but I am not seeing it.

Hi,

You could try this

In the search box in windows explorer click on the box and hen the blue type
This will bring up a drop down list of available extensions select the one you need or type it after the =

Not sure if you can find just by extension now with Windows 7 or even Vista, but you could always right-click in the results window and 'Arrange by Type..' then all the .Mov files will be together.

I hate the new search functions, bring back XP's for me anyday.

EDIT: Sorry, barman posted whilst I was typing... I don't seem to have that what Barman's recomending.

in the explorer search field, type "ext: mp3" or "ext: mov"

Trust me once you know the 7's Search well , you'll start to hate XP's slow snail search+ Vista's less organized method of showing search results....

Since people have already said what to do, u better give them the rep not me and thanks for the "ext:" tip......

Sorry my Bad the option I quoted is for use in the libraries, (all my data is in libraries so it's my natural starting point ), for folders outside the libraries the ext: method quoted by foreversilent004 is the one to use

Just tried 'ext:' by using 'Computer' as the starting point and it still dosn't want to work here.
Typing in 'type:' manually does though.

So I guess you're both kinda right, unless I've got a different version of Search installed.

Full credit goes to Barman and foreversilent

Thanks guys for the speedy replies! Of course I have seen those drop downs - but was unsure if I HAD to use them, or HOW to use them.

I guess the term used these days is, "Nerfed". Windows 7 makes it easier for the guy who knows he is looking for some sort of movie file, but harder if you actually know more specifically what you are looking for. This has been my only real let down with Windows 7 itself so far.
You'd think it would be able to determine that searching by *.MOV alone would actually equal ext:=mov or type=:mov AND search the entire computer if you have computer selected.