Hi,
Seen this question posted several times, but no good answer yet.
I'm trying to locate a file on my disk named "gm". Is that seemingly simple task possible on Windows 7? When I search for 'name:gm' or 'name:"gm"' I get hundreds of files, all of them contain 'gm' in their name and to find my file I need to go over the list one by one.
Please help!!
Thanks,
Gil.
Have you tried using filename:"gm.*"?
I ran a quick test on my system, and searched my pictures library using filename:"obelix", and got the following results:
_asterix_obelix_idefix_1_.jpg
Obelix.jpg
When I changed the search to filename:"obelix.*", thenI only got "Obelix.jpg"
The key therefore is to enclude the filename you are searching for in quotes, and include a period and star wildcard at the end of the filename.
No go. Try this: create a file named "a" on your disk (no extension), then try to locate it...
Gil.
Works like a charm for me:
Is it possible that the drive/s you are searching are not in your index?:
Try the following:
Are you or have you recently run utilities such as registry cleaners and/or system optimizers other than disk defrag programs? Registry Cleaners have a tendency to make more problems than they solve. "RegVac" has been known to interfere with the Windows Search Index...
- Click the Start Orb
- Type "index" without quotes
- Click "Indexing Options"
- Click "Modify"
- Are all you drives checked for indexing?
Dzomlija,
I can see that your search found 180+ files of a certain type, then 9 of another.
You got lucky.. for me (and for the general case) there are 400+ files...
Thanks to the others for the links, I'll check them out.
Gil.
When you search for "name:GM" Windows is not searching for a file called "GM", it is searching for all files with the letters GM in the name. To prevent this, use "filename:GM", instead.
Last edited by mborner; 11 Nov 2010 at 12:59.
mborner,
'filename' does not work. try this: create a file named "a" on your disk (no extension), then try to create a search query that displays all the files that are named 'a' and THESE FILES ONLY, NOTHING MORE.
None of the suggestions above (excluding external apps) succeeded in displaying ONLY the filename requested.
If this is a Windows 7 deficiency I'll be happy to report it if I knew where :)
Thanks,
Gil.
I can assure you, "filename" is a legitemate seach query.
I apologize if I'm just not understanding your search problem, I'm trying. In your example above, why would anybody have several files on their PC with the exact same name? I'm just not following. First, If I create a file named "A" on my disk and then query "filename:a", I get the file instantly in my results window. If I create 100 files named "A" in 100 different folders on my disk and query "filename:a" I will get the top 100 results for the file located in 100 different folders.
You'll get other files with the letter "a" in the name but the exact file you are searching for will always be the first one on the list. For example, if I searched my entire drive for "filename:a" I may get 6,000 results, but the file, "a", that I'm looking for will be the first item of those 6,000 results. It always works this way. Again, I have to ask, why would you have several hundred files named "GM" on your disk? If you only have 1 file named "GM" and you search for "filename:GM" and you get 25,000 results but the file you are looking for is the very first file, what is the issue? You found your file, who cares about the rest of the results.
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