How to find a file with the exact name?

[WindowsStar]

Ok here is the solution:

Open Command Prompt (Seems to work elevated or not, my sample is elevated)

See the screen shot: (First a DIR A for just the file on the root, then a DIR A /S to search the entire drive)

 

[Trucidation]

(First a DIR A for just the file on the root, then a DIR A /S to search the entire drive)

Yeah, I used to regularly use the /s/b/p switch combo and pipe the output to a text file, because we have these custom programs that would throw near-identical logs all over the damn file hierarchy. The search feature has improved though and I've weaned myself from resorting to the command prompt. Mostly.

It looks to me just like a simple deficiency in Windows 7 implementation...
No Microsoft moderator here to defend Win 7?

What is there to defend against? Piss-poor file naming practice? The long filename system was created for a reason. The fact the system even allows you to create single character filenames should be a bonus. Should we complain password generators don't allow passwords 3 characters or shorter?

We used to have directories full of 2-character name files. "7a", "3f", "D!". Things improved tremendously when we managed to kludge a script which grovels through these files and rename them according to the department and date (because nobody has the source to the original program which was probably written in hieroglyphs, and we'd really not touch something running on production-line machines).

mborner put into words what I like about the search. There may be unrelated results but when yours appears on top, who cares about the rest?

 

[Dzomlija]

I've been thinking about this one for a bit, and have found what should hopefully be a solution.

Normally, when you search for a file, you would use:


filename:file

to return results whose filename contains the word "file". To match files that are named "file", you would use:


filename:"file"

If you want to limit the results to a particular file type, then you will add the "ext:" query:


filename:file ext:txt

But how to search for filenames that have no extension? Just use the Windows Search "empty string" indicator of two square brackets:


filename:file ext:[]

Note that the "[]" empty string indicator works for other properties also, such as "tag", "title", etc...

 

[Kari]

I can not understand I didn't think of that! You nailed it.

Bowing in front of The Real Guru. Rep given

Kari



EDIT, a few minutes later: Tested it and there's still something missing. It really finds all files where filename includes "file" and no extension. But what if you really want to find only file "file", not "file1" and "file2" and "ThisFile"? As already agreed in this thread, it's not so important because using this solution of yours the file "file" is at the top of search results, but out of interest: how to get only the file "file"?

(Could I ask this in a more confusing way? )

 

[Dzomlija]

I can not understand I didn't think of that! You nailed it.

Bowing in front of The Real Guru. Rep given

Kari



EDIT, a few minutes later: Tested it and there's still something missing. It really finds all files where filename includes "file" and no extension. But what if you really want to find only file "file", not "file1" and "file2" and "ThisFile"? As already agreed in this thread, it's not so important because using this solution of yours the file "file" is at the top of search results, but out of interest: how to get only the file "file"?

(Could I ask this in a more confusing way? )

Using my example of searching for files named "file", with no extension:


filename:file ext:[]
Returns "file", "file1" and "file2"


filename:"file" ext:[]
Enclosing the word "file" in quotes filters the results to give only "file"

Thanks for the rep.

 

[Kari]

Second miss for me tonight. Forgot the quotes. Mods please remove half of my rep

 

[gilmoses]

Sorry to be a party pooper, but 'filename:"file" ext:[]' doesn't exclude folders, here's what I get:



and why weren't the folders with the name 'a' the only ones to appear on this list?

NOW, as to all ponderers on why would I need to create an extensionless file, well... do perform a short search in your own WINDOWS folder for 'ext:[]'. How many extensionless files did you get? I have 707 (not counting folders). And, oh well, it's Microsoft's files, not mine... the question should go to MS

Besides, when a program fail to do what's expected out of it, blaming the user isn't the right attitude... we should make the program work.

Dzomlija, you were the closest. Thanks, if you can help filtering out the folder files you're a king.

 

[WindowsStar]

I can not understand I didn't think of that! You nailed it.

Bowing in front of The Real Guru. Rep given

Kari



EDIT, a few minutes later: Tested it and there's still something missing. It really finds all files where filename includes "file" and no extension. But what if you really want to find only file "file", not "file1" and "file2" and "ThisFile"? As already agreed in this thread, it's not so important because using this solution of yours the file "file" is at the top of search results, but out of interest: how to get only the file "file"?

(Could I ask this in a more confusing way? )

Using my example of searching for files named "file", with no extension:

View attachment 114326
filename:file ext:[]
Returns "file", "file1" and "file2"

View attachment 114327
filename:"file" ext:[]
Enclosing the word "file" in quotes filters the results to give only "file"

Thanks for the rep.

I tried it here. It does not work. However the Command Prompt works everytime.

 

[Dzomlija]

Sorry to be a party pooper, but 'filename:"file" ext:[]' doesn't exclude folders, here's what I get:

View attachment 114365

and why weren't the folders with the name 'a' the only ones to appear on this list?

NOW, as to all ponderers on why would I need to create an extensionless file, well... do perform a short search in your own WINDOWS folder for 'ext:[]'. How many extensionless files did you get? I have 707 (not counting folders). And, oh well, it's Microsoft's files, not mine... the question should go to MS

Besides, when a program fail to do what's expected out of it, blaming the user isn't the right attitude... we should make the program work.

Dzomlija, you were the closest. Thanks, if you can help filtering out the folder files you're a king.

filename:"file" ext:[]
Return results that include folders, which is what you do not want, so:


filename:"file" ext:[] NOT kind:folder
Excludes folders from the search.

I think also to make it a little easier on you, you might want to have a look at the Advanced Searches Tutorial of mine on the Vista forums. It covers much of what I have been discussing with you.

You can also look at the Microsoft reference for Windows Search Advanced Query Syntax and Tips and Tricks.

In hindsight, perhaps I should have referred you to said tutorial and reference from the start....

 

[WindowsStar]

Ok this does work:

filename:"a" ext:[] NOT kind:folder

I only get the file named: "a"

Awesome!

 

[WindowsStar]

Test this; this seems to work and is very simple:

filename:=a

 

[gilmoses]

Awesome indeed.
Funny though, when restricting the search to ONLY folders (i.e. filename:"a" kind:folder), I get many folders that INCLUDE the letter a, not only the one folder I'm looking for.

Probably if I look long enough through your search tutorial I'll figure that one out too.

Gil.

 

[gilmoses]

WindowsStar wow! where did you get that from??

 

[WindowsStar]

WindowsStar wow! where did you get that from??

Just trying to resolve the problem. Dzomlija used the NOT so I though that maybe you could put the EQL or = and it works. = for ONLY the a, nothing for everything containing a, and NOT to exclude the a. -WS

 

[Ravanx]

Test this; this seems to work and is very simple:

filename:=a

I was just wondering. What if you had a 1000 files named <something> =a <something> . <file extension>?

What would be the result? Will the computer search for "=a" or will it just search for "a" since it was =a not ==a?

Would this make the computer search for "=a"?
filename:==a

 

[mitchell65]

Test this; this seems to work and is very simple:

filename:=a

I was just wondering. What if you had a 1000 files named <something> =a <something> . <file extension>?

What would be the result? Will the computer search for "=a" or will it just search for "a" since it was =a not ==a?

Would this make the computer search for "=a"?
filename:==a

I'm just wondering if I should give up computing and take up fishing! Just a thought

 

[DeaconFrost]

Thank Kari but I would just like to know how its done, just curious really!

You can easily just remove the file extension from any existing file, just by renaming it. No tricks involved. Just be aware the file will be useless until you restore the extension.

 

[WindowsStar]

Test this; this seems to work and is very simple:

filename:=a

I was just wondering. What if you had a 1000 files named <something> =a <something> . <file extension>?

What would be the result? Will the computer search for "=a" or will it just search for "a" since it was =a not ==a?

Would this make the computer search for "=a"?
filename:==a

filename:="=a" works but filename:==a does not