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Using the Win 10 FileExplorer, I want to find "myfile-2015-info.pdf" while knowing for sure only "myfile-2015". If I enter file:myfile it is in the (long) list, so I keep typing and file:myfile-2015 fails completely. The hyphen is the problem. Why is it a problem (with NO space preceding)? Putting the search in quotes does not help. It turns out that file:~myfile-2015 works nicely, but why does the tilde help? I looked at the AQS page and could not find an answer. Where can I find decent enough documentation of FileExplorer quirks that I could anticipate all this? My GoogleFu is usually decent but I searched the Microsoft site without joy.

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I finally found the Microsoft documentation of the basic query syntax. The tilde apparently does string matching with wild cards. Variations include ~< for "starts with, ~> for "ends with". (Search on COP_DOSWILDCARDS for details.)

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The tilde ~ seems to return files that start with the search word, try file:python then file:~python for example. Windows search seems also to ignore spaces and hyphens try file:python then file:python 2, both return the same files. Try the ? (any single character) operator so file:~myfile?2015. To search for certain file types try adding the ext: keyword, file:python?2 ext:pdf (note the space separator before ext:).

More info here.

Hope this helps.

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  • Thanks but as stated in the question I've already looked at the AQS page and it does not answer my questions. I would love to know about documentation that does.
    – Alan
    Commented Apr 6, 2018 at 20:12
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Use: name:~"myfile-2015*"

Similar to searching for parentheses:

ScreenShot of Explorer Search for parentheses

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  • Thanks but that solution is already in the body of the question.
    – Alan
    Commented Sep 30, 2018 at 14:03
  • You are mistaken. Note the use of the tilde & the quotes. Most importantly, did you test before commenting/?
    – Keith Miller
    Commented Sep 30, 2018 at 14:46
  • Quotation marks allow characters such as -. ~, [, ], (, ) to be interpreted as literals, whereas the initial ':~ ' tells Search to allow wildcards within the quoted string.
    – Keith Miller
    Commented Sep 30, 2018 at 15:01
  • Look again. The body of the question notes that I can get what I want with a tilde. The question is: Where can I find decent enough documentation of FileExplorer quirks that I could anticipate all this? I.e., the question is a documentation request.
    – Alan
    Commented Oct 1, 2018 at 0:31

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