Why search in file explorer finds nothing?

Question

I open a window of file explorer in Windows 10

In the window I can clearly see a file with a name. Let's say [THEfile].txt

However, when I write in the search place to the upper right "THE", it says "no matches"

Why?

After experimenting I found that if I put exactly the first characters it finds the file, but not if I put characters in the middle (like "THE" above)

And how can I find files in windows 10 in an effective way?

Answer 1

It is possible the filename appears as the, but the h is actually some weird character and as such the is not the same as t4e (just as example) and thus does not match.

You can test this by searching for other files in that folder and see if you can find them or not.

Secondly, Search is controlled through Windows Search which uses a service and a database with its index. If the index is corrupt or Windows Search is not running, it may also not find a result.

You can find the windows search in Control Panel -> Index options. Rebuilding the index can solve this, but keep in mind that it will take several hours to complete, and until its completed, the search may still not find the file, so you can only properly test after that completes.

In order for Windows Search to do its magic, you can add the folder you're trying to search in to its database. That will allow you to quickly search, not just for filenames and partial filenames, but also for pieces inside the files.

Answer 2

I can't actually reproduce your example. Files named both [THEfile.txt] and [THEfile].txt were found when typing THE in the search box. However, there are several things to know about search, one of these might help.

• Brackets ([ and ]) have a special meaning to search. An empty pair of brackets is used to search for empty properties, for example:

  • tags:[]
  • artist:[]

  If you want to search for brackets as literal characters, your search term has to be enclosed in quotes, but:

  • Once you're using quotes, you need to either:
    • specify the entire name: name:"[THEfile].txt"
      or
    • Use the syntax: name:~"[THE*"
      • The tilde (~) tells search to treat * and ? as wildcards within quotes. (compare name:"[*]" to name:~"[*]")

Another thing to know is that indexing is word-based, meaning that THE should match the THEfile, but file will not. Wildcards are required if your search term is not the start of a "word", e.g. *file.

Reference:

• Using Advanced Query Syntax Programmatically: Query Operators

Answer 3

Often you need more than one search engine. Try UltraSearch which looks for only file names, but it's pretty fast. Here's a search for "search" Then also try out AnyTXT Searcher; it runs from a service and indexes in the background. here's a search for an obscure word