Dir command gives unexpected / unwanted results

If I open a command prompt window and give the command " dir *.xls", I also get all xlsm, xlsx, xlsq etc files. This behaviour is unwanted and illogical. it makes scripting hopelessly complex and unreliable. If I wanted those files, I would issue a "dir *.xls?" command.

For the record: *.xlsq is NOT an existing Excel extension. I created an empty file with that extension to test this behaviour.

Issuing the command "dir *.xl" gives me no results.

Is there any way to make Windows list only .xls files, and not .xls? files?

I suppose the same applies to Word and PowerPoint files. I have not tested this yet.

Don't know if this helps, but you get the desired result in Powershell - but as you say, not the standard cmd prompt.

Wildcard matching is more complex than is apparent. See this:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jer...ds-in-windows/

Thanks for the suggestions.
I have as yet little experience with PowerShell. I still use commandline because I'm using it ever since the good old DOS days. E.G. to find all "old" excel files in a folder structure I would use something like:

Code:

dir /a/b/s *.xls > d:\check\excel.list

With this new behaviour this would not work. To pipe it through "findstr" seems an exceptable solution in this scenario.
DOS commands are often fast and simple for a lot of work that I do. Point is also that the computer should do what I ask, not interpret what it thinks I mean. (yes, I know, a computer can't think). If I want all excel files I woud give the "dir *.xls?", or even "dir *.xls*" command.
The way it works now is illogical, and I don't understand why Microsoft has changed this behaviour.