When I search for the end of a word, such as "HV22" in Windows explorer, it won't find it, yet, If I search for the beginning of the word, it will. Is there any way to find the word endings without needing another app?
try
file:*V22
to find filenames e.g. abcV22.txt
Don't know how to do that with content searches though.
content:aardvark
finds files containing aardvark
but
content:*vark
doesn't...
There are significant and somewhat arcane syntax options which are poorly or partially documented.
3rd party GUI based tools are much easier - and faster in many cases. However, Windows search does support content indexing.
contents:~=vark (using~=not*) should work according to here : Windows-7 search for contents does not work with wildcards - Super User
Unfortunately it doesn't work in indexed locations - only in directories that are not indexed.
I tried this : FileLocator Lite and it works fine to search the end of words in contents (whether in indexed location or not) but is another app obviously.
Last edited by lx07; 07 Oct 2018 at 04:17. Reason: Doesn't work in indexed locations
Interesting that it found content in non-indexed locations- never even thought of trying that! +1
For sheer amusement/frustration/amazement see
Using Wildcard to search in windows Explorer - Microsoft Community
https://superuser.com/questions/596888/windows-7-search-for-contents-does-not-work-with-wildcards
- at the bottom it suggests content:~ - but this doesn't work for me.
As an aside the best description of how operators work I can find is here. This is just the guys testing results though and is sort of hard to read. There is this old MS documentation but mostly they don't work. If there exists some decent documentation I'd love to see it - really I just think it has been buggy since Windows 7 was introduced and was never fixed and (therefore) never documented.
You can also do it with powershell if you like :Get-ChildItem -recurse | Select-String -pattern "vark" | group path | select name
It is slow but doesn't need third party program.
Windows Search (using index) works much faster than third party if you know the start or whole word though so I'd not advise ignoring it - I use it all the time to find specific words in text files. Just in this situation it is a big fail and another approach is required.
Agreed for content search, unless you use something like a full-featured search tool such as Copernic or the obsolete Google Desktop Search.Windows Search (using index) works much faster than third party if you know the start or whole word though
Howotgeek has some articles,
https://www.howtogeek.com/school/lea...earch/lesson4/
https://www.howtogeek.com/73065/lear...-in-windows-7/
https://www.howtogeek.com/school/lea...earch/lesson5/
Then of course there's
Advanced Query Syntax | Microsoft Docs
Windows Desktop Search Tips, Tricks, Advanced Query Syntax
Thanks for your answer, it seems there's no way. I installed FileLocator and is working fine.contents:~=vark (using~=not*) should work according to here : Windows-7 search for contents does not work with wildcards - Super User
Unfortunately it doesn't work in indexed locations - only in directories that are not indexed.
I tried this : FileLocator Lite and it works fine to search the end of words in contents (whether in indexed location or not) but is another app obviously.
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