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I never heavily used the search feature on Windows 7, so I don't know if the issue persists on versions outside of 10.

I'm trying to search through a lot of files using Windows' file browser search function. The problem is, when I search for something, it only shows files with the keyword at the beginning of a word or immediately after an underscore.

For example, I search for the word "cat". These would be the results:

  • Category.zip
  • Picture of a Cat.jpg
  • my_first_cat.txt

However, it wouldn't bring up words like "educational" or "application", because the keyword is in the middle of that word. Is there a way to search for all occurences of a keyword in Windows 10?

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4 Answers 4

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How to search Windows 10 for ANY occurrence of a word?

I'm trying to search through a lot of files using Windows' file browser search function. The problem is, when I search for something, it only shows files with the keyword at the beginning of a word or immediately after an underscore.

The Windows Explorer search function way. . .

  • Press Windows Key + E
  • Press Ctrl + F

  • Type in *cat* in the search field and press Enter

    • Just put your keyword between two asterisks [*] *cat*

enter image description here

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  • This works, but interestingly, it searches the file content too. How do you do this with just filenames?
    – cowlinator
    Oct 8, 2021 at 21:18
  • @cowlinator Check the other answer for command line method that will search for files only then e.g. dir /s /b "C:\Folder\*cat*"
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Oct 9, 2021 at 0:26
  • ah, so it's not possible with windows explorer
    – cowlinator
    Oct 12, 2021 at 22:27
  • @cowlinator Oh, I just reread what you were asking, you can use something like name:*cat* so just prefix the search value with name: and that should ensure that only the file names are searched and not the content. I use PowerShell or cmd for searches I do like this more than the File Explorer search function. Read over docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/lwef/… for more detail on this functionality. Sorry about that, I thought you were just wanting a quick way to get it done rather than is it possible. Good luck with your tasks!
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Oct 13, 2021 at 0:17
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Open a command prompt in the folder, then type:

dir /s /b *cat*

and replace cat with whatever you want. This will search all subdirectories of the current directory.

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  • This is much better than windows search. Faster and more accurate. Please note that you have to be at the root (use `cd `) of the drive to search the whole drive. To search multiple drives, you will have to run it multiple times (once for each drive).
    – cowlinator
    Oct 8, 2021 at 21:17
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For a GUI based solution, I highly recommend using Agent Ransack for this purpose. I have not had much luck using the built-in search features of Windows since Windows 7, but Agent Ransack provides many more powerful options for searching the contents and names of files.

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Windows search will only show you lists of prefix words so it is normal that it will show those lists of categories.

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