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I'm attempting to search part of a filename in windows explorer, but unless the part of the name I search for is at the very beginning or is separated by spaces or underscores, it fails to match. For example, a file named HelloWorld.java will match a search of hello, but not world. *world fails as well.

Is there a native solution to this?

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7 Answers 7

Reset to default
54

Using this keyword and searching for "world": name:~=world will do the trick.

For more advanced search tips:

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  • 6
    Awesome, that did the trick! name:~=world also works.
    – Drazen Bjelovuk
    Jun 29, 2014 at 1:04
  • My fingers thank you for checking that name:~= also works.
    – cody.codes
    Jun 29, 2014 at 1:07
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    You rock - I was stuck on this myself and being late on a Saturday was getting ticked off. I rarely use windows search but have to in this case.
    – David Sterling
    Aug 6, 2016 at 20:08
  • Is there a way to not have the search happening incrementally?
    – Anders Lindén
    Sep 12, 2016 at 10:57
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    filename:*world also works (Windows7)
    – The Quark
    Jul 12, 2019 at 12:51
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*world*, the extension is part of what it runs the match against.

With name: you can use ~~world.

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  • That doesn't seem to work with the name: prefix.
    – Drazen Bjelovuk
    Jun 29, 2014 at 0:53
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    @Josh What about ~~world?
    – Jason C
    Jun 29, 2014 at 1:01
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    name:~~world as well as name:~=world both seem to work. Thanks Jason.
    – Drazen Bjelovuk
    Jun 29, 2014 at 1:15
  • And what is this syntax doing?
    – Randy Cragun
    Aug 16, 2021 at 0:21
  • @randy I'd have to look up name option to recall exact behavior but phone is about to die so if I had to guess I'd say ~~ is maybe something like "contains"? Don't quote me on that sorry for forgetting. Prob should've linked to docs 🤷‍♂️.
    – Jason C
    Aug 26, 2021 at 17:46
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Try a simple wildcard search * So your search would be *world

Wildcard search should pull up any partial matches however won't highlight the result in the file name. A lot simpler than typing out the other searches...

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I found that (name:~='your name') and (name:~= 'your name') and (filename:* 'your name') would not work form me

BUT I stored file by NUMERALS

However (* your numerical) does- Even for a part match

i.e. file = 123456789 Search (*5678) does the job

Hope this helps

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This did the trick for me (search for all files that contain the word 'subaru' and 'v2' in the file name : - System.FileName:~=(subaruv2)

Other example (search for all files that contain the word 'subaru' with the extension '.html' : - System.FileName:~=(subaru.html)

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  • Add (*) asterisque symbol before and in between word and at end to match the "contain" search
    – Martin Desaulniers
    Sep 9, 2019 at 12:35
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Search for a single word:

filename:*world*

Search for multiple words:

filename:(*hello* *world*)

Don't forget the localized keywords, like in German:

dateiname:(*hello* *world*)

As already mentioned, the name: option works as well, but regarding the documentation it is usually a "property" of a file and not the filename itself. So I would say name: searches in filename AND metadata of a file.

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Install Everything

"Everything" is search engine that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.

Unlike Windows search "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything").

You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed.

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