Search Syntax Help

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Operators

AND
Use a space for AND.
For example, to search for ABC AND 123:

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ABC 123

OR
Use a | for OR.
For example, to search for ABC OR 123:

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ABC | 123

NOT
Use a ! for NOT.
For example, to exclude ABC from your search:

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!abc

Spaces
Use double quotes (") to escape spaces
For example, the search for the exact phrase ABC 123

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"ABC 123"

Grouping:
Use < and > to group expressions.
For example, to search for mp3 files on your c: and d: drive:

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<c:|d:> *.mp3

Precedence:
<>
!
AND
OR

Examples:
!A !B == (NOT A) AND (NOT B)
A|B C == A OR (B AND C)
A B | C D == (A AND B) OR (C AND D)

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Wildcards

*
Matches zero or more characters.

?
Matches one character.

*.
Matches filenames with no extension.

*.*
Same as *

When using wildcards the entire filename is matched.
Please make sure you use a * prefix and * suffix if you want to find a wildcard expression anywhere in the filename.

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Macros:

quot:
Literal double quote (")

apos:
Literal apostrophe (')

amp:
Literal ampersand (&)

lt:
Literal less than (<)

gt:
Literal greater than (>)

#x:
Literal unicode character code x.
For example, to search for ¿:

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#191:

You can make your own custom macros with filters and bookmarks.

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Modifiers

Functions and regular search terms can be prefixed with a modifier.

ascii:
noascii:
utf8:
Enable or disable fast ASCII case comparisons.
Fast ASCII comparisons ignore some case mappings between non-ASCII and ASCII characters (I with dot and i).

case:
nocase:
Match or ignore case.
For example, match ABC but not abc:

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case:ABC

diacritics:
nodiacritics:
Match or ignore diacritical marks.
For example: nodiacritics:a = á

file:
folder:
nofileonly:
nofolderonly:
Match files or folders only.

path:
nopath:
Match the entire path or just the file name.

regex:
noregex:
Enable or disable regex.
For example:

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regex:^foo$

wholefilename:
nowholefilename:
nowfn:
wfn:
Match the entire filename or allow partial matches.

wholeword:
nowholeword:
noww:
ww:
Match whole words only or allow partial matches.

nowildcards:
wildcards:
Allow or disallow wildcards.

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Functions

attrib:<attributes>
attributes:<attributes>
Search for files and folders that have the specified attributes set.

<attributes> can be zero or more of the following:
R Read only
H Hidden
S System
D Directory
A Archive
V Device
N Normal
T Temporary
P Sparse file
L Reparse point
C Compressed
O Offline
I Not content indexed
E Encrypted

For example, to find read only files:

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attrib:R

datecreated:<date>
dc:<date>
datemodified:<date>
dm:<date>
recentchange:<date>
rc:<date>
Search for files and folders with the specified creation date, modified date or date recently changed.

<date> can be one of the following formats:
today
yesterday
tomorrow
<last|past|prev|current|this|coming|next><week|month|year>
<last|past|prev|coming|next><x><minutes|hours|weeks|months|years>
january|february|march|april|may|june|july|august|september|october|november|december
jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec
sunday|monday|tuesday|wednesday|thursday|friday|saturday
sun|mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat
unknown
year
month/year
day/month/year

For example, to find files modified today:

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dm:today

For example, to find files modified between August 20th 2009 and December 31st 2010:

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dm:20/8/2009-31/12/2010

For example, to find files modified in the last 10 minutes:

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dm:last10minutes

For example, to find files modified on June 10th 2000:

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dm:10/6/2000

For example, to find files modified after May 4th 2013:

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dm:>4/5/2013

For example, to find files modified last week (starting from Sunday)

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dm:lastweek

For example, to find files modified last April

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dm:april

dupe:
Search for duplicated filenames.

empty:
Search for empty folders.

ext:<list>
Search for files with a matching extension in the specified semi-colon delimited extension list.

For example, to find files with the following extensions: jpg, bmp, png and gif:

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ext:jpg;bmp;png;gif

fsi:<index>
Search for files and folders in the specified zero based internal file system index.

len:<length>
Search for files and folders that match the specified filename length.
For example, to find files with full paths that are longer than 260 characters (the maximum for Explorer):

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path:len:>260

parents:<count>
Search for files and folders with the specified number of parent folders.
for example, find files and folders that belong to a root folder:

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parents:1

root:
Search for files and folders with no parent folders.

size:<size>
Search for files with the specified size in bytes.

For example, to find files larger than 10MB:

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size:>10mb

For example, to find files between 20GB and 30GB:

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size:20gb-30gb

For example, to find files smaller than 1MB:

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size:<1mb

type:<type>
Search for files and folders with the specified type.

For example, to find files with image in the type:

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type:"Image"

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Search tips

Search the full path without enabling match path

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\download

This will find all files that are in a download folder.

Faster date/size searching
Since using a date/size search can be extremely slow, try reducing the number of files by searching for a path first:

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\download dm:today

Do not search subfolders
Example: search for the folder c:\abc, but do not include subfolders:

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c:\abc !c:\abc\*\*