Question how to search for such file?

[brannsiu]

I have a file on my local hard drive that I want to find it out, it comprises of three keywords I can clearly remember, for example, nice orange juice
but I am not able to remember how the file was named
e.g. nice_orange_juice
nice.orange.juice
niceorangejuice
nice orange juice

before nice or after juice, chances are there could be some other consecutive letter, for example,

_nice_orange_juice
.nice.orange.juice

etc

but there shouldn't be any consecutive a-z letter
e.g.

anice.orange.juice


Is there any advice on how to make use of the keywords I remember to search for such file while not missing any one of the possibilities above? What should I enter in the search bar?

 

[hotaru.hino]

There are two characters you can use in Windows search:

• * (asterisk): Find anything
  • e.g., "*nice*orange*juice" will pull up "this is a nice cup of orange mango juice"
• ?: Find with any character equal to the number of ?'s
  • e..g, "orange ????? juice" will pull up "orange mango juice" and "orange lemon juice" but not "orange lime juice" because there's 5 ?s

If you want to get a little crazy, there's more you can do. See https://www.howtogeek.com/school/learning-windows-search/lesson4/ . For instance, since you don't know the order of the words, you can use the keyword "OR" to make the search term "nice OR orange OR juice" , which will pull up any file with those words.

 

[Lafong]

A tool like Everything from voidtools.com should be able to find that file as quickly as you can type a part of the file name into the search box.

It works purely on file names. You would be shown a list of files containing that text string and in which folder they reside. You just scroll down the list looking for your particular file.

For instance:

Entering the text string "orange" would identify and list any file with that specific string of characters, such as

orange

orange groves.doc

orange.jpg

orange colored sky mp3

orange colored sky

orange colored sky.mp3

monkey eating an orange.jpg

longevity of frozen orange juice

longevity of frozen orange juice.xls

but it would not find "orangutan".

 

[Ralston18]

Use Powershell's Get-ChildItem and search for strings.

As a starting point:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25450521/file-name-contains-certain-text

https://community.spiceworks.com/to...arch-filenames-that-include-2-or-more-strings

 

[USAFRet]

If you search for the singular "orange", what does it return?
Refine from there.

 

[Math Geek]

If you search for the singular "orange", what does it return?
Refine from there.

that's my first thought as well. you know orange is in it somewhere, so searching just that should turn up everything with the word orange in it. scan the list till you find the right "orange" file.

just did it on my pc for fun. search box top right of explorer windows, typed orange in the box and sat back and watched. i got about 10 hits of various files with orange in it.

the other ideas are valid as well for sure, pick any of those as well.

 

[DaleH]

A tool like Everything from voidtools.com should be able to find that file as quickly as you can type a part of the file name into the search box.

It works purely on file names. You would be shown a list of files containing that text string and in which folder they reside. You just scroll down the list looking for your particular file.

For instance:

Entering the text string "orange" would identify and list any file with that specific string of characters, such as

orange

orange groves.doc

orange.jpg

orange colored sky mp3

orange colored sky

orange colored sky.mp3

monkey eating an orange.jpg

longevity of frozen orange juice

longevity of frozen orange juice.xls

but it would not find "orangutan".

Good advice. I've used that program, too.

 

[brannsiu]

A tool like Everything from voidtools.com should be able to find that file as quickly as you can type a part of the file name into the search box.

It works purely on file names. You would be shown a list of files containing that text string and in which folder they reside. You just scroll down the list looking for your particular file.

For instance:

Entering the text string "orange" would identify and list any file with that specific string of characters, such as

orange

orange groves.doc

orange.jpg

orange colored sky mp3

orange colored sky

orange colored sky.mp3

monkey eating an orange.jpg

longevity of frozen orange juice

longevity of frozen orange juice.xls

but it would not find "orangutan".

Is it a reputable or reliable program? The official site looks too simple.

 

[Lafong]

Is it a reputable or reliable program? The official site looks too simple.

HIGHLY reliable.

I've been using it for close to 15 years. It is very well known in its field.

It simply indexes what I think is called the "Master File Table" or something like that. That's an A to Z listing of all files on a drive in alphabetical order.

It's child's play for any PC program to sort through a list like that. Instantaneous....as fast as you can type into the search box.

You control which drives to search.

It does NOT search contents of files. That's why it is so quick.

 

[brannsiu]

HIGHLY reliable.

I've been using it for close to 15 years. It is very well known in its field.

It simply indexes what I think is called the "Master File Table" or something like that. That's an A to Z listing of all files on a drive in alphabetical order.

It's child's play for any PC program to sort through a list like that. Instantaneous....as fast as you can type into the search box.

You control which drives to search.

It does NOT search contents of files. That's why it is so quick.

Windows doesn't search contents of files either, unless specified. However, I find that sometimes Windows will miss some desired results.