The search function was added due to the issue that the regular Windows search is not always sufficient or fast. It partly might even show you too much due to the fact that it might access Windows Indexing functionality. Another issue is that you won’t see access denied issues etc. within the Windows search.
The search works rather easy, you select a path and type in a keyword. Additionally you determine if you want to search for files, folders or both. The tool will then run through the whole sub-path and show you all full paths that matched your keyword/expression.
Long paths
The checkbox/option Bypass DOS 260 character restrictions will allow you to bypass the long-path names issue for the search feature and is enabled by default. This will apply for local and mapped drives as well as for UNC paths and allow a reall in deep search.
Keywords / expressions:
It is important to understand on how to use those. In general, you can use wildcards (* / star). You will need to add the wildcard everywhere you want to have it set. The search is NOT case sensitive. Examples:
- Exact phrase:
- Hello
- This will result in files/folders that exactly match “hello” – no more – no less
- possible files/folders found
- hello
- possible files/folders found
- This will result in files/folders that exactly match “hello” – no more – no less
- Hello
- Starting with
- Hello*
- This will result in files/folders that start with “hello” end in anything else
- possible files/folders found
- hello world
- hello
- hello.zip
- hellothere
- possible files/folders found
- This will result in files/folders that start with “hello” end in anything else
- Hello*
- Ending with
- *.zip
- This would result in all files/folders (more likely files) that end with “.zip”
- possible files/folders found
- hello.zip
- h.zip
- possible files/folders found
- This would result in all files/folders (more likely files) that end with “.zip”
- *.zip
- Wildcard in text
- hello*.zip
- This would result in all files/folders that start with “hello” and end in “.zip”
- possible files/folders found
- hello.zip
- hellothere.zip
- possible files/folders found
- This would result in all files/folders that start with “hello” and end in “.zip”
- hello*.zip
- In name / text search
- *hello*
- This would result in any file/folder that have the word “hello” in the name
- possible files/folders found
- hello
- hello.zip
- hellothere
- thereishello
- thereishello.zip
- possible files/folders found
- This would result in any file/folder that have the word “hello” in the name
- *hello*
In the end it all depends on where you place your wildcards. If you forget to place a wildcard or do not set one, the search tries to match the exact keyword.
The type column allows you to to see if it was a “File“, “Folder” or any kind of an “Error“. Errors should normally only appear if the tool could not gain access to the specified folder path.
Export the search results
Since there is as of now no export feature, if you want to export the data, simply click in the list on any cell and hit CNTRL + A to select all columns and rows. Copy the selection and past it in to programs like Microsoft Excel to process it further respective save it.