Search files with special characters?

[Jordick]

Is it possible to search files that have special characters in it?

I'm a gamer and sometimes I mod my games. The problem with that is that over the time the number of files accumulate to vast numbers, which makes it difficult to search for specific files if they have special characters in them (-&#¤ etc.)

For example, you're trying to search files that have word "abc-abc" in them, but when you search that specifically you won't get any results.

I know there is a way to search for special characters alone, but is it possible to search whole words that contain special characters? (abc-abc for example)

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Jordick,

Welcome to the Forum.

Yes you can achieve this using either of the expressions name or filename and the literal string indication ~ and the wildcard *

For example, suppose your Desktop contained a pile of files name ABC-ABC through to querty-berty, and also other files not using any hypthens at all, but you only wanted to see full file names that included the hyphen in them. You would do the following:

• Open File Explorer and navigate to the Desktop
• In the search box in top right corner you could then enter either of the two search expressions, then press Enter key:
  
  

  name:~"*-*"

  
  

  filename:~"*-*"

  
  After using either of these expressions then pressing Enter key, any filename that contained a hyphen in it, would appear in search results.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[Tim Locke]

I have never needed to do so but doesn't W10 support regular expressions now that it 'contains' Linux?

 

[Regedit32]

I have never needed to do so but doesn't W10 support regular expressions now that it 'contains' Linux?

I believe it does. I did a few tests and was easily able to locate filenames with special characters in them without needing the expressions I posted in my earlier reply, however, for some reason the OT is unable to, hence me offering a work-around that will work.