How to Search Files on Windows | File Explorer, PowerToys Run, and Command Line

If you have ever found yourself wondering where a file went on your Windows PC, you are not alone. The built-in Start menu search and File Explorer search box are easy enough to use for everyday tasks, but they can feel sluggish or incomplete once your drive fills up with years of documents, downloads, and project folders. This guide walks you through every major search method available on Windows — from the basics of Start menu search and File Explorer operators, to tuning the Windows Search index, to blazing-fast third-party tools like PowerToys Run and Everything, and finally to command-line techniques with the Command Prompt and PowerShell. Whether you just need to find a misplaced report or want to automate searches in a script, you will find the right approach here. Each section builds on the last, so feel free to jump straight to the method that suits your situation. By the end you will know exactly which tool to reach for and when.

Start Menu Search Basics

Windows comes with a built-in search feature — often called Windows Search — that can look across files, apps, settings, and the web from a single entry point. It is the fastest way to track down something when you do not know exactly where it lives on your PC.

How to Search from the Start Menu

Press the Windows key on your keyboard, or click the search icon on the taskbar.
Type a file name or a keyword related to the file you are looking for.
When results appear, click the Documents or Files tab to narrow down to file results.

If the file is already indexed, results will appear almost instantly as you type. If you are not seeing the file you expect, check the indexing settings covered later in this guide.

Tips for better results

You do not need to know the full file name. A partial word, a date, or even the file extension alone can be enough. For example, typing "report 2024" or just ".pdf" can surface the right file quickly.
Windows Search also reads document content for indexed locations, so words inside a Word or PDF file can appear in results if content indexing is enabled.

Filtering Search Results by Type

The results screen shows tabs such as All, Apps, Documents, Web, and Settings. When you are looking for a specific file, clicking Documents removes unrelated noise like app suggestions and web results. If you are hunting for a photo or audio file, there are tabs for those as well depending on your Windows version.

Clicking Open file location from the right-click menu of any result opens File Explorer directly to the folder containing that file — handy when you want to see what else is nearby.

Getting More Out of File Explorer Search

When you know roughly which folder a file lives in, File Explorer search is more targeted than the Start menu. It searches only within the folder you have open, so results are less cluttered.

Basic Search in File Explorer

Open File Explorer with Windows key + E.
Navigate to the folder you want to search inside — for example, Documents or Downloads.
Click the search box in the top-right corner and type your keyword.
Press Enter to run the search across that folder and all its subfolders.

The results view lets you sort by name, date modified, type, or size by clicking the column headers. You can also right-click a result and choose Open file location to jump to where the file actually lives.

Using Search Operators for Precise Results

File Explorer supports a set of special keywords called search operators. Typing these directly in the search box adds extra conditions without requiring you to open any filter menus.

Operator	What it does	Example
kind:	Filter by file category	kind:document, kind:picture, kind:music
ext:	Filter by file extension	ext:xlsx, ext:pdf, ext:mp4
size:	Filter by file size	size:>10MB, size:tiny, size:gigantic
datemodified:	Filter by last modified date	datemodified:2024-05-01, datemodified:thismonth
AND / OR / NOT	Combine multiple conditions	budget AND 2024, draft NOT final
"phrase"	Exact phrase match	"annual report 2024"

Practical examples

Excel files modified this month: ext:xlsx datemodified:thismonth
PDFs larger than 1 MB: ext:pdf size:>1MB
Word documents with "invoice" in the name: invoice ext:docx

Operators can be combined freely. Once you get comfortable with a few of them, you will rarely need to dig through folders manually.

Optimizing the Windows Search Index

Windows Search works by maintaining an index — essentially a catalog of file names, properties, and optionally content — stored on your drive. Searching indexed locations is nearly instant. Searching non-indexed locations can take minutes. If a folder is missing from the index, Windows either skips it or performs a slow, direct scan.

Adding Folders to the Search Index

Click the taskbar search box and type Indexing Options, then open it.
Click Modify.
Expand the folder tree and tick any folder you want to add to the index.
Click OK to save.

By default, Windows indexes your Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and a few other common locations. If you store files on a secondary drive — for example a D: drive — you will need to add those folders manually. After adding new folders, the index needs time to update, anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours depending on how many files are involved.

Things to keep in mind

Adding every folder on every drive will make the index very large and can slow down the indexing service itself. Stick to folders you actually search in regularly.
System folders like the Windows directory and Program Files are rarely worth indexing, since you almost never need to search for files inside them.

Rebuilding a Corrupted or Outdated Index

If searches return no results even when you know a file exists, or if you keep seeing stale results for files you have deleted, the index may be corrupted. Rebuilding it from scratch usually fixes the problem.

Open Indexing Options.
Click Advanced.
Under the Troubleshooting section, click Rebuild.
Click OK on the confirmation dialog.

Rebuilding can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours on a large drive. Your PC remains usable throughout, but search results may be incomplete until the rebuild finishes. It is worth running the rebuild overnight or during a long break.

Lightning-Fast Search with PowerToys Run

Microsoft PowerToys is a free collection of utilities that extends Windows in ways the built-in tools do not. PowerToys Run is a launcher and search bar that combines file search, app launching, calculator, and more — all accessible from a single keyboard shortcut. If you have used Spotlight on a Mac, PowerToys Run will feel immediately familiar.

How to Install PowerToys

Open the Microsoft Store from the taskbar.
Search for PowerToys.
Select Microsoft PowerToys and click Get.
After installation, launch PowerToys from the Start menu.

Alternatively, you can download the installer directly from the PowerToys releases page on GitHub if you prefer not to use the Store.

Using PowerToys Run to Find Files

After installation, press Alt + Space (the default shortcut) to open PowerToys Run from anywhere on your desktop.

Press Alt + Space.
A search bar appears in the center of your screen.
Start typing a file name, app name, or anything else you want to find.
Use the arrow keys to move through the results and press Enter to open the selected item.

Tips for file searches

Simply typing part of a file name surfaces matching files alongside apps and settings. You can type more characters to narrow results further.
Start your query with = to switch to calculator mode and evaluate a math expression without leaving the keyboard.
Start with ? to limit results to file search only, which can help when you have many apps with similar names.

PowerToys Run is valuable beyond just file search. The same tool handles window switching, clipboard history, and system commands, making it a productivity upgrade well worth keeping installed. For more Windows productivity tips, check out how to use Windows Clipboard History.

Instant Search with Everything

Everything is a free file search utility developed by Voidtools. Unlike Windows Search, which relies on a background indexing service, Everything reads the NTFS file system journal directly to build its index. The result is an index that covers every file on your NTFS drives and builds in seconds rather than hours. Once it is running, you can search across millions of files and see results update in real time as you type.

Installing and Setting Up Everything

Go to the Everything website at voidtools.com.
Click Download and choose the Installer version.
Run the installer and follow the on-screen steps.
Everything will launch automatically and begin building its index — this usually takes under a minute.

During installation, enable Start Everything on system startup so Everything runs in the background whenever your PC is on. This keeps the index current and makes the tool available instantly whenever you need it.

Basic Operations and Search Examples

Open Everything from the Start menu or system tray.
Click the search box at the top and type a file name, extension, or partial word.
Matching files appear from all NTFS drives in real time as you type.

Useful search patterns

Query	What it finds
*.xlsx	All Excel files
*.pdf 2024	PDF files with "2024" in the name
invoice ext:docx	Word files with "invoice" in the name
!c:	Files that are not on the C drive

Right-clicking any result gives you options to open the file, open its containing folder, copy the full path, and more. The ability to copy a file path instantly is especially useful for developers or anyone who works with file paths regularly.

A note on drive formats

Everything only indexes NTFS drives. External hard drives or USB flash drives formatted as exFAT or FAT32 will not appear in results. If a drive is missing from Everything, check its format in File Explorer (right-click the drive, choose Properties, and look at the File System field). You may need to reformat to NTFS, which will erase existing data, so back up the drive first.

Command-Line File Search

For those who prefer the command line — or need to automate searches in scripts or scheduled tasks — Windows offers powerful file search tools in both Command Prompt and PowerShell. These approaches are especially useful when you want to process results programmatically, such as moving, renaming, or logging files based on search criteria.

Using the dir Command in Command Prompt

The dir command has been part of Windows since the early days, and with the right flags it becomes a capable file finder.

Opening Command Prompt

Press Windows key + R.
Type cmd and press Enter.

Searching recursively for a file name pattern

The core syntax for a recursive search is:

dir /s /b "C:\Users" "invoice*"

/s searches all subfolders recursively
/b outputs bare file paths with no extra formatting
The last argument is the file name pattern, where the asterisk acts as a wildcard

Finding where an executable lives with where

where notepad

The where command searches directories listed in the system PATH for executables, batch files, and scripts. Use it when you want to confirm exactly which copy of an application Windows will launch when you type its name.

Using Get-ChildItem in PowerShell

PowerShell's Get-ChildItem cmdlet — also available as the shorthand gci or ls — is significantly more flexible than dir. You can pipe its output to other cmdlets to filter, sort, rename, or export results.

Opening PowerShell

Type PowerShell in the Start menu search box.
Right-click Windows PowerShell and choose Run as administrator for full access.

Basic recursive search by file extension

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users -Recurse -Filter "*.xlsx" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

-Path sets the starting folder
-Recurse includes all subfolders
-Filter applies a name pattern with wildcard support
-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue silently skips folders you do not have permission to read

Filtering by last modified date

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users -Recurse -Filter "*.pdf" | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt "2024-01-01" }

This finds all PDF files under the Users folder that were modified after January 1, 2024. Replace the date and path as needed.

Filtering by file size

Get-ChildItem -Path D:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 100MB }

This surfaces all files on the D drive larger than 100 MB — useful when you are trying to free up storage space. For more ways to reclaim disk space, see our guide on fixing a slow Windows PC.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I search the contents of files, not just their names?

A. Yes. In the Windows Search indexer, open Indexing Options, click Advanced, switch to the File Types tab, select an extension such as .txt or .docx, and choose Index Properties and File Contents. After the index rebuilds, searching a word will return files containing that word inside them — not just files with it in the name. Keep in mind that enabling content indexing for many file types increases the index size and may slow indexing speed.

Q. Everything shows a file name but I cannot find the file in Explorer. Why?

A. The most common reason is that the file was recently deleted and Everything has not yet updated its index. Go to Tools, then Options, then NTFS, and click Force Rebuild to refresh the database. If the file truly does not exist at the shown path, it may have been moved to a folder Everything is not set to scan, or the drive may have been disconnected.

Q. Search in File Explorer says "No items match your search" but I can see the file there. What is wrong?

A. The folder you searched is likely not in the Windows Search index. Try navigating directly to the folder in File Explorer, opening the file, and then checking Indexing Options to add that folder. After adding it, allow time for indexing to complete before searching again.

Q. Should I install both PowerToys Run and Everything?

A. They serve different needs and work well together. PowerToys Run is a general-purpose launcher — great for opening apps, running calculations, switching windows, and quick file lookups. Everything is a dedicated file search tool that excels when you need to find one file among thousands in milliseconds. Both are free, lightweight, and do not conflict with each other, so installing both is a reasonable choice if you search for files frequently.

Q. My searches are slow even after adding folders to the index. What else can I try?

A. First, rebuild the index using the steps in the indexing section above. If that does not help, reduce the number of indexed locations to just the folders you actually use. For the fastest possible search with no indexing delay, switch to Everything — its NTFS-journal approach is fundamentally faster than Windows Search for file name lookups.

Summary

Windows offers multiple ways to find files, and the best method depends on what you need.

For everyday lookups, the Start menu search and File Explorer search box with operators are usually enough.
If searches feel slow or miss files, tune the Windows Search index by adding folders and rebuilding it when necessary.
For a Mac Spotlight-style experience that also handles app launching and calculations, install PowerToys Run.
When you need to find a file across all drives in milliseconds, Everything is the fastest tool available.
For scripting, batch processing, or automation, PowerShell Get-ChildItem gives you the most flexibility.

Start with the tool that fits your current situation, and add others as your needs grow. Even just learning a handful of File Explorer search operators will save you significant time over weeks and months of daily use.