Find files: General
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General
This page allows to search for file names, parts of file names, and text inside files.
Field Meaning
Search for: In this field, you can enter the search mask for the files you want to find. Names with spaces MUST be put in double quotes, e.g. "Letter to Mr. Smith.doc", otherwise Total Commander would look for the name parts individually. Use Shift+Del to remove no longer wanted entries from the search history.
Examples:
*.ini finds for example win.ini
Smith finds "Letter to Mr. Smith.doc"
*.bak *.sik *.old finds all backup files with these extensions
*n.ini now finds names which must contain an 'n' in front of the dot.
w*.*|*.bak *.old finds files, which start with w and do not end with .bak or .old.
New: Include/Exclude certain directories in the search. Wildcards can be used in include/exclude directory names, and the names must have a trailing backslash \ .
Examples:
*.ini | windows\ finds all ini files except those in directories called "Windows" and their subdirs.
*.htm? | _vti*\ finds all html files, except in subdirs starting with _vti (used by Frontpage)
windows\ system32\ *.ini finds ini files only in windows\ and system32 dirs
Search in: Here you can enter one or more starting directories, separated by ";".
New: You can now start the search inside an archive.
>> Choose a starting directory for the search.
Drives Selects the drive(s) you want to search. You can select multiple drives.
RegEx Search in file names using regular expressions.
Only search in selected directories/files
Only search in directories and files selected in Total Commander's active file window. This allows to include/exclude specific files and directories from the search.
Search archives Enables search in files with extension ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, TAR, GZ, CAB and ACE. Text can even be searched in archives (now also in CAB)! The files are unpacked, searched and deleted on the fly.
Search subdirectories
Allows to define where to search: Either in all subdirectories, or in the current directory only, or up to a specific depth from the current directory.
Find text If this option is checked, you can enter text to be searched. With \t you find tabstops, and with \n line breaks (ENTER) in texts. To find a backslash \, you need to give it twice: \\ .
Whole words only Limits the search to whole words only.
Case sensitive Recognizes the case (small or big letters) of the word.
Example: Windows finds only "Windows", but not "WINDOWS"
ASCII-Charset (DOS) Special characters like the pound sign (£) are translated to their DOS equivalents (they have a different place in the DOS character set than in the Windows character set).
Find files NOT containing the text
Searches for all files which do not contain the given text, but still meet all other search criteria. Application: Multiple files need to be modified, and only the not yet modified should be shown.
Unicode Search in unicode files. In these, each letter is coded by 2 bytes. This format is used mainly on Windows NT and Windows 2000.
Hex Search for hexadecimal characters, e.g. 00 FF 12, or mixed, e.g. "PK"0102
Note: When Case sensitive isn't checked, characters with different case will also be found. Example: 4B will not only find 'K', but also the lowercase 'k' (Hex. 6B)
UTF8 Search in UTF8-encoded unicode files. In these, each letter is coded by 1 up to 5 bytes. This format is used mainly on Windows NT and Windows 2000. Note: At the moment, all UTF8-searches are case sensitive (due to limitations of the used search function).
RegEx Search in file contents using regular expressions.
<Result list> Shows a list of all files found in the current search operation. The details (date, time, size) are shown in the footer because of the limited space. Double click on a file to go to the directory where it is located. To copy the whole file list to the clipboard, click in this window and press Ctrl+C.
Feed to listbox Transfers the files you found to the source file window, where they can be listed, copied or even deleted. This can only work if you haven't searched in archives. The result list will be opened on a new tab if you hold down the Shift key.
Go to file If you selected a file in the list of files you found, you can change to the directory of this file by pressing go to file. With F2 or Ctrl+R, you can go back to normal file display mode. A new tab will be opened if you hold down the Shift key.
Start search: This button starts the search. It can be interrupted by pressing ESC or the Cancel button.
Cancel Interrupts the search process or closes the dialog box. The position of the dialog box is saved automatically when it is closed.