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How can one tell Windows to index only file names under Windows?

Running a name:*whatever* search in Windows Explorer takes a long time without indexing the entire file system. That is overkill for those of us merely interested in getting the equivalent speed of Linux updatedb and locate without relying on 3rd party applications.

James Bowery
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1 Answers1

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Simple: Just use 3rd party tools like updatedb and locate (like you are doing under linux). A default Linux search with find -i name would be as slow as explorer's method.

Thew most simple one I know (and already delivered delivered with windows) is where.

C:\>where format.*
C:\Windows\System32\format.com

But if you're fond of the command line, you may want to look at powershell too. To accomplish the same type of search you'd use

PS F:\> get-childitem c:\ -filter format.* -recurse

Which has the nice side benefit of being able to be pumped into a objectorized foreach statement, run a process against the search results or do stuff with the objects properties.

bjoster
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