How to search windows for a file using powershell

Use Get-ChildItem

You can use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet, which is often aliased as gci or dir, to search for files. Here’s a basic example

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Path\To\Directory" -Filter "filename.ext" -Recurse

Example Breakdown:

  • -Path: Specifies the directory to start the search.
  • -Filter: Specifies the file name or pattern to search for.
  • -Recurse: Searches all subdirectories within the specified path.

Searching by File Name Pattern

If you want to search for files with a specific pattern, you can use wildcards:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Path\To\Directory" -Filter "*.txt" -Recurse

Searching for Files by Name and Content

To search for files by name and also look inside the files for specific content, you can combine Get-ChildItem with Select-String:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Path\To\Directory" -Filter "*.txt" -Recurse | Select-String -Pattern "search text"

Example Breakdown:

  • Select-String: Searches for text within files.
  • -Pattern: Specifies the text to search for within the files.

Friendly Reminder

Remember to replace "C:\Path\To\Directory" with the actual path where you want to search, and adjust "filename.ext" or "*.txt" to match the filetype or name pattern you are looking for.