| Action | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Files | |
| Find all files and folders | filename:*.* |
| Find all files containing a space | filename:" " |
| Find all files containing an underscore | filename:"_" |
| Find all file and folders starting with "cat" | filename:~<"cat" |
| Find all file and folders ending with "ing" | filename:~>"ing" |
| Find all file and folders containing with "halen" | filename:~="halen" |
| Find all folders | kind: folder |
| Foldername containing the word “greatest” | kind: folder greatest |
| Filenames with period (excluding extension) | filename:*.*.* or filename:*.*.*.* |
| Filenames with comma (exluding extension) | filename:*,*.* |
| Folders with commas in the foldername | kind: folder *,*.* |
| Folder with open parentheses in foldername | kind: folder "*(*.*" |
| Photos | |
| Pictures tagged with eating | tags:eating |
| Pictures in the year 2000 | datetaken:2000 |
| Pictures without tags (open and closed brackets) | tags:[] |
| Camera make | cameramake:sample |
| Camera model | cameramodel:sample |
| Dimensions | dimensions:8X10 |
| Orientation | orientation:landscape |
| Width | width:1600 |
| Height | height:1200 |
| Music | |
| Files with bitrate less than 128kbps | bitrate:<128 kbps |
| Files with artist tag containing “Elvis” | artist:Elvis |
| Files with year tag from 1977 to 1982 | year:1977..1982 |
| Files with genre tag containing “Rock” | genre:rock |
| Files with album tag containing “Greatest” | album:greatest |
| Music files; excluding Christmas genre | kind:music -genre:christmas |
| All files that aren’t music files. | -kind:music -kind:folder |
| Dates & Size | |
| Modified today / yesterday | datemodified:today | datemodified:yesterday |
| Modified this week / last week / this month | datemodified:this week | datemodified:last week | datemodified:this month |
| Modified within a date range | datemodified:2024-01-01..2024-06-30 |
| Modified before / after a date | datemodified:<2023-01-01 | datemodified:>2025-01-01 |
| Created in a given month | datecreated:October 2025 |
| Files larger than 100 MB | size:>100MB |
| Files between 1 MB and 10 MB | size:1MB..10MB |
| Size presets | size:empty | size:tiny | size:small | size:medium | size:large | size:huge | size:gigantic |
| Zero-byte files | size:0 |
| Types & Extensions | |
| Files with a specific extension | ext:pdf or filename:*.pdf |
| Several extensions at once | ext:jpg OR ext:png OR ext:gif |
| Files with no extension | -filename:*.* |
| Documents / pictures / videos | kind:document | kind:picture | kind:video |
| Other kinds | kind:email | kind:program | kind:link | kind:note | kind:contact | kind:game | kind:playlist |
| Compressed archives | ext:zip OR ext:7z OR ext:rar |
| File type by friendly name | type:"PDF Document" |
| Content, Names & Properties | |
| Text inside files (content search) | content:invoice |
| Exact phrase | "annual report" |
| Words near each other | report NEAR budget |
| Both words / either word / exclude a word | report AND budget | report OR budget | report NOT draft |
| Exclude a word (shorthand) | report -draft |
| Wildcards: many characters / single character | filename:inv* | filename:inv?ice* |
| Name does not contain | -filename:backup |
| Author / title / subject properties | author:Smith | title:budget | subject:plan |
| Comments property | comment:todo |
| Owner of the file | owner:Schmitz |
| Folder path contains | folder:Documents |
| Only inside one folder tree | System.ItemFolderPathDisplay:~<"C:\Projects" |
| Tags: any of several / all of several | tags:red OR tags:blue | tags:red AND tags:blue |
| Rating | rating:>=4 stars |
| Page count / word count | pagecount:>50 | wordcount:>1000 |
| Photos & Video (more) | |
| Pictures taken between two dates | datetaken:2020-06-01..2020-08-31 |
| Photos by ISO / f-stop / exposure | isospeed:>=1600 | fstop:f/2.8 | exposuretime:<1/500 |
| Focal length | focallength:>=200 |
| Large photos | width:>4000 height:>3000 |
| Videos longer than one hour | kind:video length:>01:00:00 |
| Videos by frame size | framewidth:1920 frameheight:1080 |
| Videos by frame rate | framerate:>=60 |
| Photos that have GPS data | System.GPS.Latitude:* |
| Music (more) | |
| Album artist | albumartist:Beatles |
| Track title | title:yesterday |
| Track shorter than 2 minutes | length:<00:02:00 |
| Bitrate range | bitrate:128..320 |
| Music with no artist tag / no album tag | kind:music artist:[] | kind:music album:[] |
| Email & Contacts | |
| Email from / to a person | from:john | to:jane |
| Email subject contains | subject:"meeting notes" |
| Email with attachments | hasattachments:true |
| Unread messages | isread:false |
| Contacts by company / city | company:Acme | city:Seattle |
| Operators & Syntax Reference | |
| Greater / less than | prop:>value | prop:<value |
| Greater or equal / less or equal | prop:>=value | prop:<=value |
| Range | prop:value1..value2 |
| Not equal | prop:<>value |
| Exact match (whole value) | prop:=value |
| Starts with / ends with / contains | prop:~<value | prop:~>value | prop:~=value |
| Property has no value / has any value | prop:[] | prop:* |
| Group terms with parentheses | (ext:jpg OR ext:png) datemodified:this year |
| Boolean operators must be UPPERCASE | AND | OR | NOT |
Reference: Windows Advanced Query Syntax (AQS). Folders must be indexed (Indexing Options) for most property searches to be fast.