Cannot find files?

[nutnutwin]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.43.0

Running as admin

• Yes

Area(s) with issue?

General

Steps to reproduce

• have Winword Installed
• Activate powerToys for file search
• type winword.exe
• cannot find "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"
  (which is definitely there

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for file like [[Windows]].idx
I can find using "windows]].idx", but cannot find using "windows ]].idx"
Really baffling for a file search

✔️ Expected Behavior

can find winword.exe
can find [[windows]].idx with space in the keyword

❌ Actual Behavior

cannot find anything

Other Software

No response

[nutnutwin]

I checked, seems that "]]" mess with search...somehow.
not very intuitive...

[Aaron-Junker]

Hi @nutnutwin You can just search word for opening word. I think it can't find winword.exe, because it is excluded from Windows Search. It is excluded on my computer as you can see here:

But I can reproduce your bug with files which have ] or [ in their names.

[Aaron-Junker]

You can find these settings in the settings app:

Windows 10: Search -> Searching Windows

Windows 11: Privacy & Security -> Searching Windows

[nutnutwin]

@Aaron-Junker
Thank you for your reply

---

I understand that I can find ｢word｣, but this is just an example for deeper path I cannot search well/easily with PowerToys

---

I just checked ｢Searching Windows｣
and ｢Program Files｣ is not there, unfortunately.

But I do see that ｢Find my Files｣ is set to ｢Classic｣, not ｢Enhanced｣ like your screenshot

---

What I did

• Set to Enhanced
  nothing changed, still cannot find winword.exe
• Rebuild the index
  ✨will report later

---

Yes searching behavior with ｢[｣ is very weird in my opinion
it's not even reserved for regex

[nutnutwin]

[20210812_Thu]-064823 Update
No,

• I have "Enhanced"
• "Program Files" not excluded
• rebuilt index
• still cannot find winword.exe

weird

[crutkas]

/dup #10210

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!