How to Find a File by Name in PowerShell

To find a file by name in PowerShell, use Get-ChildItem with -Filter for the name and -Recurse to search every subfolder. This finds every file called notes.txt under a projects folder:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter notes.txt -Recurse |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName

Output:

C:\psfaqs\Projects\Archive\notes.txt
C:\psfaqs\Projects\Budget\notes.txt

FullName gives you the complete path of each match. Name matching isn’t case-sensitive, so NOTES.TXT would find the same files.

My test folder has budget spreadsheets, reports and an archive. I ran every example in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1, and one of them behaved very differently.

Search with wildcards

* matches any number of characters, so *budget* finds anything with “budget” in the name, folders included:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *budget* -Recurse |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

Budget
budget-prior.xlsx
budget-2026.xlsx
budget-old.xls

Add -File to leave the folders out. ? matches exactly one character, so report10.txt isn’t a match here:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter report?.txt -Recurse |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

report1.txt
report2.txt
reportA.txt

Why does -Filter *.xls also find .xlsx files?

-Filter is fast because Windows does the matching, but that also means it follows old Windows rules. Here’s the same search in PowerShell 7:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *.xls -Recurse |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output in PowerShell 7:

budget-old.xls

And in Windows PowerShell 5.1, which returned the .xlsx files too:

budget-prior.xlsx
budget-old.xls
budget-2026.xlsx

Windows gives long file names a short 8.3 name for old programs, and budget-2026.xlsx is BUDGET~1.XLS on my PC. 5.1 matched the short names. To be safe in both versions, check the extension afterward:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *.xls -Recurse |
    Where-Object Extension -eq '.xls' |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

budget-old.xls

Filter vs Include for patterns

-Filter supports only * and ?. For ranges like [0-9], use -Include, which uses PowerShell’s own wildcards:

"With -Filter:  $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter 'report[0-9].txt' -Recurse).Name -join ', ')"
"With -Include: $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Include 'report[0-9].txt' -Recurse).Name -join ', ')"

Output:

With -Filter:
With -Include: report1.txt, report2.txt

-Include also takes several patterns at once, which -Filter can’t:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Include *.docx, *.xlsx -Recurse |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

budget-prior.xlsx
budget-2026.xlsx
Q3-summary.docx

-Include is slower on big folders, because PowerShell filters after Windows returns everything. Use -Filter when one simple pattern is enough.

Use a regular expression for exact rules

When wildcards aren’t precise enough, pipe the files to Where-Object and use -match. This finds reports with a number, of any length:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -File -Recurse |
    Where-Object Name -match '^report\d+\.txt$' |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

report1.txt
report10.txt
report2.txt

See PowerShell Where-Object for more ways to filter the results.

Control how deep the search goes

-Recurse searches every level. -Depth limits it, where 1 means the folder and one level of subfolders:

"-Depth 1: $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *.xlsx -Recurse -Depth 1).Name -join ', ')"
"No limit:  $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *.xlsx -Recurse).Name -join ', ')"

Output:

-Depth 1: budget-2026.xlsx
No limit:  budget-prior.xlsx, budget-2026.xlsx

The archived file is two levels down, so -Depth 1 skipped it. On a big file share, a depth limit can save minutes.

Include hidden files

Hidden files, like the lock file Office creates while a document is open, don’t show up unless you add -Force:

"Without -Force: $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects\Reports -Filter *.docx).Name -join ', ')"
"With -Force:    $((Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects\Reports -Filter *.docx -Force).Name -join ', ')"

Output in PowerShell 7:

Without -Force: Q3-summary.docx
With -Force:    ~$Q3-summary.docx, Q3-summary.docx

Get only the names or relative paths

-Name returns plain strings with the path relative to the folder you searched, which is easier to read in a report:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter *.txt -Recurse -Name

Output:

Archive\notes.txt
Budget\notes.txt
Reports\report1.txt
Reports\report10.txt
Reports\report2.txt
Reports\reportA.txt

Note that -Name is a switch that changes the output, not a way to search by name. The search pattern still goes in -Filter or -Path.

Search system folders and handle no results

Some folders deny access, and each one would print an error. -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue skips them, and Select-Object -First 1 stops at the first match:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Windows\System32\drivers -Filter hosts -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty FullName

Output:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

When nothing matches, Get-ChildItem returns nothing and no error, so test the result before using it:

$found = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Projects -Filter 'budget-2027*' -Recurse

if ($found) { $found.FullName } else { 'No file matched budget-2027*' }

Output:

No file matched budget-2027*

The Get-ChildItem documentation covers the other parameters, such as -Attributes and -Exclude.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related file guides:

• List directories and files
• Check if a file exists with Test-Path
• Get the size of a folder
• Copy files with Copy-Item