How to List File Names Only in PowerShell

To list file names only in PowerShell, run Get-ChildItem with -File and -Name. You get plain names, without folders, sizes or dates:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Reports -File -Name

Below I use a small Reports folder with two subfolders to show every variation: recursive lists, names without extensions, filters and saving the list to a file.

List names with Get-ChildItem -Name

-Name returns only the names of the items as strings. Without -File, folders are included too:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -Name

Output:

Archive
Images
budget-2026.xlsx
notes.txt
sales-2026-09.csv
sales-2026-10.csv

Archive and Images are folders. The default output shows Mode, LastWriteTime and Length columns, and -Name removes all of that.

List only files, not folders

Add -File to skip folders. Use -Directory instead when you want only the folder names:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -File -Name

Output:

budget-2026.xlsx
notes.txt
sales-2026-09.csv
sales-2026-10.csv

These are strings, not file objects, so you can pipe them straight to a text file or compare them with other lists. See listing directories and files for the full objects.

List file names recursively

-Recurse searches every subfolder. With -Name, files in subfolders come back as paths relative to the starting folder:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -File -Recurse -Name

Output:

budget-2026.xlsx
notes.txt
sales-2026-09.csv
sales-2026-10.csv
Archive\sales-2026-08.csv
Images\chart-2026-10.png

To limit how deep it goes, add -Depth 1 to search only one level of subfolders. To count files instead, see counting files in a folder.

List file names without the extension

-Name gives you the extension too. For names without it, get the file objects and read the BaseName property:

(Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -File).BaseName

Output:

budget-2026
notes
sales-2026-09
sales-2026-10

Member enumeration reads BaseName from every file at once. Getting a file name without the extension covers single paths too.

Filter the file names

-Filter is the fastest way to match a pattern, because the file system applies it before PowerShell sees the files:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -Filter *.csv -Recurse -Name

Output:

sales-2026-09.csv
sales-2026-10.csv
Archive\sales-2026-08.csv

For conditions that -Filter can’t handle, such as the date or size, use Where-Object. Then take just the Name property:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -File -Recurse |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like 'sales-*' -and $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) } |
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Output:

sales-2026-09.csv
sales-2026-10.csv
sales-2026-08.csv

Here the subfolder file shows only its name, because Name doesn’t include the folder. More patterns are in the Get-ChildItem filter guide.

Get full paths instead

When you need the full path, read FullName rather than using -Name:

(Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Reports -File -Recurse).FullName

That’s the version to use when you pass the files to Copy-Item or Remove-Item from another folder.

Save the list of file names to a file

Because -Name returns strings, you can pipe them straight to Set-Content:

Get-ChildItem -Path .\Reports -File -Recurse -Name | Set-Content -Path .\file-list.txt
"Saved $((Get-Content -Path .\file-list.txt).Count) file names"

Output:

Saved 6 file names

Use Export-Csv instead if you want more columns, such as size or date. The Get-ChildItem reference lists every parameter.

Frequently Asked Questions