That's your problem, that ain't a file, boss, that's a folder.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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Is this a joke I'm too much of a Linux user to understand? (I use Arch btw.)
The difference between find -type f and find -type d
That still doesn't change the fact that a directory is a file. Even though it has some defined properties differentiating it from other files.
But that is the reason their search tool is not working. It's probably configured for files, not directories.
It's a folder icon not a file icon
Yes, but they use Arch. Hope you noticed.
Couldn't help but put that joke in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But everything Is a file!
I don't know why the file search on Windows sucks this much but, yeah... I can be looking at the fucking file I want, search for its exact name, and get zero results.
Is Everything still a thing?
Absolutely and it's my primary way to search for anything
No problem - just do a quick overview of the search function code, find a bug, submit a PR fix, and then wake up and remember that we're talking about M$
On Windows, I've had good luck with the search tool Everything.
And mlocate for Linux.
$ time fd -t f locate /usr
/usr/bin/fallocate
/usr/include/clang/AST/ASTContextAllocate.h
/usr/include/qt6/QtQmlCompiler/6.10.0/QtQmlCompiler/private/qresourcerelocater_p.h
/usr/include/qt6/QtQml/6.10.0/QtQml/private/qlazilyallocated_p.h
/usr/share/doc/libdc1394/html/structfw__cdev__allocate.html
...
/usr/share/xml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets-1.79.2-nons/params/htmlhelp.button.locate.xml
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/3.4.0/doc/racc-1.8.1/ri/Racc/Grammar/compute_locate-i.ri
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/3.4.0/doc/racc-1.8.1/ri/Racc/Sym/locate-i.ri
real 0m0.209s
user 0m0.283s
sys 0m0.663s
Cut by me, because of qr size limit. fd is from here. Disk is NVME on PCIe3.
Or like me obliviously spending cycles trawling through everything.
find dir/ -iname "*John*Cena*"
or
grep -rIi "John.*Cena" dir/
obliviously spending cycles trawling through everything.
Once vs. every time the db gets updated. Database for faster file searching is a HDD relict, imo.
spending cycles trawling through everything
Beats spending cycles indexing everything and never search them.
Use fd and ripgrep at least. It's not the stone age.
I'm probably using them already if they are aliased to find and grep.
Btw, while I'm here: you might also want to look into eza, fzf, bat, and maybe delta (or icdiff for side-by-side comparison). I'm pretty conservative regarding replacement for classic utils, but these are worth it.
They use different arguments, so unlikely. Though idk if there are wrappers or anything like that.
They're both easier to use and faster, so it's worth making sure to switch.
grep -rIi "John.*Cena" dir/
I have this sort of thing aliased, with some added --include flags to filter file type (e.g., only match source/script files). Super useful!
plocate is much faster and requires less resources. macOS users should use mdfind instead
Everything is a required tool for any Windows computer I interact with.
And Wiztree! I really do love that program.
WinDirStat imo is a better alternative - same functionality, much older and open source.
Wiztree borrows a lot from WinDirStat's interface.
Including like little Spanners to fix it and big spanners to hit it?
Thanks that was helpful at the right moment!
Happy I could help. It's been everything Windows search is not.
Additional pro-tip if anyone is still using WinDirStat, Spacemonger, etc.: WizTree is game-changing.
Test.txt isn't descriptive enough?
I literally have like 5 of these in my home directory…
$locate %filename%
This is why everything gets put into their own directory branch... and why I sometimes forget my pokemon fan games are for some reason in my Ankama folder for whatever reason.
I get it, because you See Nah