Find a Directory/Folder with CMD without knowing full path

Question

I don't know the full path to a folder, just the folder name. I would like to find everywhere where this folder is using CMD. Is there a command that does this?

I am looking for an equivalent to *nix's:

find . -name <folder name> -type d

Is there anything like that in Windows CMD? I know dir /s ...

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '12 at 19:58

39

So at the root of the drive:

dir <Folder Name> /AD /s

answered May 23 '12 at 19:58

EBGreen

9,395

4

/A- Displays files with specified attributes. D-May the attribute be Directories /s - Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories. – nanospeck Jun 26 '14 at 02:15
Is it possible to extend this search to hidden subfolders as well? – Luke Nov 10 '15 at 22:16
It is searching only in C drive – pyd Nov 28 '17 at 04:31
1

Then tell it to search in whichever drive you want. – EBGreen Nov 28 '17 at 15:28
1

To get a compact listing of all directory location, you can add /B, like this: dir <Folder Name> /AD/S/B – Matt Roy Feb 07 '19 at 15:41

wullxz · Answer 2 · 2012-05-23T20:05:26.720

switch to the root-search-folder (e.g. C:)
type dir /S /P <file or foldername> (/P pauses after each screenful of information)

If you'd like a list of all occurances of a specific filename, you can simply redirect the output to a file:

dir /S <filename> > c:\results.txt

You can also narrow down your results by using the /A switch of the dir command. If you'd like to only list directories, you can append /AD to your command:

dir /S /P <filename> /AD

Other possibilities are:

 /A          Displays files with specified attributes.
 attributes   D  Directories                R  Read-only files
              H  Hidden files               A  Files ready for archiving
              S  System files               I  Not content indexed files
              L  Reparse Points             -  Prefix meaning not

If you'd like to know more about the dir command, just type dir /?into your cmd.

Definitely worth it, but my rep isn't high enough on this sub-SOF hahaha — Daniel Kats, May 23 '12 at 20:24

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 02 '18 at 09:06

0

dir /S /b

/S searches recursively

/b removes the additional directory metadata from the search results, so you get a nice clean list of files

answered Jul 02 '18 at 09:06

Krakkos

101

This doesn't work correctly. See https://i.imgur.com/X0MCR1p.png – DavidPostill Jul 02 '18 at 09:43
@DavidPostill - yes it does, your pictyure shows you asking for the contents of 'test', which contains the single item 'test' (at least that's all we can see in it), and the /b flag removes the heading metadata. Without the /b flag, the root directory is also shown – Krakkos Jul 03 '18 at 10:21
My point stands. Using \b omits f:\test from the listing. It returns one file when there are two. Therefore the answer is wrong. – DavidPostill Jul 03 '18 at 10:35

Find a Directory/Folder with CMD without knowing full path

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