DESKTOP SEARCH

Search this PC, or stay within one folder.

Status: Production

Search this PC uses an opt-in local metadata index with results as you type and visual filters. A local folder's toolbar keeps its progressive recursive scan. Tags and smart folders organize existing files without moving them. Neither search path is typo-tolerant fuzzy search.

Opt-in PC metadata index or a direct current-folder scan
Case-insensitive substring and wildcard matching—not fuzzy matching
Visual and typed filters, local tags, and saved smart folders
Progressive results with explicit depth, scan, and result limits

Opt in to Search this PC

Open PC search
Type into the This PC search field, or select Search & storage in the sidebar and choose Search files. Opening RFile alone does not start indexing.
Reopen a saved index
From 0.3.79, saved-index validation and rebuild preparation run off the async command workers used by folder browsing. Opening saved search index means RFile is checking saved metadata; you can continue browsing other folders. Views share a pending status request instead of stacking polls. This preserves integrity checks and your existing index; it does not trigger a new index build. Large indexes can still take time to validate. Startup errors provide Retry index status.
Choose your scope
Select Index all local drives for ready fixed drives, or Choose index folder… for one local folder. RFile indexes filenames, locations, sizes, and dates, not file contents. Network locations and link targets are excluded.
Follow the build
The page shows preparation, enumeration and index publication phases, current path, elapsed time, scanned-item count and the worker cap. Metadata probing uses bounded parallel workers; SQLite publication remains a single atomic writer. Stop indexing cancels the build. Results resume after a completed index is available; timing depends on your data and computer.
Search as you type
Use Search indexed files, then narrow results by Files or Folders, Extension, Over 100 MB, Edited this week, or In folder…. The view returns up to 500 indexed results and asks you to narrow the query when more matches exist.

Tags and smart folders

Right-click eligible local files or folders and choose Tags. Add a tag, remove it from the selection, or return to Tags & smart folders > Tagged files to filter and manage assignments. From 0.3.78, Smart folders and Tagged files form one segmented tab switch with a highlighted current view. Click either tab or focus it and use Left/Right, Home or End to switch. Tags live in RFile's local database; they do not move files, modify file contents or attributes, or synchronize tags to another app or computer.

Tagged files are checked against their recorded identity before being shown. Missing, replaced, inaccessible, or unsafe paths are skipped instead of giving another file the same tag. Only explicitly observed, identity-verified renames can follow the file automatically; external moves or unobserved renames may need reassignment.

Save smart folder stores the current query, including the visual filters, under a name. Reopen it from Tags & smart folders to run that query again; it is a saved search, not a copied folder or a frozen result list. A tag:work query searches verified tag assignments and can work without building the PC index.

How local-folder search runs

Enter a query in a local folder's toolbar and press Enter. The current folder becomes the one search root, and RFile scans its descendants directly from the filesystem while sending matching results to the file view. It does not search every drive at once.

The scan is progressive and cancellable. A local search can descend at most 128 levels, examine at most 1,000,000 entries, and display at most 10,000 results. Reparse-point and symlink directories are not followed.

Recursive
Yes for a local folder tab: the active folder and its subfolders are scanned.
Fuzzy
No. Misspellings, edit-distance matches, and fuzzy subsequences do not match.
Indexed
No for this folder-toolbar path. Use Search & storage > Search files for the opt-in metadata index, visual filters, and saved smart folders.
Progressive
Yes. Matches appear while traversal is still in progress instead of waiting for the complete folder tree.

Matching rules

Plain terms use case-insensitive filename substring matching. Add * to match any sequence or ? to match one character. When a query contains several terms, every term must match; terms are combined with AND rather than OR.

Exact, stem, prefix, and word-start matches can rank ahead of looser substring matches, but ranking does not turn the query into fuzzy search.

invoice
Matches filenames containing invoice, regardless of letter case.
*.pdf
Uses wildcard matching to find PDF filenames.
name:invoice ext:pdf
Requires both the name term and PDF extension filter to match.
type:image size:>5MB
Finds image files larger than 5 MB.
modified:>=2026-01-01 folder:projects
Combines a modified-date comparison with a parent-folder term.

Typed filters

In a local folder, type filters into the same query field and quote values that contain spaces. Search this PC additionally provides visual Type, Extension, size, date, and folder controls that compose a query for you.

Name and wildcard
Use plain text or name:, glob:, *, and ?.
Extension
Use ext: or extension:, such as ext:pdf.
Type
Use type:file, folder, image, video, audio, document, archive, code, executable, or other.
Size
Use size: with >, >=, <, <=, =, or a range using .. or ..=. Units include B, KB, MB, GB, TB, KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB.
Dates
Use created:, modified:, or accessed: with YYYY-MM-DD, a comparison, a range, today, or this-week.
Folder and hidden state
Use folder: for a parent-folder term and hidden:true or hidden:false for the hidden attribute.

Search fields in other locations

This PC
The search field routes to Search & storage > Search files and the opt-in local metadata index described above.
Home, Network, and Recycle Bin
The field performs a case-insensitive substring filter over items already loaded on that page; it is not a recursive filesystem scan.
Google Drive
The field filters the currently loaded Drive items and does not recursively search unseen Drive folders.
Sidebar
The sidebar field filters Quick Access entries only.