In Windows 11 - How do I search for multiple files at the same time?

Bummer, that doesnt seem to work in our system. I type the first file number and it appears. It stays there when I add the , and next file number. Once the second file number is entered, everything disappears and its says No items match your search. Thanks.

If the 1500 files are a simple pattern match, then you would search for the ones that match the pattern and then move or copy the selected items. For example, you could retrieve all PDF files that begin with the characters "2023" by searching for 2023*.pdf.

However, if the 1500 PDF files are just arbitrary names that are in a list, you will need a simple script to process that list. In that case, get the list of files into a text file with one filename per line. Below is an example script that assumes PullFiles.txt contains the list of PDF files to be copied. You would edit the edit script with the appropriate paths and PullFiles.txt would be located in the same folder as the script. You would save the script as something like PullFiles.ps1 and right-click, select "Run with PowerShell" to run it. You could change "Copy-Item" to "Move-Item" to move the files instead of copying them.

Note that this example lacks error checking. For example, it does not handle the situation where the target already contains a file with the same name. Adding complete robust error handling can be done later. It would complicate this answer too much. You can get ChatGPT to help you with that.

Also note that this script assumes your source folder, of 9000 PDFs, is a single folder. If the files are located in various subfolders, the problem becomes considerably more complicated, but is doable. Again, you can ask ChatGPT to solve that for you as well.

$sourceFolder = "C:\TestSource" 

$targetFolder = "C:\TestTarget" 

$fileList = Get-Content -Path "PullFiles.txt" 

foreach ($filename in $fileList) { 

  "$sourceFolder\$filename" | Copy-Item -Destination (New-Item -Force -Type Directory -Path $targetFolder) 

}

PullFiles.txt would contain filenames without the full path, since the source folder is already specified in the script. For example:

Example1.pdf

Example2.pdf

Example3.pdf

Yes, that's how I search, and it works for me. See example image below. Click on, tap, or activate image to enlarge it. Be sure to use .pdf in your list of keywords.

Hello - This is related to my job. We do not have IT! I tried putting xxxx, yyyy, and that did not pull them. Did I understand your suggestion correctly? Thanks!

Who told you to pull 1,500 files? Are you at work or college? If you have an IT department, have you asked them?

Search using keywords and place a comma between each. The time it takes to search will depend on the speed of your computer and where you are searching for the files.

Keywords Definition - What are website keywords? (techterms.com)