Meaning of "*" in Windows 7 Explorer Search?

Posted by Pumbaa80 on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Pumbaa80
Published on 2012-05-16T11:16:00Z Indexed on 2012/06/08 22:43 UTC
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I have a folder containing files like

radiobutton-clicked.png
radiobutton-foobar.png
radiobutton-foobarbaz.png
... etc.

This is what happens when I search in Windows Explorer:

  • radio: all files found
  • radio*: all files found
  • *button: all files found
  • *radiobutton*: all files found
  • radiobutton*: no results
  • radiobutton: no results
  • radio*button: all files found

So what the hell does the * precisely do? Is there some documentation on this?

And why does radio and radio*button work as a search term, but radiobutton not?


Edit:

I know that * is usually supposed to be a wildcard matching 0 or more characters. But obviously it doesn't in this case.

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