Using Windows Explorer, how to find file names starting with a dot (period), in 7 or Vista?

Posted by Chris W. Rea on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Chris W. Rea
Published on 2010-04-18T15:44:34Z Indexed on 2010/04/18 15:54 UTC
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I've got a MacBook laptop in the house, and when Mac OS X copies files over the network, it often brings along hidden "dot-files" with it. For instance, if I copy "SomeUtility.zip", there will also be copied a hidden ".SomeUtility.zip" file. I consider these OS X dot-files as useless turds of data as far as the rest of my network is concerned, and don't want to leave them on my Windows file server.

Let's assume these dot-files will continue to happen. i.e. Think of the issue of getting OS X to stop creating those files, in the first place, to be another question altogether.

Rather: How can I use Windows Explorer to find files that begin with a dot / period? I'd like to periodically search my file server and blow them away. I tried searching for files matching ".*" but that yielded – and not unexpectedly – all files and folders.

Is there a way to enter more specific search criteria when searching in Windows Explorer? I'm referring to the search box that appears in the upper-right corner of an Explorer window. Please tell me there is a way to escape my query to do what I want?

(Failing that, I know I can map a drive letter and drop into a cygwin prompt and use the UNIX 'find' command, but I'd prefer a shiny easy way.)

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