Searches of filenames apply to both the filename and its alias. The system presents a single unified namespace so that a single physical view of the file is preserved. However, if the result of a search shows only the long filename, it could be confusing to the user. For example, a set of files in a directory might include the following filenames and aliases.
| Filename | Alias |
|---|---|
| LongFileName | LONGFI~1 |
| File-1 | FILE-1 |
A search of files in the directory using DIR *1 would display the following information.
LONGFI~1 123 05-11-95 15:26 LongFileName
FILE-1 352 05-11-95 16:01 File-1
Note that the DIR command displays the alias first for compatibility with the older DIR format. However, a search utility that is aware of long filenames but displays only the filename, would also show both the LongFileName and File-1 files. This could be confusing at first glance to the user because the LongFileName file does not have the number 1 as specified in the search criteria. The file was matched to the search pattern because its alias contains the number 1.
The wildcard searches have been expanded in Windows 95. Using the old search criteria, the first * encountered caused all following characters to be ignored. However, in the preceding example, *1 is a valid specification. More than one wildcard can be used in Windows 95 when specifying search criteria. For example, to search for all files that contain the word mid somewhere in the filename, *mid* can be specified as the search criteria.