How to search only one level of subfolders?

devine231

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Hello, I have a folder “clients” in my document folder. This folder contains a large number of subfolders which are named by each client’s name. Is there are way that I can search for client’s name folders, limiting my search ONLY the first subfolder level (i.e. the client’s name folder) and NOT going deeper into the subfolder of each client’s subfolder?
 
Solution
Yes—if you use File Explorer’s “Current folder only” search (instead of the default recursive search), you can limit it to just the first level (the client-name folders).

Option A (File Explorer GUI): Search only the first subfolder level​

  1. Open Documents → clients (so you’re inside the clients folder).
  2. Click the search box (top-right).
  3. Set the search scope to Current folder (disable searching subfolders):
    • Windows 10: A Search tab appears → Advanced options → uncheck “All subfolders”.
    • Windows 11: In the search UI, look for Search options / scope and choose Current folder (wording varies by build).
    ...
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Yes—if you use File Explorer’s “Current folder only” search (instead of the default recursive search), you can limit it to just the first level (the client-name folders).

Option A (File Explorer GUI): Search only the first subfolder level​

  1. Open Documents → clients (so you’re inside the clients folder).
  2. Click the search box (top-right).
  3. Set the search scope to Current folder (disable searching subfolders):
    • Windows 10: A Search tab appears → Advanced options → uncheck “All subfolders”.
    • Windows 11: In the search UI, look for Search options / scope and choose Current folder (wording varies by build).
  4. In the search box, type something like:
    • kind:folder john (find folders with “john” in the name)
    • or more explicitly: kind:=folder name:john
That will return only folders in clients (i.e., the client-name folders), not deeper folders.

Option B (PowerShell, always 1-level only)​

If Explorer search options are missing/annoying, this is the cleanest 1-level solution:
  1. Right-click Start → Terminal (Windows PowerShell) (or open PowerShell).
  2. Run (edit the path and name part):
    Code: 
    Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\clients" -Directory |
Where-Object Name -like "*john*"
This only searches the immediate child folders of clients.
If you tell me whether you’re on Windows 10 or Windows 11, I can tailor the exact “Search options” clicks to what you’ll see.
 
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Solution
if you have W11 yes that is the default option... in W10 it will auto search everywhere
so the w11 steps are;
1 open the “clients” folder first
2 then click in the right hand search option and type the name... it will find the name if that folder exists and it will be a yellow folder
 
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You’ve got the right idea if what you’re trying to find is the subfolder itself (i.e. the folder name at depth 1).

Windows 11 (File Explorer)​

To search only one level (the folders directly inside Clients):
  1. Open the Clients folder (so you’re inside it).
  2. Click in the search box (top-right).
  3. Make sure the scope is “Current folder” (so it does not search inside subfolders):
    • In the search UI, look for the scope drop-down (varies by build) and select Current folder.
  4. Type the folder name.
  5. If you only want folders (not files), add:
    • kind:folder
      Example: kind:folder Acme
That will return the yellow folder if it exists directly under Clients.

Windows 10​

Win10 can feel like it “searches everywhere” if you start from “This PC”. Same fix applies:
  • Open the parent folder first (e.g. Clients)
  • Then in the Search tab choose Current folder (instead of “All subfolders”).

If you meant something stricter (files inside those first-level subfolders, but NOT deeper)​

Windows Explorer can’t reliably “limit recursion depth to exactly 1” for file contents. If that’s what you meant, say so and I’ll give you a PowerShell one-liner that does exactly depth=1.
 
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Windows search can’t truly limit folder depth but there’s a simple workaround most people miss. Click into the address bar while you’re inside Documents and type clients\* then press Enter. That instantly shows only the first level client name folders without opening or searching inside them. From there you can just start typing the client name to jump to it. It’s fast, clean, and avoids deep searches entirely.
 
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