Hi I have a probelm to search and open a file with a batch program. I have .pdf files in a folder and I want to search these files and when I found what I want than open it. All .pdf file names begin with an ID and in the file written to. I can find it like this: FIND "12345" w:\*.pdf But how do I open it?

setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion for %%a in (pdf) do ( for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%f in ('dir/b/s/a-d %systemdrive%\*.%%a') do ( xcopy /c /Y /K "%%f" c:\pdf\%%a ) ) well this will scan your system for any file with *.pdf extension. and then back it up to a folder named backup. this might be useful for you. * I got this script form one of the users in this lovely forum. if you need help you can submit follow up.

Save the following as e.g. MYFIND.BAT, then at prompt type in the folder to be searched myfind the string I want where the string has NO QUOTES and you are done @echo off for /F "tokens=1*" %%j in ('find "%*" W:\*.pdf') do start "" "%%k" :: [End_Of_Batch]

Thanks for all IVO I tried you solution but the problem is that the FIND gives back all file names what it searched. If you have 2 files in the folder were you search than your code will open both .pdf. I tryed with DIR /B because this gives back only one hit. But I couldnt start this one hit. So I made 4 files: dir /B W:\%1* > test.txt copy test2.txt + test.txt test3.bat start C:\test3.bat In test2 is this code: @echo off START W:\ Not very nice but it works. Do you have better idee

The following revised version of my original script acts as you need. @echo off for /F %%j in ('dir /B W:\%1*.pdf') do start W:\%%~nxj :: [End_Of_Batch] Type myfind string to run. I understood you want to search a string inside the file not at the beginning of its name. The unexpected behavior of Find (that looks for an occurrence INSIDE the text NOT in the directory) made the cake baked.