[visual-studio-code] How do I search for files in Visual Studio Code?

I am used to Resharper where I can search for files, not the content, but the filename, which makes it quick to open new files.

Is this feature implemented in Visual Studio Code and is there a shortcut for it?

This question is related to visual-studio-code keyboard-shortcuts

The answer is


You can also press F1 to open the Command Palette and then remove the > via Backspace. Now you can search for files, too.


If you just want to search a single file name

Just Ctrl+P, then type and choose your one

If you want to open all files whose name contains a particular string

  1. Open search panel
  2. Put any common words inside those files
  3. in 'files to include', put the search string with *, e.g. *Signaller*

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If you want to see your files in Explorer tree...

when you click anywhere in the explorer tree and start typing something on the keyboard, the search keyword appears in the top right corner of the screen : ("module.ts")

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And when you hover over the keyword with the mouse cursor, you can click on "Enable Filter on Type" to filter tree with your search !


Other answers don't mention this command is named workbench.action.quickOpen.

You can use this to search the Keyboard Shortcuts menu located in Preferences.

On MacOS the default keybinding is cmd ? + P.

(Coming from Sublime Text, I always change this to cmd ? + T)


For windows. if Ctrl+p doesn't always work use Ctrl+shift+n instead.


I'm using VSCode 1.12.1

OSX press : Cmd + p


consider you have thousand of files in vs code and you want to search for a file with particular name then

  1. Right click VS code editor.
  2. Select Command Palete
  3. In the text box type the file name

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To search for specifil file types in visual studio code.
Type ctrl+p and then search for something like *.py.
Simple and easy


Win: CTRL+P or CTRL+E

Mac: CMD+P or CMD+E


Don't want to remember another shortcut?

Open the Command Palette:

  • Menu: View -> Command Palette
  • Windows Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+P

and hit backspace to delete ">" character and then begin typing to search for files via filename. :)


On OSX, for me it's cmd ? + p. cmd ? + e just searches within the currently opened file.


Also works in ubuntu with Ctrl+E


If using vscodevim extension, ctrl + p won't work so I saw another answer using:

ctrl + shift + p

which opens the command palette. Hit backspace to remove the '>' and then start typing your filename.