run powershell as administrator use this command to search "foobar" in all files and folders in c:\dropbox Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Dropbox\*" -Recurse | Select-String -Pattern "foobar" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path build the command : the command tos search ( ) in folder ( ) is : Get-ChildItem -Path "" -Recurse | Select-String -Pattern "" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path