microsoft / microsoft/vscode-remote-release

Explorer Filter (Ctrl+Alt+F) Should Support Multiple File Name Filtering

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#11,798 1 comment 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@lramos15 is already working on this.

Since Aug 19, 2026.

feature-request file-explorer
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Dockerfile
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Description

The current Explorer Filter (Ctrl+Alt+F) is very useful for quickly narrowing down files in the Explorer view. However, it only supports filtering using a single search string/fuzzy match.

In many real-world development scenarios, users need to quickly locate and work with a specific set of files, for example:

CustomerService.cs
AccountService.cs
AuditService.cs

Currently, there is no way to paste multiple file names and have Explorer display only those matching files. Users must search one file at a time or switch to other views that do not provide the same convenient Explorer workflow.

Suggested Feature
Allow Explorer Filter (Ctrl+Alt+F) to support multiple file names using one of the following syntaxes:

CustomerService.cs,AccountService.cs,AuditService.cs

or

CustomerService.cs|AccountService.cs|AuditService.cs

Expected Behavior
When users enter multiple file names in the Explorer Filter:

CustomerService.cs,AccountService.cs,AuditService.cs

only matching files should remain visible in the Explorer tree.

This would make it easy to:

  • Copy multiple specific files to another folder.
  • Review files from pull requests.
  • Work with deployment file lists.
  • Handle hotfix or release file sets.
  • Navigate large enterprise repositories.

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Open the contributing guide

First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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