# How to Select Multiple Files in Windows > Select several files at once in File Explorer with Ctrl, Shift, marquee dragging, checkboxes and Invert selection — plus selecting by file type using search. - Source: https://zepe.online/guides/select-multiple-files-windows - Author: Robert Moca (https://zepe.online/author/robert-moca) - Topic: Files and folders - Published: 2026-07-29T09:00:00+00:00 - Updated: 2026-08-16T09:00:00+00:00 - Author: Zepe editorial team (https://zepe.online/editorial-standards) - Image: https://zepe.online/img/select-multiple-files-windows-featured-b5c7428952.webp ## The short answer Hold **Ctrl** and click to pick individual files. Hold **Shift** and click the first and last to take a whole run. **Ctrl + A** selects everything. To select by type, search `*.jpg` in the folder, then press Ctrl + A on the results. ## Key takeaways - Ctrl adds one at a time; Shift selects everything between two clicks. Combining them handles almost every case. - Ctrl + Shift + click extends the selection without discarding what you have already picked. - Invert selection is the fastest route when you want everything except a few files. - Searching for a pattern and then selecting all is the way to act on one file type across many subfolders. Selecting files is one of those things nobody ever teaches you and everybody half-knows. Most people Ctrl-click their way through everything, which is fine for four files and genuinely painful for four hundred. The full set takes a couple of minutes to learn and you will use it every day afterwards. **Every selection method in File Explorer** | Method | How | Best for | | --- | --- | --- | | Individual files | **Ctrl + click** each one | A handful scattered around | | A continuous run | Click the first, **Shift + click** the last | Anything sorted into order | | Everything | **Ctrl + A** | The whole folder | | Extend a run | **Shift + arrow keys** | Adjusting a selection by one | | Add a run to a selection | **Ctrl + Shift + click** | Two separate blocks | | Drag a box | Click empty space and drag | A visual cluster in icon view | | Everything except a few | Select the few, then **Invert selection** | Keeping three out of fifty | | By type or name | Search `*.jpg`, then **Ctrl + A** | One file type across subfolders | ## Ctrl and Shift, and the combination people miss **Ctrl + click** toggles a single file in or out of the selection. The bit people miss is that Ctrl-clicking something already selected removes it, which is the quick way to fix an over-selection without starting the whole thing again. **Shift + click** selects everything between the last file you clicked and this one. Sort the folder first — by name, date or size, and a Shift-click selects exactly the run you want. Sorting by date modified and Shift-clicking is the fastest way to grab everything from a particular day. The combination worth learning is **Ctrl + Shift + click**. Select a run with Shift, then hold both Ctrl and Shift and click elsewhere: you get a second run added to the first, rather than the first being discarded. Two or three blocks of files in one selection, no Ctrl-clicking each one. > **Shortcut — Shift + arrow keys for precision** > > Click the first file, then hold **Shift** and press the down arrow. The selection extends one file per press, and you can see exactly what is included. This is far less error-prone than a long Shift-click when the folder is scrolling. ## Dragging a box Click on empty space in the folder and drag, and a rectangle appears; everything it touches gets selected. This works best in Large icons or Tiles view, where the files are laid out in a proper grid rather than a long thin list. The failure mode is starting the drag on a file rather than on empty space, which moves that file instead of selecting anything. If you realise mid-drag, press **Esc** before releasing the mouse button and the move is cancelled. ## Checkboxes, for touchscreens and shaky hands File Explorer can put a checkbox on each item, which removes the need to hold anything down at all. It is under **View → Show → Item check boxes** on Windows 11, or the **View** tab → **Item check boxes** on Windows 10. If you ever select files on a touchscreen or a trackpad, turn this on. This is genuinely useful on a touchscreen, and on any machine where an accidental Ctrl release loses a selection you spent a minute building. There is also a checkbox in the header that selects everything. ## Invert selection When you want everything except a handful of files, select the handful and then choose **Invert selection**, on the Home tab in Windows 10 or under the **⋯** menu in Windows 11. Selecting three files and inverting is enormously quicker than Ctrl-clicking the other forty-seven, and it is much harder to get wrong. **Figure: Which method for which job** The count is for a specific job — selecting 47 files out of 50. The shape of the difference holds generally: think about which method fits before you start clicking. - Ctrl + click each file: 47 clicks (One click per file, no mistakes allowed) - Drag a marquee box: 12 clicks (Depends on layout; awkward around gaps) - Invert selection: 4 clicks (Select the 3 you don't want, then invert) - Ctrl + A then deselect: 4 clicks (Select all, Ctrl + click the 3 to remove) ## Selecting by file type or name This is the one that turns an hour into a minute, and hardly anybody knows it. File Explorer's search box is really a filter, and Ctrl + A applies to whatever the filter left behind. Once that clicks, jobs like deleting every `.tmp` file scattered across a folder tree stop being jobs at all. ### Select every file of one type, across subfolders 1. Open the top-level folder you want to search. 2. Click the search box, type `*.jpg`, and press Enter. The results include matching files in every subfolder, which is what makes this powerful. 3. Press **Ctrl + A**. Everything found is selected, regardless of which folder it came from. 4. Drag to a destination, or press Ctrl + C then paste. The folder structure is not preserved — everything lands flat in the destination. **Useful search filters in File Explorer** | Type this | Finds | | --- | --- | | `*.jpg` | All JPEG files | | `*.jpg OR *.png` | Either type | | `size:>100MB` | Files over 100 megabytes | | `datemodified:this week` | Recently changed files | | `kind:document` | Documents of any format | | `name:invoice` | Filenames containing 'invoice' | | `ext:pdf size:>10MB` | Large PDFs — filters combine | > **Careful — Search reaches hidden files** > > Search results include files the current view is hiding, so a Ctrl + A on results can include more than you expected. If that matters, turn on hidden items first so you can see what you are selecting — the guide on [showing hidden files](https://zepe.online/guides/show-hidden-files-windows) covers both attributes Windows uses. ## What to do with the selection - **Ctrl + C** then **Ctrl + V** to copy; **Ctrl + X** then **Ctrl + V** to move. - **Shift + Delete** to delete permanently, bypassing the Recycle Bin. Worth knowing, worth being careful with. - **F2** to rename. With several files selected, typing one name and pressing Enter renames them all as `name (1)`, `name (2)` and so on. - **Right-click → Properties** on a multiple selection shows the combined size, which is the quick way to check whether a set will fit on a drive. - **Right-click → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder** archives the lot in one step. > **Editor's note — On Shift + right-click** > > Holding Shift while right-clicking a selection adds extra context-menu entries, including **Copy as path**, which puts every selected file's full path on the clipboard. That is the fastest way to give a list of file locations to a command line — useful alongside the guide on [opening a terminal in Windows](https://zepe.online/guides/open-terminal-windows). Bulk selection is also what makes clearing out a cache folder practical, as covered in the guide on [deleting temporary files](https://zepe.online/guides/delete-temp-files-windows). ## Common questions ### How do I select multiple files that are not next to each other? Hold **Ctrl** and click each one. Ctrl + click also removes a file from the selection if you click one that is already selected, so you can correct mistakes without starting over. To add a whole run to an existing selection, hold **Ctrl + Shift** and click. ### How do I select all files of one type in a folder? Type a pattern such as `*.jpg` into File Explorer's search box, press Enter, then press **Ctrl + A**. The search covers subfolders too, so this selects every matching file beneath the current folder, which is what makes it much faster than clicking through each one. ### How do I select everything except a few files? Select the files you want to exclude, then use **Invert selection** — on the Home tab in Windows 10, or under the **⋯** menu in Windows 11. Alternatively press **Ctrl + A** to select everything and then **Ctrl + click** the few you want to drop. ### Why does dragging move a file instead of selecting? Because the drag started on top of a file rather than on empty space. Begin the drag in a blank area of the folder window. If you notice mid-drag, press **Esc** before releasing the mouse button and the move is cancelled. ## Sources - [Keyboard shortcuts in Windows](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-dcc61a57-8ff0-cffe-9796-cb9706c75eec) — Microsoft Support. Supports: The Ctrl + A, Shift + arrow, Ctrl + click and Shift + click selection behaviours, and the F2 rename shortcut. - [Shell namespace](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/shell-namespace) — Microsoft Learn. Supports: That File Explorer search results form a virtual view spanning subfolders, which is why Ctrl + A selects across folder boundaries. ## Related guides - https://zepe.online/guides/show-hidden-files-windows - https://zepe.online/guides/clear-recent-files-windows - https://zepe.online/guides/what-is-windows-explorer --- © 2026 Zepe. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; this site is not affiliated with Microsoft.