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Using Command Line Utility

In addition to the VX Search GUI application, VX Search Pro and VX Search Server provide a command line utility allowing one to execute file search operations from an OS shell window. The VX Search command line utility is located in <ProductDir>/bin directory.

Command Line Syntax:

vxsearch -search <File Filter> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files in the specified directories, disks or network shares.

vxsearch -search -name <File Name Text> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files containing the specified text in the file name.

vxsearch -search -regex <Regular Expression> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files by the file name using a regular expression.

vxsearch -search -md5 <MD5 Hash Signature> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files by the specified MD5 hash signature.

vxsearch -search -sha1 <SHA1 Hash Signature> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files by the specified SHA1 hash signature.

vxsearch -search -sha256 <SHA256 Hash Signature> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files by the specified SHA256 hash signature.

vxsearch -search <File Filter> -server <hostname1;hostname2;hostnameX>

Searches files in all network shares of the specified servers or NAS storage devices.

vxsearch -search <File Filter> -network

Searches files in all servers and/or NAS storage devices detected on the network.

vxsearch -search <XML Search Rules File> -dir <Directory 1> [ ... Directory X ]

Searches files in the specified directories, disks or network shares.

vxsearch -execute <Search Profile Name>

Executes the specified file search operation.

vxsearch -execute <XML Search Command File>

Executes the specified file search operation.

Parameters:

-dir <Directory>

This parameter specifies an input directory, disk or a network share for the file search operation. In order to ensure proper parsing of command line arguments, directories containing space characters should be double quoted.

Options:

-save_pdf_report [ File Name ]

Saves a PDF file search report to the specified file.

-save_excel_report [ File Name ]

Saves an Excel file search report to the specified file.

-save_html_report [ File Name ]

Saves an HTML file search report to the specified file.

-save_text_report [ File Name ]

Saves a text file search report to the specified file.

-save_csv_report [ File Name ]

Saves a CSV file search report to the specified file.

-save_json_report [ File Name ]

Saves a JSON file search report to the specified file.

-save_xml_report [ File Name ]

Saves an XML file search report to the specified file.

-save_report [ File Name ]

Saves search results to the VX Search native report format.

-save_to_database

Saves search results to an SQL database.

-save_to_database_table <Table Name>

Saves search results to the specified SQL database table.

-title <Report Title>

Sets the report title.

-compress

Instructs to export a GZ compressed report.

-show_users

This option enables processing and display of files user names.

-scanners <Max Dir Scan Threads>

This option sets the maximum number of parallel directory scanning threads.

-streams <File Search Threads>

This option sets the number of parallel file search threads.

-perf <FULL | MEDIUM | LOW>

This parameter controls the speed of the storage analysis process.

FULL - Full-speed storage analysis
MEDIUM - Medium-speed storage analysis
LOW - Low-speed storage analysis

-v

Shows the product major version, minor version, revision and build date.

-help

Shows the command line usage information.

VX Search News

11-May-2026

VX Search v18.1 adds support for new file types to the built-in file classification plug-ins allowing one to search specific types of files and improves the file search statistics pie charts. In addition, the new product version adds support for new types of file search rules, improves the file search rules dialog, improves the VX Search command line utility and fixes a number of bugs.

9-Apr-2026

VX Search v18.0 redesigns the file search results dialog, adds the ability to filter file search reports by the report ID and improves the file search reports dialog. In addition, the new product version improves the JSON, CSV and XML file search reports, improves the main VX Search GUI application and fixes a number of bugs.

More News