Using Get-ChildItem -Exclude or -Include returns nothing

Question

I have a list in my C: directory that has many files. If I try to run an -Exclude on it, I get no returns. Same with -Include. If I use filter it returns what I expected to

Answer 1

Using 'C:' with no slash after it is the reason you're not getting the results you want. This is being interpreted as a relative path to the current directory instead of the root of the C drive. (See: Path with no slash after drive letter and colon - what does it point to?)

If you use 'C:\' instead it should work as expected.

Edit: My mistake; I was responding specifically to the examples which only use '-exclude'.