Find Utility Instruction

FIND Utility for Windows Explorer

Lesson 10
| Directory | Disclaimer |

1. The "Find" utility is for finding files and folders that you do not remember exactly where it is and what you actually named the file. You do have to have some clues to use this utility. Like a group of letters that may be in the name, approximate time you modified it, or possibly what kind of file was it? Like a Word document, an Access database or an Excel spreadsheet. At least you can search for a file extension in a given area that may bring the file up that you recognize.

Note: Image on right is the result of clicking on the "Start" button, selecting "Find" and then Clicking on "Files or Folders" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

When you click on "Files and Folders" (above) this window or image will appear.

Notice there are 3 tabs across the top of the form. Tab 1 will search for name and location >>>

Insert the name of the file and in this case will search the "C:" directory for matches once the "Find Now" button is clicked

Tab 2 has default "All files" checked. If you have a suspicion when you last modified the file, check "Find all Files Modified" and the time periods will become active. Note: if boxes are grayed out, that means they are not available. I checked "during the previous 1 month" This limits the search to files that have been modified in the past month in addition to the criteria submitted in the first tab. Note: I never use this section because of the number of files I modify everyday would present too many files to select from and knowledge of the date I last worked on the file.500454

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Tab 3 is named "Advanced"
If you know the type of file or the approximate size of the file, the search could be more restrictive to include this additional criteria.

This is the result of inserting "domain" in the name to find in directory "C:" without additional criteria.

The result was 4 Folders, 7 gif files which are pictures, and 5 txt files which are data files only.

In this case the criteria that was used was "domain" and "C:". It's very important to understand criteria and how the results are influenced and limited to the criteria you use. The more criteria, the more the results will be limited. Instead of "C:", I chose "MyComputer" the find search would have looked in everything that was connected, including Floppies, CDs, any servers and computers on a LAN (Local Area Network) that was operating which may take a lot of time and potentially giant results that are not beneficial.

We have seen a basic use of the Find utility for Windows Explorer

Let's now look at some criteria manipulation to get a better results
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