Tips for Locating
Misplaced Files
By Dave Gerber
APCUG Advisor, Region 5
Director, Sarasota PCUG,
Florida
(dave_bytes@comcast.net)
Dave’s Bits & Bytes
A Periodic Newsletter for the Members of the Sarasota PC User Group and the
World!!
Losing files on your PC
is a lot like misplacing your car keys in a cluttered apartment. You know the
things you’re looking for are close by, but actually finding and using them can
be a challenge.
Unlike your apartment,
though, Windows has a helpful feature that can locate wayward items and save you
a good deal of frustration. In Windows 95/98 (Win9x), this feature is called
Find. In Windows XP and Windows Me, it’s called Search. There are also
third-party programs that can ensure that you never have to endure the loss of
an important file again.
In this article, we’ll
show you one of the more popular ways to find lost files and some techniques to
keep you from losing files in the future. We’ll start by covering the Find
feature in Win9x. The WinMe and WinXP version of this feature is significantly
different and warrants a separate explanation. Note, however, that many of the
tips included in the Win9x section apply to later versions, so don’t skip ahead.
Find It In Windows 95
& Windows 98
There are two fast ways
to access the Find feature in Win9x. One method is to click Start, point to
Find, and click Files or Folders. Shortcut keys also work for this feature;
press Windows-F to display the search program instantly. If you’re certain a
file is in a specific folder, don’t use the Find feature from the Start menu; a
faster way is to press the F3 key in Win9x (or CTRL-F in WinMe) when you’re
already at the right folder window or have the folder displayed in Windows
Explorer. This will display the search window already set to search the current
folder.
Whatever technique you
use to launch the Find utility, you end up with a dialog box named Find All
Files. It has five menu options: File, Edit, View, Options, and Help. The Name &
Location tab is the most commonly used area of the Find command, as it includes
the Named and Look In text boxes. Win98 also has a Containing Text text box
listed here. (In Win95 this option is on the Advanced tab.) If you know the name
of the file you want to locate, just type it in the Named text box, make sure
the Look In path is directed at the correct drive location, and click Find Now.
You'll know the search has started because the magnifying glass icon begins to
move in circles. When the search is complete, matches appear in the results
window. This window shows all relevant information about the file, such as file
name, type, size, location, and date modified. Remember that you don’t have to
let a search complete its examination; click the Stop button to bring things to
an immediate halt. This is especially useful when you accidentally start a
search over a gargantuan hard drive that takes several minutes to inspect. There
are many variables that can help you narrow your searches and save time. If
you’re fairly certain of the folder in which a file is hiding, click Browse on
the Name & Location tab and specify the correct folder. On the other hand, you
might not have a clue as to which folder to look in; in that case click the
Include Subfolders checkbox to investigate a folder hierarchy from top to
bottom. In all Windows versions, there are some other options that let you
control the search. The Date and Advanced tabs in Win9x let you find files by
type and size. The Containing Text text box lets you constrain results to those
with specific phrases in them. In Win9x an Include Subfolders option lets you
widen your search. (In WinMe click Advanced Options, which lets you Search
Subfolders or look for file names using the Case Sensitive option.)
Search Windows Me &
Windows XP
WinMe and WinXP have
their own version of the Find command, called Search. To get started click
Start, point to Search and click For Files Or Folders, or press Windows-F. You
will see a Search Results dialog box that’s laid out like a Web browser,
complete with Back and Forward buttons.
In WinMe type the name
of the file you need in the Search For Files or Folders Named text box. The
Containing Text option is listed just below, as are the various search options,
such as Date, Type, Size, and Advanced Options, all of which work similarly to
Win9x.
In WinXP you will need
to select the type of file you are looking for before you can begin a search. We
recommend selecting the All Files And Folders option because it will search your
entire hard drive for the file. If that takes too long, the other options, such
as Pictures, Music, or Video, will narrow the search parameters and likely make
the search more efficient.
Once you’ve outlined the
parameters of your search, click Search Now or Search. After Windows completes a
search, you can press F3 or CTRL-F to alternately shrink and enlarge the Search
Results window, providing more (or less) information about selected files on the
left side of the screen.
Both operating systems
have useful extras on the left side the Search Results window, including image
file preview. In the past when you wanted to know what was in a mysterious
graphics file (usually with a file name extension such as .JPG, .BMP, or .TIF),
you had to open the file with a separate program, which takes time. With WinXP
and WinMe, you can use the Preview function instead. Just click the file, and a
tiny version of the image appears in the Search Results area. To see thumbnails
in WinXP, from the View menu, click Thumbnails to make image thumbnails appear.
If it takes too much
time to complete searches, you may want to streamline the search process in
WinXP by using the Indexing Service feature. With this feature, your computer
will maintain an up-to-date list of the files on your hard drive, which makes
subsequent filename searches much faster.
To use the Indexing
Service, in the Search Results window, click Change Preferences in the left
pane. Click With Indexing Service and then click the Yes, Enable Indexing
Service radio button. Click OK, and your PC will run the service when the
computer is sitting idle.
Find files with dates.
If you don’t find your files with an initial search or WinXP index searches, you
might want to search for files by date. In Win9x from the Start menu, point to
Find and then click Files Or Folders. In the Named Or text box, type *.xls (or
*.doc, or whatever file type you most often use). Click the Date Or Date
Modified tab and click Find All Files Created Or Modified. Click the During The
Previous option and then adjust the number of days you’d like this search to
work for. (A week is probably a good starting point.)
You can do this in WinMe
by clicking the Date checkbox. Select Files Modified, Files Created, or Files
Last Accessed from the drop-down menu. Then click the In The Last option,
followed by the number of days you want the search to cover.
In WinXP after you click
All Files And Folders, you can enter part of the file name and then click When
Was It Modified? to narrow your search to a range of dates. You can also use
What Size Is It? and More Advanced Options to make searches more specific; you
can even include hidden files in the search if you prefer. After you set the
parameters in your OS, run the search by clicking Find Now, Search Now, or
Search.
Windows Me’s Search
feature works like the Find option in previous Windows versions but has some
extra power under the hood.
Saving a search.
Once your PC completes its file hunt, you may want to save your search settings
to reduce the amount of data entry you have to complete for your next complex
search. After a search ends, from the File menu, click Save Search. This saves a
shortcut on the Windows Desktop or a folder of your choice with a name that
refers to the search. When you want to do a speedy search for commonly accessed
documents, just double-click the shortcut and the search parameters will load
automatically.
Win9x will also let you
keep the results of searches, plus the parameters that created those results.
From the Options menu, click Save Results. To create a shortcut to these
results, click Save Search from the File menu.
More search options.
More archaic computer skills also sometimes come in handy for searches, the best
example of which is the use of older DOS commands to aid your search. The
easiest to use is probably the asterisk symbol. It acts like a wildcard,
standing in for at least one character in the name of the file or folder you
want. For instance, if you know you want to find a file that ends in .INF but
aren’t sure what the first part of the file name is, you’d type *.INF, which
instructs the search utility to display every file ending in .INF.
The question mark is
also useful; unlike the asterisk, it replaces only one character in a name. For
example, entering Sysfile?.DOC
would find every file with one character following the Sysfile name that ends
with .DOC. The search variable can also be used together in flexible
combinations. For example, enter *dos?.* to locate file names with any filename
extension and that start with any number of characters, following by “dos,” and
then any single character.
Searching by file type
is another useful parameter. Select this option, and you’ll see dozens of file
types from which to choose. The best thing about this option is that file types
aren’t displayed with cryptic extensions. Instead, there’s a short description
of the type (an AOL email, for instance).
There is no restriction
against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context
with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association
of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which
this group is a member, brings this article to you.
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