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Tips for Locating Misplaced Files 
By Dave Gerber, APCUG Advisor, Region 5; Dave’s Bits & Bytes, A Periodic Newsletter for the Members of the Sarasota PC User Group and the World!!   
Director, Sarasota PCUG, Florida (dave_bytes@comcast.net)
www.spcug.org / http://davebytes.com/

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.