Per for a long time computer work accumulates on it great amount files and documents. In order not to clutter up the desktop, files are transferred to other storage locations. As a result, a huge number of folders, subfolders and find desired file becomes more and more difficult. After all, it’s hard to remember which “new folder” it is in. Fortunately, windows has a handy search engine built in that will help you find a file on your computer, even if you don't remember its exact name.

Searching for files on a PC with Windows XP/Vista/7

If you can’t find the file you need in any way, the first thing to do is to look on the desktop in the system folder “Trash”. Suddenly, you accidentally deleted it, and because of this you cannot find it in the usual place. It’s better to check right away so that later you don’t clear all the files, permanently deleting the information. Although, in fact, information deleted from the trash can be restored using special programs. But this is a completely different topic, so if you are interested, read this article.

To search for files on a Windows XP computer, do the following:

1. Give the command "Start - Search".
2. Click on "Files and Folders" to launch the File and Folder Search Wizard.
3. Select a category, for example Video. You can select one, several or all categories at once. Click the "Find" button.

Windows will find all the above files on any partitions of the PC disk and external devices data storage (including network). For example, when you collect all the movies and videos together, it's time to use the search, for example, only video files. Refine the search is also worth to quickly find a specific file by entering at least part of its name.

The asterisk symbol replaces any number of letters and numbers in a filename. For example, instead of the keyword "asterisk", you can enter "sound" - all variants of this word in the name of the searched file will be polled, for example, a file named "No sound.mp3". Specifying only the file name extension, e.g. *.docx will find all your Word documents in this format, for example, the file "resume.docx".

It is also acceptable to assign a file search on a Windows PC to hidden files and folders.

To find files by keyword in a document, do the following:

1. Give the already familiar command "Start - Search" and in the column "Word or phrase in the file" indicate a keyword, for example, "abstract".
2. Specify the extension in the file name, for example, ".doc".
3. Also specify the search location, for example, drive C. Check the options you want, for example, search in hidden and system folders, and click the Find button.

All documents containing the word "abstract" in DOC file format will be found.

How to Find Files on a Windows 8/8.1/10/10.1 PC

By updating Windows version by 8 or 10, the user will notice that the search tools are assembled and configured more conveniently than in previous versions this OS. Although at first it may be inconvenient to use them.

Search files on PC by name

1. Give the command "This PC - Search" (search tab). In the search bar Windows windows enter part of the file name (or the whole name if you remember it). Press "Enter" on your keyboard.
2. The required file (or files) will be (or will be) found.

Search files by name extension

Remembering the extension of the filename you were working with, you can find it by looking at it. For example, archive files most often have the extension .rar or .zip, program files (including installation packages) - .exe or .msi , etc. As a result, when searching for files by extension, you will most likely find your loss.

It happens that you do not remember the file extension, because the Windows system does not display any file extensions by default. To enable them, do the following:

1. Give the command "Start - Control Panel - Folder Options".
2. Go to the command "View - Options - Change settings for files and folders."
3. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types". For more experienced users may be useful feature"Hide protected system files».
4. Press the "Apply" and "OK" buttons in sequence.

Windows Explorer will restart and display file extensions. Having compared the file you are looking for with the extensions of similar files (by the look of the file icon), enter its extension in the already familiar search bar and press the "Enter" key. Windows system find the missing file.

For example, a video clip in AVI format disappeared. Open the already familiar file search panel and enter the .avi file extension. Press the "Enter" key and browse the found files.

Search files by disk space

Having guessed that, for example, a two-hour movie has a large volume, for example, an UltraHD video file (“rip” from a Blu-Ray disc), you can enter, for example, a command to search for files larger than 10 GB.

Windows uses the command format to search for a file by size: "System.Size:>size_in_megabytes". For example, in this case it will be the command "System.Size:> 10240MB".

With a high degree of probability, this movie will be found, for example, on an external (network) drive.

How to find hidden files

To gain access to hidden files, turn on the option to show them.

1. Go to the already familiar settings window Windows folders.
2. Give the already familiar command to change folder and search settings.
3. Turn on the "Display hidden files, folders and drives.
4. Click the Apply and OK buttons.

Repeat the search for the file by already familiar attributes: name and / or its extension, size, etc.

Search files by keywords

Keywords in the file content (letters, documents, books, etc.) can be entered directly in the File Name field. So, if you are looking for term papers, write “term paper” in the file name.

Windows will display files with available keywords (or phrases).

Third party file search software

functionality file manager endowed not only with the built-in Windows Explorer. In the past, these were Norton/Volkov Commander, Far file manager, Total Commander, File Explorer and their analogues.

Search for files by example with Total Commander

Text Documents, regardless of their formatting, app Total Commander searches by name, size and keywords (or phrases).

Windows will find the files you are looking for.

Find file on PC under Windows control- no problem. The main thing is that you do not permanently erase it using other applications for this purpose. The Windows system already has the necessary tools for searching files, folders and drives, but if for some reason it does not suit you, use a third-party file manager, which may contain additional functions to search for files on disks.

AT modern world not to do without good knowledge of the computer. But how to navigate the huge number of files and programs that are on our hard drive? First, we will help you learn how to find the program on your computer.

Looking for a program

When installing any programs, they create launch shortcuts that are automatically placed on your "desktop" in order to find where the program itself is located, just look at the "properties" of the shortcut (right mouse button - properties - location), the directory where the program is located.

Now consider what needs to be done to find, for example, a photo from our summer vacation.

A saved photo is also a file, but how can I find the file on my computer? The easiest way is to open a folder with a photo, but here another question arises - how to find a folder on a computer?

Looking for a folder

Again, no problem if you remember where you saved the folder, but sometimes we just forget where we put everything. The “internal search” will come to our aid.

We press the “start” button and select the “search” menu, in the search window we indicate the name assigned to the folder (in our case, this is the “rest” folder) and start the search with the “enter” button. The computer scans all the files and gives us all the available folders with similar names, in the results we are looking for the folder we need.

The task becomes a bit more difficult if we don't remember what we named our photo folder, or if we need to find the right photo directly. We reopen the internal search and set additional search criteria - name (part of the name), date of creation (changes), size, file extension, estimated location (logical drive) - after that we press "enter", after the search is completed, we view the output results, this will already be much easier to do than browsing through all the folders on the computer in turn.

My computer

The launch of programs is carried out by launching them through special icons, which are placed on the “desktop” for convenience (usually shortcuts to frequently used programs and services are placed on the desktop). The “my computer” icon is usually located on the desktop, because we often have to view service information about the system. The more programs we install, the less free space on the screen, and we have to delete unnecessary shortcuts, how to find "my computer" if we accidentally deleted it too?

There is nothing easier: press the "start" button - right-click "my computer" - left-click the menu "display on desktop". The "my computer" shortcut is back on the "desktop".

If you forgot where you saved the folder or file, don't despair, the data will not be lost. Your computer is so smart that it will help you find the documents you need and indicate their location.

If you want to find a program installed on your computer, first look on the "desktop" for a shortcut that may have been created during installation. If it is available, look in the properties of the shortcut for the address of the program location. To do this, hover your mouse over the label, click right button. Select "Properties", go to the "Shortcut" tab. In the column " Work folder” indicates the location of this program (usually on the “C” drive). If you are looking for regular folder(or file), use the assistant that is available on your computer. Click the "Start" button at the bottom left of the toolbar, select "Search".

You will have a program that can find files, folders (and not only) by given parameters search. In the left pane of the window, you can find detailed instructions actions that the user should take in order to find the folder.

Several search criteria are available. You can use all at the same time, several or some one of them. It all depends on what information you know about the folder you are looking for. If you are not sure about certain things, you should not set them in the search parameters - the system will simply give a negative result if you make a mistake. For example, you can specify the name of a file (or part of the name that you know for sure). Remember: less is better, but correct, than more, but at random.

If you are looking for a file, you can specify a single phrase or word that is exactly contained in it (again, according to the "exact minimum" principle). To speed up the process, you can narrow down your search. To do this, specify in the column "Search in" possible options folder (file) location. Naturally, it is appropriate to do this when you definitely know on which disk the document is saved. If you are not sure, check the entire computer. You will spend a little more time, but you are guaranteed to get the result.

Optionally, you can indicate when they were produced last changes in file. By default, the checkbox is next to the "Date unknown" column, but you can set your own value in the parameters (last week, last month), or specify a time range.

If information about the file size is known, you can specify it. But if the data is approximate, and you are not sure, it is better not to mislead the program. Let her search through all the files.

Well, the last thing that can be specified is Extra options folder (file). For example, you can specify the type of file (folders), set the search in hidden, subfolders, system folders, external storage and even case sensitive.

When you have specified all the search parameters, click the "Find" button. The program will start working by comparing all folders and files with given conditions search. The result will be reflected in the right side of the corner: you will see a folder (or several, suitable conditions) you were looking for, its location. Now it won't be hard to find it. If you're not happy with the search result, click the back button in the left pane and change your search options.

If you are trying to find a file that you created most recently, proceed as follows. Click the "Start" button at the bottom left of the toolbar, select "Recent Documents". A list of documents that have been modified recently will appear. You can click on any of them to open it. But you won't see his address. But you can keep open file anywhere else on the computer.

Finding folders on your computer is not difficult at all. You can check it out right now!

Finding files can be difficult for novice users and take a long time. In this article, we will look at all the ways to search for files on a computer.

Important: The search results through the Start menu display not only files, but also the search results will display the system files of the same name. windows commands. For example, entering search query"cmd" will result in a command (program) that launches the command line.

Main search box

Explorer window

The next way to find files is to use any explorer window. To search for files using Explorer, you must make a request to the appropriate section of any open window (for example, “My_computer”).

This method is more convenient than the others because, using Explorer, you can search for files directly inside the specified (open) sections hard drive(folders) without having to enter the appropriate restriction through the search filter. What is significantly the file search process.

Search filters

In addition to how you find files, it's also important how you can narrow your search results to find exactly the file you're looking for. This is done through the use of special search filters, you can use them when looking for files in the explorer window. Since the submariner uses the most filters that filter out unnecessary search results.

Search settings

Sometimes the search is unable to find the file of interest, this happens if it is located inside an unindexed hard disk partition. This can be fixed if you configure, expand the search parameters. To do this, follow the instructions below.

Search Operators

Operators are symbols/words that include additional options for filtering search results. In other words, these characters are used to quickly filter out results, similar to how it is done in Internet search engines (Yandex, Google, Yahoo).

The most popular operators:

• Quotes "" - finds files containing the exact phrases of the search query in the name (for example, "rules of the game");
• Asterisk * - finds files of the extension specified after the asterisk (for example - *.doc);
• Logical "AND" "AND or +" - finds files containing all the listed words, between which "AND or +" is written. (for example - "rules + game + football", "rules AND football + game");
• Matching relative to the specified file parameters >, 1GB, color depth:
• Exact value = - searches for files equal to the specified parameters (for example - dimensions:>="800 x 600");

Reference

If after reading the article you have any questions regarding the search for files, then you can find answers to them in the specially created help section of the operating system. The help menu will open after pressing the F1 key. For information on searching for files, enter the search term - "search".

This way you will find all sections Windows Help penitent search files.

The large volume of modern discs allows you to store many documents or multimedia files. Therefore, without initially subjecting your directories to a certain structuring, you can get complete chaos on your hard drive. If this has already happened, and you forgot the location of any files, it will not be easy to find them without knowing how to use the built-in search of the operating system.

Search by file name

Knowing the name of the document, you will greatly facilitate your task and after a short period of time you will already see the file you are looking for on the computer screen. There are several ways to find it by name in Windows 7.

Through the start menu

There is a search field in the start menu of the operating system. To find the required document through this field, you must:

1. Click on the "Start" button.
2. Find a field.
3. Enter a name to search for.
4. Check out the suggested results.

After entering the proposed name of the document, you will immediately be shown a list of found files:

In this case, Windows 7 was looking for a document called "Agency". As you can see from the previous screenshot, the first suggested option is the file you are looking for.

How to find in a folder?

There is another way to find documents. In every directory Windows Explorer 7 there is a corresponding field:

Therefore, knowing the name of the file and its location, you can:

1. Open desired folder in the conductor.
2. Enter the name of the document in the field.
3. Get a result.

In this example, the search was conducted on the template "Biology". As a result, the following files and folders were found:

Knowing the location of the object is not necessary. It simply speeds up the search for files by the operating system. Since modern computers have high performance, the duration of finding the necessary information with a known location and with an unknown one is practically the same. If you have no idea in which folder or even on which drive the file is saved, you can search the entire computer:

Additional filters

With a common file name, you run the risk of seeing several thousand options that complicate the choice of the desired document. If you know the modification date of the file or its size, you can specify them when searching (by entering the pattern in the field, you will see the suggested filters):

You can also scroll down the found list and limit the search range by clicking the "Other" button:

After such a click, Windows 7 will display the settings window:

In this window you must:

1. Select the desired folders to be searched.
2. Confirm the selection with the "OK" button

After the actions taken, the number of items found in the list will decrease significantly, so finding the right one will become much easier.

How to find inside files?

The methods discussed above make it easier to search by name. But what if you don't know the name? In this case, you should know approximately the text of the document you are looking for. Windows 7 can also find files by their content. This function was not introduced in vain, because it is easier for a computer user to remember what is inside a document than to try to restore its name in memory.

By default in operating system this way of finding files is disabled. To enable it, you must:

1. Open Computer in File Explorer.
2. Press and release the ALT button (this action allows the top horizontal menu, which is normally hidden).
3. Select "Service".
4. Go to the "Folder Options" sub-item.

After clicking on the specified submenu, Windows 7 will display the following window:

In it you must:

1. Go to the "Search" tab.
2. Mark the item responsible for scanning the contents of objects;
3. Confirm the changes with the "Apply" button.

The procedure is shown in the following screenshot:

This method significantly slows down the search for the desired object, but sometimes it is simply irreplaceable (for example, if several people use the computer). Therefore, if you don't want to wait and don't want to spend time scanning inside all documents, you can turn this option on or off as you see fit. After changing the settings, the search for the file is carried out according to the same scheme as described above, without any changes.

An example of finding a document by its content

You can find an object by any phrase, but it is especially easy to search for a file with poems. After all, it is easier to remember a line from a poem than a phrase from an accounting report. However, in the second case, a few of the most common words in the document will help you find any report.

For example, you have somewhere a document with Shakespeare's sonnets, and you remember a phrase from one sonnet: "Will you compare me." To find this collection on your computer, you need to:

1. Open "Computer" in Explorer.
2. Go to the desired folder (if known).
3. Enter the phrase you remember in the search field.
4. Get a result.

In this way, any information is found, provided that it is stored on your disk.