Finding Things on Your Computer

     I hear a lot from people trying to find things on their computers. Well, Windows PCs have some very sophisticated search tools, but they vary considerably between WinXP and Vista.

     XP users can click on Start>Search>All Files & Folders, and then type something into the "All or Part of a Name" box. The default search location is the entire C-drive, but you can speed up a search by narrowing down various parameters. For instance, if you're looking for a text file you can choose Document Folders in the "Search In" box.

     You can also refine a search by clicking on Music, Pictures, or Video. If you know approximately when a file was created or last accessed you can set date parameters under When Was It Modified?

     If you want to confine your search to a particular folder, you can right-click its icon and choose "Search" in the pop-up menu; or you can open the folder and click on "Search" in its toolbar.

     Under Search>All Files & Folders you can click on "More Advanced Options" and include "System" and/or "Hidden" files and folders in your quest. "Search Sub-folders" should always be checkmarked.

     If you have any flash memory drives connected to your PC, they can be included with your C-drive in the "Look In" box; or you can confine the search to any individual flash or external hard drive.

Finding Things in Vista Is Entirely Different

      To search your entire hard drive click on Start>Computer, double-click the C-drive icon (or the icon of any other specific drive), and then type a target phrase into the Search box in the upper right corner of the window.

     As your typing begins, "Search Tools" (with a down arrow) will appear in the menu bar below the Search box. Click the arrow to see a wide variety of search options.

     Among the options are choices for seeking the name of a file or a particular word or phrase within the file. For instance, if you're looking for a document whose file name you've forgotten, but which contains the phrase "Main Street," you can search accordingly.

     However, if it was actually written as "Main St." the search may fail. Looking for just "Main" might help, but it would also find all documents bearing the word "main" unless you specified a "case sensitive" search.

     Using a relatively uncommon word that might be in the document, such as, say, "marginal" or "iconic" will help considerably.

     If you're looking for a word or phrase on a Web page, or within a document or spreadsheet, press Ctrl+F to bring up a type-in "Find" box.

     Various email programs have "Find" options in their toolbars. Gmail's options ask if you want to "Search Mail" or "Search the Internet." Speaking of whom, you can download a free "Google Desktop" search tool, which often finds things faster than Windows' built-in search options. It's available at desktop.google.com.

     However, I must admit that Vista (which I generally don't care for) does have very speedy search tools – once you've figured out how to use them.


© Donald Ray Edrington – All Rights Reserved

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Don Edrington - Computer Columnist for The Californian and San Diego's North County Times

Senior Computer Tutor
Don Edrington

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