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Search for files on your computer!

Have you ever saved a file (e.g. an image, a video) but can't quite remember where? There's no need to worry! In this tutorial we will show you how to find "lost" files!

Click on the Start button

select Search, then highlight and click on Files or Folders....

The file search window will appear.... Make sure that Local Hard drives is selected and in the search box labelled "Search for files and folders named:"

type the partial or entire name of your file

This method is useful as long as you can remember the file's name.. If you have forgotten it completely, you will have to use a different search technique we'll be discussing further down...

Let's assume that you are searching for a file named "photograph".

type the word "photo" (without the quotations) in the searchbox

...and a list of files containing the word "photo" will appear on the right-hand-side column. Beside each file name its location (folder) is indicated.

In the event that only icons are displayed without folder information...

click on View on the window menu, then highlight and click on Details.

All folder infomation is now displayed! You can double click on your file to view it!

Searching for a file without knowing its name

We recognize that there is always the possibility you've completely forgotten the file's name! At the very least, you should be able to recall what type of file it was... i.e. whether it was an image, a video, an executable, a document etc. This information alone is sufficient!

Each file has what is known as an extension, which canNOT be seen in Microsoft® Exploring. This extension is made of a period and three letters. I'm sure most of you have heard of MP3 sound files. Do you think you can guess an MP3 file's three letter extension? It's .mp3! Hence, if we assume that you have lost an mp3 sound file, all you have to do is type in ".mp3" (without the quotations) in the search box, click on the Find Now button (Search) and all your computer's mp3 files will be listed! By scrolling through this list you should be able to recognize your lost file!

In the table below you can see a list with some of the more popular file extensions....

File type	Extension
Sound	.mp3 .wav .mid
Video	.mpg .mov .avi .wmv
Image	.bmp (wallpapers usually) .jpg .gif .tif
Text/document	.txt .doc .rtf .pdf (Acrobat)
Application (program)	.exe
Animation	.swf or .exe
Web-page	.htm .html
Compressed file	.zip

Now you know how to locate a lost file on your computer!!!

Screen shots reprinted by permission from Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft® Windows Explorer and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.