Finding files on Windows

Finding files on Windows

Now, I know this will never happen to you! ;-) But you may know someone who may lose track of a folder or a file... Here's how to find files or folders on your Windows PC.

Activity: Finding Files and Folders

1) Click on the Start button. Highlight the Find menu and go over to select Find Files and Folders and click on that menu item.

This brings up the Find application which looks like this:

2) Put some part of the name of the file or folder you want into the Named field. Then click Find Now. That will generate a results box:

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Notes about using Find

• Unless you know what you're doing, make sure Include SubFolders is checked
• Unless you know what you're doing, make sure Look In is set for My Computer (that will search everywhere)
• Note that you can double-click on items in the results list to open them
• The In Folder section will show you the path to where the file / folder lives
• You can adjust the width of the columns (to show more of the path or other information) by pressing and dragging at the border between the columns.
• If you single click to select an item, and then call down the File menu, one of the things you can do is Open Containing Folder. This will open the folder that holds that item.

That menu action looks like this

The Previous Step

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You're Done!