Search your files

You can use the arrow keys to arrow up or down to the app, file, document, or setting you want to view and press Enter to open it. Microsoft Windows provides an easy-to-use search feature that helps you find any file on your computer, even if you don't know its full name.

Whether you need to find a document, spreadsheet, picture, or video, the Windows search feature helps you find it. Choose your computer's Windows version from the list below and follow the steps to search for a file.

Search examples and tips are also available by clicking the search tips link below. To find a file on a specific drive, click the drive under Computer or This PC in the left navigation pane. Then enter the file name you want to search for in the Search field. Below are a few examples of the common extensions you may use. Then, you can transfer it to another location. Have you ever come across file explorer not responding Windows 10 issue when trying to use file explorer?

If you do, try the following top 9 ways now to fix it! You can also use Command Prompt to find large files Windows To do that, please refer to the following steps:. Then, type " cmd " into the Run box and hit Enter key to open Command Prompt window.

It is helpful for batch jobs. Then, let's learn about the command string if fsize GTR echo path. Apart from the above two ways, you can also use a third-party program to find large files on Windows. Then, I recommend you to use MiniTool Partition Wizard, which offers you a free feature to find large files.

Free Download. Step 1: Click the above button to download MiniTool Partition Wizard and then follow the wizard to launch it. Then, go to its main interface and click Space Analyzer. Step 2: Choose the partition where you want to find large files and folders. Then, click Scan. The result also includes hidden files even if you didn't set your PC ahead to display them.

In these tabs, find large files or folders to delete them. The Tree View presents you with a hierarchical view of files and folders in the partition that has been analyzed. Each folder may contain a number of subfolders and you can expand it to show subfolders or collapse it to hide subitems. To find the large files or files taking up a lot of space on the partition, you can click Size or Percent of Parent to make all files and folders listed according to their size or the percentage they take up.

If you have found out the large files you want to delete, you can right-click them to choose Delete to Recycle Bin or Delete Permanently. It's up to you. File View only displays files, not folders. Similarly, click Size or Percent of Drive and all files will be listed according to their size or the percent of drive they take up. In addition, this utility can also show you all the computer files by type limited to some certain types. If you only remember the type of file you want to find, you can set this tool to only show the target file type.

It is a totally free tool. If there are so many search results, you can click Search from the toolbar and select the target file type to narrow down the search range.

After finding the needed file, you can click on it to open it immediately. If you really forget the name of the file, you can use the Search feature of Everything to select the data type of your needed file. This can shorten the search time relatively. For example, if you want to search for all video files on Windows 10, you can press Search and then select Video from the drop-down menu. Everything will show you all the video files.

Other types of files you can search by category are audio files, compressed files, documents, executable files, folders, and pictures. Everything also has other useful features like copy the selected file to another folder, move the select file to another folder, and more. You can discover more features by yourself. If you have lost the files you want to use, the methods mentioned in the above parts are unavailable.

You need to use data recovery software to get your lost data back. This is a free file recovery tool. As long as the deleted files are not overwritten by new data, you can use this software to restore files from computer hard drives, memory cards, SD cards, and more. With the trial edition of this software, you can check whether it can find the files you want to use. Now, you can press the following button to get this freeware. Free Download.

After downloading and installing this software on your computer, you can follow this guide to rescue your lost data:. Select the target drive and press the Scan button to start the scanning process. You need to wait until the whole scanning process ends.

Then, this software will show you the scan results by path. You can open each path to find your needed data. The Start menu search functionality on Windows 10 is handled by Cortana , and it searches Bing and other online sources in addition to the files on your local PC.

This feature was removed in the Anniversary Update. However, you can still use the Start menu for some basic file searches. Search for a file stored in an indexed location and it should appear somewhere in the list. By default, the Start menu searches everything it can—indexed files, Bing, OneDrive, the Windows Store, and other online locations. These categories are all narrow and include online locations, like your OneDrive.

Windows automatically scans and monitors these folders, building the search index it uses when you search via the Start menu. If you frequently find yourself frustrated with the Start menu search feature, forget about it and head to File Explorer when you want to search.

In File Explorer, navigate to the folder you want to search. For example, if you just want to search your Downloads folder, open the Downloads folder. If you want to search your entire C: drive, head to C:. Then, type a search into the box at the top right corner of the window and press Enter. You can make this a bit faster by telling Windows to always start searching when you type in File Explorer. Note that, when searching in non-indexed locations, Windows will only search file names and not their contents.

Windows will do a deeper search and find words inside files, but it may take a lot longer. This is the same index used for the Start menu search feature. Everything is very fast and simple. It builds a search index as you use it, so you can just start searching and it will work immediately.