The search mechanism in Windows 7 is organized a little differently than in Windows XP, but it is no less convenient, and it is performed at a much faster speed.
To start searching for files in Windows 7, you need to open Explorer and select the folder in which you want to search, or if you do not know what directory the file is located in, select "My Computer". Then the search will be performed on all hard drives.
You need to search for files of any format using the search bar, which is located in the upper right corner of Explorer in any of its windows. The keyword or phrase must be entered on this line.
The search is very fast, similar to the request processing mechanism in any search engine. As you enter the query word, the system immediately begins to scan the files and return results with names containing the entered characters, words or phrases.
At first glance, it might seem that the usual filters available in XP, such as created or modified date, file type, size, and author, are not available when searching in Windows 7, but this is not at all the case.
When you enter a search query in the drop-down line below, a list of filters corresponding to the desired file type appears, the conditions of which can be set right there, in the search line. To do this, click on the desired filter and set its value, for example, the date of the change is “Last week”.
How to find files of a specific type
To find a file whose format is known, such as audio, video, photo, or document, but whose name, creation date, or other parameters are unknown, you can use the search by file type by specifying its extension in the search conditions.
Documentation . To search for documents in Word format, you need to enter the characters "*.doc" (for Word 2003 format) or "*.docx" (for Word 2007-2010 format) in the search line. An asterisk denotes any sequence of any characters.
For Excel files, you must use the symbols "*.xls" (for the Excel 2003 format) or "*.xlsx" (for the Excel 2007-2010 format).
For text format files created using the Notepad application, you need to enter "*.txt" in the search box.
Video. To search for video files, enter the video file extension in the search bar. Most popular extensions: "*.avi", "*.mp4", "*.mpeg", "*.wmv", "*.3gp", "*.mov", "*.flv", "*.swf ". You can find out the file extension by right-clicking on it and selecting "Properties" from the context menu, where its extension will be indicated in the "File type" line.
Audio. The most popular audio file format used on computers is MP3, and to search for them, you need to enter the characters “*.mp3” in the line.
Images and photographs. To search for pictures in the search bar, you should enter the most used extensions of such files "*.jpg", "*.jpeg", "*.png", "*.bmp", "*.tiff", "*.gif".
How to find a file in a large list of already found files
It often happens that the attributes of a file are unknown, or only one is known, and it is very uninformative. For example, it is known that the document was created last year. However, over the past year, a huge number of documents have been created, stored in various places. Viewing and checking a huge number of files found on the same basis is often not realistic.
To find the desired file in the list of already found files, you can use several filters at the same time, setting and changing each of them during the search as needed. Each time you add a new filter, the selection will be made again in the list of found files, reducing the processing time and the number of results, which greatly simplifies the search for the very file you are looking for.
As a rule, searching for files in Windows 7 is performed by the content of the query in the file name, and not in the text that the file contains. To find a file with the desired word in its text, and not in the name, you need to make simple settings.
Suppose the task is to find among 500 files a document with the word "Shovel" in its content. To do this, on the control panel, click "Organize" and select the line "Search Folder Options" in the drop-down menu.
It is worth noting that searching with this parameter will take a longer time, and when the need to search by content is no longer needed, this option should be disabled.
It often happens that files need to be searched frequently, for this the same search conditions are used, and there are several of these conditions. In order not to waste time entering the same search parameters every time, the list of these conditions can be saved.
To do this, you need to set the search conditions, wait for the results to appear, and at the end of it, click on the control panel "Save search conditions", and in the window that opens, enter the file name for the repeated request, for example, "JULY 2013".
In the future, when the saved set of search conditions is needed again, the desired shortcut can always be selected in Explorer and in the Favorites folder under the saved name.
By clicking on the cross at the end of the search line, you can clear the information entered earlier and the filter conditions that were used for the search, and the line will become empty.
Having tried several times the search in Windows 7, you can see in practice its practicality, ease and speed. Now you know how to search for files in Windows 7.
After understanding the extension of the lost file, for example, ".zip", all that remains is to enter it in the "Search" field and press Enter. A search on the computer will immediately display a list of files with this extension. Of these, we already choose the right one.
Many users may object - video files can have many extensions, what should be done to search in this case? One of our clients once lost a missing film and asked for advice on this issue.
We noticed that on the user's computer all the movies were in the ".avi" format. It would seem that you just need to enter the extension in the search, and everything will work out right away. But not everything turned out to be so simple, it was not so easy to find the file on the computer. Therefore, it was decided to search for the desired file by volume.
All client video files were approximately 1.45 GB. Therefore, it was quite reasonable to assume that the lost file had a similar volume. Therefore, it was enough to execute a simple System.Size:>1000MB procedure to search the computer's memory for files larger than 1 GB.
Based on the search results, a list of 20 video files appeared, including a file without an extension at all. But already by the title itself one could guess - this is exactly the missing film. All that remained was to add the extension “.avi” to the file - and again you could enjoy watching the video. Later we managed to understand that our client was just joking with friends, who removed the extension.
Sometimes Windows assigns the "Hidden" attribute to some files - as a result of virus attacks or a system failure. Because of this, the files cannot be seen and found even through the “Search” if the “Show hidden files and folders” item is not checked. Although nothing will happen to the files themselves.
To make hidden files visible, open the "Control Panel", then go to the items "Folder Options" - "View". Check the box next to "Show hidden files and folders" and click OK. After that, sometimes the lost file is immediately located on the desktop. Or you can find it by searching by extension or name, as we have already considered.
For example, when you lose text documents from Microsoft Office Word, Notepad, OpenOffice or other programs. When working with text, part of the content is still stored in the user's memory. Therefore, in the search, we enter part of the text, press Enter and find the desired document.
However, keep in mind that on an old and slow computer, the search process may take a long time. Upgrading your PC is something to think about while waiting for the result.
A popular and convenient file manager with which you can quickly search for files on your computer by several parameters at the same time - extension, name, content. To do this, you need to specify the search location in the program (for example, C :), after which we go to "Commands" and "Search for files" (or press the Alt + F7 hotkey combination).
Every day we search for something on Google. I probably google something 200 times a day. I check any information, learn something new, instantly find the answer to my question. There was a question - I drove it into the search line - I got the result. What could be easier? But sometimes there are difficulties in finding specific information. A few tricks will help you always find what you are looking for.
We have already written about the secrets of Google search more than once. I decided to check out what tricks are still working and refresh your memory a bit.
Sometimes it is necessary to find a phrase exactly in the form in which we enter it. For example, when we are looking for the lyrics of a song, but we know only one phrase from it. In this case, you need to enclose this phrase in quotation marks.
Google is a great search engine. And often it is better than the built-in search on sites. That is why it is more rational to use Google to search for information on a website. To do this, enter site:lenta.ru Putin made.
If you need all the words of the query to be in the text of the results found, type in front of it allintext:.
If one query word should be in the body and the rest anywhere on the page, including the title or URL, precede the word intext:, and write the rest before that.
If you want all query words to be in the title, use the phrase allintitle:.
If only part of the request should be in the header, and the rest - elsewhere in the document or page, put title:.
To find pages that have your query in their URL, type allinurl:.
If you need news on a specific topic from a specific location, use location: to search Google News.
You need to find a sentence in a document or article, but you only remember the words at the beginning and at the end. Enter your query and indicate the approximate number of words between the words you remember. It looks like this: "Near the seaside AROUND (5) is an oak tree."
Forgot a word from a saying, song, quote? No problem. Google will still help you find it. Put an asterisk (*) in place of the forgotten word.
This item is useful for blog or website owners. If you are wondering who is linking to your site or even to a particular page, then just enter link:website.
Let's imagine a situation. You have decided to go on vacation to the islands. And you don't want to go to the Maldives at all. To prevent Google from showing them in search results, you just need to enter "Island holidays - Maldives". That is, put a minus before the word Maldives.
You want to find all your competitors. Or you really like the site, but there is not enough material on it, and you want more and more. Enter related:lenta.ru and enjoy the result.
There are situations when you need to find information about two people at once. For example, you want to laugh at Vova, but have not decided which one - Zelensky or something else. It is enough to enter "Vladimir Zelensky | Zhirinovsky", and you will get the result you need. Instead of the symbol "|" you can enter English OR.
To find relationships between objects, or just to look for mentions of two individuals together, you can use the "&" symbol. Example: Freud & Jung.
If you're as lazy as I am, then you don't have the patience to google multiple times for different synonyms for the same word. For example, cheap firewood. The "~" character can make your life a lot easier. We write “~cheap firewood” and get results for the words “cheap”, “inexpensive”, “affordable” and so on.
A very useful Google search secret if you need to find, for example, events that happened in certain years, or prices in a certain range. Just put two dots between the numbers. Google will search in this range.
If you need to find some document or just a file of a certain format, Google can help you here too. Just add at the end of your request filetype:doc and instead doc substitute the format you need.
1. Google can work as a good calculator. To do this, simply enter the desired operation in the search box.
2. If you want to know the meaning of a word, and not just look at pages on the topic, add to the word define or "meaning".
3. You can use the search engine as a unit and currency converter. To call the converter, type a query with a translation, for example, "centimeters to meters."
4. With Google, you can check the weather and time without having to go to websites. Type in the queries “weather “city of interest””, “time “city of interest””.
5. To view the results and schedule of matches of a sports team, simply type its name in the search engine.
6. To translate a word into any language, write in the search bar "translate the "desired word" into English (any other) language".
7. For the query "sunrise" city of interest "" Google shows the time of sunrise and sunset (for the latter - the corresponding query).
8. cache:site.com- sometimes a very helpful function of searching for a site in the Google cache. For example, when newsmen delete news. They can be read thanks to Google.
9. If you enter a flight number in the search box, Google gives you full information about it.
10. To see a table with quotes for a specific company, simply enter the query “stocks of the company of interest”, for example, “Apple stocks”.
If you have your own ways to use Google more effectively and find the information you need faster, share your tips in the comments to this article.
Properly organized search in the operating system allows you to better navigate the files on your hard drive and easily find the information you need in a short time. To do this, Windows 7 has a sufficient number of settings, which we will discuss below.
In this article, we will talk about how to correctly and competently configure the search capabilities of the system. If you encounter a problem in which the search through the menu "Start" refuses to work, check out our other article at the link below.
Indexing is an operating system feature that greatly speeds up searching within the operating system by compiling a "database" of files based on their contents and/or properties. Thanks to this, when typing a search query in the menu "Start" or in the field "Explorer" the system accesses the index and provides you with the information you are looking for faster. Indexing keeps track of all the files on your computer, adding and removing positions from its database as you manage them. By default, this process is already enabled in the system, but it works selectively (that is, it is distributed only to some folders of the Windows directory), for example, fast search is not available on other logical partitions ( D, E etc.) and in system folders with a lot of content like system Windows(C:\Windows). In view of the foregoing, it makes sense to configure indexing only in two cases:
For all other users, we suggest using the following instructions:
Often, a user's computer has many programs installed scattered throughout the hard drive. Because of this, it is far from always possible to find them through "Start", and adding a lot of shortcuts to the desktop is not for everyone. To fix this, it is enough to place the shortcuts of all installed and portable (portable) programs, games in a certain place in Windows.
Unfortunately, on this possibility of setting the most "Start" end - in the "seven" there are practically no settings for this menu that could be optimized to facilitate the search. However, it is possible to search inside folders through the standard system "Conductor".
Often users turn to the search box inside "Explorer", which can also be customized, as well as use some of the search functions.
Now let's move on to considering the possibilities of the search field.
In this section we want to talk about the use of search filters that operate within the search field.
A reasonable question arises - how to find out and where to get the rest of the names of the filters that you can prescribe yourself? Most of the names can be taken from the names of the columns into which the folder is divided, if it looks like a table (see screenshot below).
We will talk about this a little later (in the subsection "Ordering"), and now we want to provide a list of simplified symbolic and literal operators:
Despite the fact that the name of any filter must always be written ( flow rate:, frame width:), filter the size: there is no need to enter, so instead of a search query size:=200mb you can just write =200mb.
Often, users prefer to use the same search terms; for this, the system provides for their saving. When you have used some complex search query, you can click on the button "Save search terms", so that in the future not to type it again, but to use the template.
A save window will appear, prompting you to select a location and a name for the file.
By default, searches are saved in the Navigation Pane in "The Chosen One". From here it will be easy to call the desired search and remove it from the list (RMB on save > "Delete"). Save can be called from any folder "Explorer", but it works only for the folder for which this request was created, be careful and better choose a shared folder that contains several subfolders, inside which you also need to search.
One way to make it easier to find files within folders is to use the organize and group functions within a folder.
ordering
First, the user should understand the possibilities of ordering, which often speeds up the search for the necessary documents and files among a large list.
Almost all the names of these columns can be used as filters for the search field! We discussed this earlier in the section "Using Search Filters". If there are several words in the title, you need to write them without a space, and a colon is always put at the end, for example, to search by creation date, you must enter date of creation: and specify the date from the options that appear automatically.
grouping
For convenient orientation, the folder also has a grouping function - combining files into a block according to a user-specified property. Right click on empty space, select "Group" and specify the appropriate option for this. If you don't find what you need, click on "More..." and choose it there.
Again, we chose to group by genre. All audio recordings of certain genres have become part of the lists, which can be collapsed by clicking on the black triangle to the left of the name - this will allow you to hide unnecessary positions and quickly navigate among the current folder items.
Now you know more information about how to customize the search through the menu "Start", and inside "Explorer". All these recommendations will greatly simplify the use of Windows while working with a large amount of information divided into files.
