Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Searching for files

The Search feature provides you with an extremely efficient way to locate any program, folder, or file on your computer system. A Search text box appears in the upper-right corner of all the major Explorer windows - Computer, Documents, Network, Control Panel, Pictures, Music, and the like. (You can find a similar Search text box at the bottom of the Windows 7 Start menu, where it's labeled Search Programs and Files.)

Search immediately starts searching your computer system for matches to any characters you enter into one of its Search text boxes the moment you type them and displaying the results in a Search Results window. The feature automatically searches for matches not only in the names of programs, drives, folders, files, and so forth on your computer, but also in the metadata in files (that is, keywords you assign and statistics such as author, date modified, and so on that Windows and other programs automatically assign), and even in text contained in document files.

Keep in mind that, generally speaking, Search automatically searches all the files on your computer system for the characters you type into a search text box. If you want to search only a particular drive or folder on your computer system, you need to perform an advanced search by using the Search pane.

Adding tags for searches

Because Search automatically searches the metadata added to your files, you can make these searches much more effective by adding your own tags, including keywords and other types of search data, whenever possible.

When creating documents with application programs such as Microsoft Word or Excel 2007, you can add all kinds of your own metadata tags - including Author, Title, Subject, Category, Keywords, Status, and Comments - by opening the document and then opening its Document Properties area (Office Button → Prepare?Properties). In a program such as Adobe Reader 9, you can add keywords by opening the PDF file and then selecting the Description tab of the Document Properties dialog box (File → Properties).

For media files on your computer (music, video, and photos and other graphic images), Windows 7 actually enables you to add tags in the Preview pane that appears along the bottom of Music, Videos, and Pictures Explorer windows (after you click the Show Preview Pane button, of course). To add tags to one of these media files, all you have to do is select the file in its Explorer window, click the Edit button and then add the desired tags to the appropriate fields on the Details tab in the file's Properties dialog box.

Tip Music, video, and graphic media files have particular metadata tags options on the Details tab of their Properties dialog boxes, such as titles, dates and time taken, and a rating between one and five stars (by clicking the appropriate star).

Doing advanced searches with search filters

Most of the time, you need to perform only simple searches in order to find the item you're looking for. Windows 7 does, however, provide Add a Search Filter options that appear in a drop-down menu box immediately beneath the Search text box when you click it. The actual search filters available vary according to the type of drive, folder, or file that's currently selected in the Explorer window.

These advanced search filters can modify searches so that they take into account certain criteria, including the following:

• Date Modified: Use this filter to search for files in a document folder by the date they were last modified.
• Date Taken: This filter searches for photos in a pictures folder by the date they were snapped.
• Date Created: Use this filter to search for files - a video file, for example - according to when the file was created. After selecting this filter, you can select a specific date from the mini-calendar that appears or a range of dates by dragging through the dates on the calendar. You can also specify a less precise search filter by selecting one of the verbal filter options that appears beneath the mini-calendar: A Long Time Ago, Earlier This Year, Earlier This Month, Last Week, Earlier This Week, or Yesterday.
• Size: With this filter, you can search for documents by the file size. Specify the file size by typing in the number of its kilobytes or megabytes in the search text box (followed by KB or MB). You can also specify a size search filter by selecting any of the size range options that appear from the dropdown list beneath the Search text box after you click the Size option: Empty (0 KB), Tiny (0-10 KB), Small (10-100 KB), Medium (100 KB-1 MB, Large (1-16 MB), Huge (16-128 MB), or Gigantic (>128 MB).
• Kind: This filter searches for documents by kind. You specify the kind of file by selecting its option from the drop-down list that appears when you click the Kind option: Calendar, Communication, Contact, Document, E-mail, Feed, Folder, Game, or Instant Message, Journal, Link, Music, Note, Picture, Program, Recorded TV, Saved Search, Task, Video, or Web History.
• Type: Not to be confused with the Kind filter, Type filter searches rely on the fact that certain file types always come with the same file extension, whether it be .pdf, .jpg, .xls, .xlsx, .doc, or .docx. You can then specify the file type by selecting the appropriate filename extension from the drop-down list that appears after you click the Type option.
• Name: As the name implies, the Name filter searches for a document by its filename by entering all or part of the filename in this text box - you can use the asterisk (*) to stand for one or more wild-card characters in the filename and a question mark (?) to stand for individual wild-card characters in the search text box after the Name filter in the Search text box.
• Length: Use this filter to search for a music or video file by its relative length. After selecting the Length filter, you can enter the exact length or select one of the Length options that appear in the drop-down list: Very Short (Under 1 Min), Short (1-5 Mins), Medium (5-30 Mins), Long (30-60 Mins), or Very Long (Over 60 Mins).
• Tags: This filter lets you search for a document by the tags assigned to it. Simply enter one or more tags after the Tags filter in the Search text box.
• Authors: Use this filter to search for text documents by a particular author. All you need to do is enter an author name after the Authors filter in the Search text box or select the name from the drop-down list that appears when you choose this filter. (Note that this filter is called Artists when searching audio files in any of your Music library folders. There, you use the Artists filter to find files for particular performers by entering their names after this filter.)

Remember When creating searches with more than one filter, keep in mind that all the conditions you specify with the Date Modified, Size, Kind, Type, Name, Tags, and Authors search filters are inclusive, which means that all their conditions must be met in order for the types of files you've specified to be returned to your Search Results window.

Saving search results in a search folder

Instead of going through the whole rigmarole of reentering the same search criteria each time you want to find the same types of items on your computer, you can save the results of your search as a search folder. That way, you have access to the items simply by opening the search folder after selecting the Searches link in a Windows Explorer window.

To save your search results as search folder, follow these steps:

1. Click the Save Search button on Windows Explorer or Search window's toolbar.
   Windows 7 opens a Save As dialog box where you specify the name and description for your new search folder.
2. (Optional) Add other author names to the folder by clicking Authors and entering them, or add tags that identify the search folder and can be used in searching for it by clicking the Add a Tag text in the Tags field.
3. Click the Save button to create your search folder and save it in the Favorites area (that appears at the top of the Navigation pane in each Explorer window) before closing the Save As dialog box.

After saving your search results as a search folder, Windows 7 automatically recreates the search criteria, performs the same Search, and then displays the updated results for that search each time you select the search folder in the Favorites area at the top of the Navigation pane in Windows Explorer.