But, this whole stuff fills our directories usually desktop, making it look like a mess. Some, hidden files, some kept in a separate folder created for our ease of understanding, while some as it is.
If you want to quickly search all the files on your PC, this is a much better solution than the integrated Windows search tools.Usually, we are in habit of saving a lot of information in form of files on our system. It runs in your notification area (aka the system tray) and you can assign a keyboard shortcut to quickly open the window from Tools > Options > General > Keyboard, if you like. It builds up a database of every file and folder on your computer and searches happen instantly as you type. But it’s a very fast way to find files and folders by name on your entire system, without dealing with Cortana or telling Windows to index your entire system drive, which could potentially slow things down.Įverything works very quickly. Its one downside, compared to Windows’ built-in search, is that it can only search file and folder names-it can’t search the text within those files.
Like many other great Windows tools, it’s also available as a portable application. It’s a lightweight, small application that uses uses minimal system resources. It should be able to index most PCs in just a few minutes.
It builds a search index as you use it, so you can just start searching and it will work immediately. If the location you’re searching isn’t indexed-for example, if you’re searching your entire C: drive-you’ll see a progress bar as Windows looks through all the files in the location and checks to see which match your search.Įverything is very fast and simple. (You can make this a bit faster by telling Windows to always start searching when you type in File Explorer.) if you’re searching an indexed location, you’ll get results instantly. Then, type a search into the box at the top right corner of the window and press Enter. If you want to search your entire C: drive, head to C. For example, if you just want to search your Downloads folder, open the Downloads folder. In File Explorer, navigate to the folder you want to search. 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. By default, it will index data in your user account’s folders and not much else.
Windows automatically scans and monitors these folders, building the search index it uses when you search via the Start menu. You’ll be able to choose your indexed search locations. To improve the results, click the “Filters” option in the menu and then click the “Select locations” button at the bottom of the menu.
RELATED: How to Choose Which Files Windows Search Indexes on Your PC These categories are all narrow and include online locations, like your OneDrive. The problem is that there’s no way to search just all your local files. You can narrow this down by clicking the “Filters” button and selecting “Documents”, “Folders”, “Photos”, or “Videos”. This won’t always work because the Start menu only searches indexed locations, and there’s no way to search other areas of your system from here without adding them to the index.īy default, the Start menu searches everything it can-indexed files, Bing, OneDrive, the Windows Store, and other online locations.
Search for a file stored in an indexed location and it should appear somewhere in the list. However, you can still use the Start menu for some basic file searches.