Search by folder name – To search by folder name, select 'Kind' -> 'Folder.' For example, if you check today's date, only files that were changed today will be displayed.įile types – Select the type of files you want to search – such as photos, videos, music, games, and more. Search in subfolders – Check or uncheck this option to include or exclude subfolders.įilter by date modified – Click the 'Date modified' button and select a date. Once you've clicked in the search box, you'll see the various options you can apply to your search. For more information on searching scanned PDF documents, see our article explaining how to search in a PDF file. Before you can search them, you need to use OCR software to convert them to text.

Typically, scanned documents are in PDF format. When you want to search text in scanned documents, the methods described above will not work. Another disadvantage is that you can't see the found text until you open the file and search the same words again. This useful feature has also some disadvantages – it takes a long time to find all the files, especially if you search in a larger folder.

To search the text of documents, click on 'Advanced options' -> 'File Contents.' If you want to find a document whose name you don't remember, search for words that you think are in the file's contents. You can also use File Explorer to search the text content of files. The more files in the folder, the longer it will take for the search to complete. Click on the search box and type the name or part of the name of the file you are looking for. If you choose 'This PC,' you will search in all drives on your computer.Ģ. It offers good capabilities for searching both the file names and the text of files.ġ.

If you search only by file name – then the most suitable tools for you are Everything, Listary, and Cortana.įile Explorer is the built-in file manager in Windows. Generally speaking, if you need to search the contents of files, I recommend using File Explorer, SeekFast, or Findstr. If you're running macOS, see the article about searching files on Mac. In this article I will show you the easiest ways to search your files in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

How to view file types in windows 10