Struggling with Search?

While I have written about this before (here), I used to love Windows tiered search. I could put in a partial title, some words on what the file contained, a date range, the file type, and the folders to search.

And bingo! My file would pop up. Easy.

Until Windows 7, that is. This was when Microsoft decided that users didn't need to search that way, and ...er ...'simplified' search.

They took away the tiered search and left us with a word search only. This drove me mental until I found FileSearchEX which restored my tiered search.

The only other way to search is to using coding language - aka Advanced Query Syntax (AQS). However, there is probably one key set of codes that will help you find your files without getting add-on software, using one simple search term.

Ed Bott from TechRepublic suggests:

"using the search box in the upper-right portion of File[/Windows Explorer, entering] datemodified:2013 tax allows you to filter search results to show only files that contain the word tax and were last saved in 2013.

"The search parameter you enter after the colon can be any date, even a partial one. So datemodified: June 2016 works even with the space included. To find only files before or after a given date, use the > and < operators, as in datemodified: >1/1/2016

"If you prefer a point-and-click interface, just type datemodified: by itself and use the calendar or predefined options below it."

Once you get the hang of that, there are other codes available which you can access here.

Hope that helps


Sam

References:

• Bott, Ed (9 November 2016). Search for files and folders by date. Retrieved 10 November 2016 from http://enews.techrepublic.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=39825800875&ch=54B688ADEC0E8BE48F871864D3206221&h=6f2e2a0d598de79d676baacdeacc3372&ei=WE0M4iuNx&schema=echo3
• Microsoft (n.d.). Advanced Query Syntax. Retrieved 10 November 2016 from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa965711%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396