Tips - Searching for files

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Tips - Searching for files

Searching for Files

0ver the course of time, you will undoubtedly collect thousands of files on your system. Chances are, you won't be able to recall what is inside each of these files in great detail, or even remember what you called the files and what directory you placed them in.

Windows 98 has an advanced file searching utility that frees you from the cumbersome job of remembering where every file is and what it is called.

You can the launch the file search utility by:

1 - Clicking Start

2 - Pointing to Find

3 - Selecting Files And Folders

You will then see a dialog box that has 3 tabs, 2 text areas, a drop down list and a check box. With this dialog box you can:

Search for a folder: All you need to do is type the folder's name in the "Named" text box and click the "Find Now" button.

Search for a single file: To do this you would type the exact file name in the "Named" text box and click the "Find Now" button.

Search for files or folders with similar name characteristics: To find files that match a specific text pattern, you type part of the file or folder's name and use wildcard characters in the "Named" text box. For example, type "*.txt" in the "Named" text box to find all files that have a .txt file type.

Before you start the search, you select the disk and folder you want to start the search from and type it into the text area called "Search In." Windows searches down the folder list from there. If you want to search an entire disk, start the search from the disk drive itself. If you have multiple disk drives on your system, use the drop down list to choose another drive.

You can even start your search from another folder, such as C:\WINDOWS. Windows 98 will then search the Windows folder, and all folders that it contains, and ignores what is on the rest of the hard disk.

You can also tell Windows 98 not to search any sub-folders at all below the folder or disk you specify simply by unchecking the "Include Sub-folders" check box.

After you perform a search, Windows 988 displays the search results in a list that shows you all files that matched your search criteria. From this list you can perform most common file operations. You can do any of the following tasks with file in the list:

Right-click a selected file to display a shortcut menu of commands you can use to work with the file.

Use the "Cut" menu command to move the file to another folder.

Use the "Copy" menu command to copy the file to another folder.

Use the "Delete" menu command to remove the file from your system

Use the "Properties" menu command to see your file's attributes, such as its size, date of creation, and whether or not it is a "read only" file.

Use the "Send To" menu command to send a copy of the file to a floppy disk.

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