Hi, Steve
As suggested by others, the old DOS command "dir", from before "directories"
became "folders", still works fine - and often faster than Win7's Search
command.
Just open a Command Prompt window and type at the prompt: dir /?
As with other commands in a Command Prompt window, the /? switch will
produce what I call a "mini-Help" listing of the switches and parameters
available for that command. As you will see, the /b (or /B - case doesn't
matter) switch for dir produces a Bare directory listing, omitting the file
size and other information you might need or want.
To start with an extreme example, dir /s will produce a listing of every
file in every folder from your starting point to the bottom of that folder
tree. Use <Ctrl>+C, the ancient Break command, to stop the listing or it
might run for hours on a big partition!
Use drive letters and folder names to restrict the search to the locations
where the file might be. Either use the CD (Change Directory) command to
start there, or specify the path in the dir command line: dir c:\downloads
If you know part (or all) of the filename, include that in the dir command,
using "?" as a wildcard for a single character and "*" for a string of
characters. To find "MyLostFile", you might use dir mylo* Or even dir
c:\mylostfile /s/a - which will list every file by that name on that drive,
no matter which directory (folder) it might be in.
If you don't know any of the name but you know the approximate size, you
could use: dir C:\downloads /os - which would list the files by size,
smallest first, or dir /o-s - which will list the largest first.
As they say, The possibilities are endless! ;^) We old-timers who started
with MS-DOS (or before) think of this as Computer Kindergarten.
This little tutorial could go on and on, but it's best if you open a Command
Prompt window and start experimenting with the Dir command - and learning by
doing, not just for today but for the future.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
[email protected]
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1
"Steve Hayes" wrote in message
One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one
can
waste a lot of time trying to find them.
The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find
the
file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded
files.
When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to
install,
but I cannot find the file.
Any hints about where I could look?