How to Search by File Extension, Date and Size in Windows

This tutorial is going to show you how to use some of the advanced features of Window Search.

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This tutorial will show you some special tricks of using Windows Search which should make it easier for you to find certain document on your computer.

Step # 1 -- Opening the Search Window

To open the search window you will need to press the "Windows button" and "F" on your keyboard. You can also use any of the search boxes that appear in the upper right of Windows Explorer windows.

Step # 2 -- Searching by File Type

First, let's have a look at how to search for a specific file type using search. Into the search box type "ext:" then enter the file extension of the document. Here we are going to search for PowerPoint files, which have the extention "pptx" so we will type this. Below all the files on the computer that are of this type will appear. To refine the search further enter a space and then type a word that would be found in the document here we are typing "test" and you can see the results below are filtered down further.

Step # 3 -- Searching by Date

To search for files that have been used in a certain time frame type into the search box "date:". A menu will open allowing you to select various options, you can either select a specific day in the calendar, or click and drag to select a range. There are also several preset option below to choose from. Here we will search for files that were edit last week and as you can see they appear in the results box.

Step # 4 -- Searching by Size

You can also search for files by size. In the search box type "size:" and a menu will appear below, from this select the size of the file that you are looking for. Here we are selecting "medium" and files of this size will populate in the window.

Step # 5 -- Combining Search Filters

Now that you know some of the common search filters, it is also worth knowing how to combine them. For example if you want to search for a PowerPoint file that is of a medium size. Into the search box type "ext:pptx size:medium" and all files that meet both of these criteria will be displayed. These are just a few of the special tricks of using Windows Search.