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Expand Your File Search to All Local Drives

If you use Windows 95 but never installed Internet Explorer 4's Desktop Update, your Windows file searcher lacks a convenient way to search all local hard drives at once. To remedy this, choose Start, Find, Files or Folders. Leave the Named box in the Find All Files window blank. In the 'Look in' line, type the drives you use for global searches, separated by semicolons--for example: c:\;d:\;e:\;f:\. To save this setting, click Find Now, but click Stop as soon as the search function locates a few files. (Otherwise, you'll likely elicit an error message saying that the search exceeds the maximum number of files found.) Click the Options menu and confirm that no check mark appears next to Save Results. If Save Results is checked, click it to remove the check mark.

Next, choose File, Save Search. An icon named All Files should appear on your desktop; you can rename it something like All Drives Search if you wish. Right-click the Start button and choose Open or Explore. Move your new icon to a convenient folder within the Start Menu folder. Now, any time you want to search all your hard drives at once, just select this icon from your chosen menu in the Start menu and away you'll go.