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In these days of gargantuan hard drives, it's easy to lose files. Windows has its own search feature, called Find (in Windows 9x) or Search (in Windows 2000 and Me), but few people take full advantage of it. Here are some ways to get the most out of your file and folder searches.

Start searching where you are: If you know that a file is somewhere in the folder you currently have open (or in one of its subfolders), don't start Windows' Find/Search utility from the Start menu. Either you'll have to type the path of your starting point in the 'Look in' box, or the utility will waste a lot of time looking through disks or folders that you know the file isn't in. It's faster to press F3 in any folder or Explorer window (hitting Ctrl-E in Windows 2000 or Ctrl-F in Windows Me will achieve the same result). This step will open the Find All Files window in Windows 9x or the Search Explorer Bar (the pane on the left with the search settings) in Windows 2000 and Me. Specify the search parameters you want, such as 'Include subfolders' (in 9x) or Advanced Options, Search Subfolders (in Me and 2000), and click Find or Search Now.

Get a bigger view of results: When you search in Windows 2000 or Me, you can get more room to see your search results by pressing F3, Ctrl-E, or Ctrl-F to toggle the Search Explorer Bar on and off.

Preview and navigate: The Search Results window in Windows 2000 and Me adds a few other features not found in previous versions of Windows. If you're searching for image files (such as .bmp, .jpg, or .gif files), you can select an item in the search results list to see a thumbnail of it at the top of the window. (In Windows 2000, you can also preview many sound and movie formats.) To open the folder of any file listed in the results, select the file and click its path name in the area at the top of the window (see Figure 1).

You can accomplish the same thing by right-clicking a file in the Search Results window and choosing Open Containing Folder, or by selecting the file and pressing Alt-FI. If you select more than one file, you'll also see the total space the files occupy--handy information if you need to copy the results to a disk that has limited space. In Windows 9x, you have to right-click the group and select Properties or press Alt-Enter to see this data in the files' Properties sheet.

Use your search options: If you're overwhelmed with results, you can refine your search. Specify a range of dates within which the file was created, or list a file-size range. In Windows 9x, choose the Find window's Date or Advanced tab to see more search options. In Windows 2000 or Me, click the Search Explorer Bar's Date, Type, Size, or Advanced Options check boxes to set your options.

Don't forget wild cards: If you don't know DOS, you're not missing much, but DOS command-line syntax can be useful when using Windows' Find utility. An asterisk (*) serves as a wild card for one or more characters in the name of a file or folder you're looking for, and a question mark (?) replaces any single character (see Figure 2).

For example, if you want to find all files that start with the letters dis, tell Find/Search to look for dis*. You can use the asterisk and/or question mark first, or even multiple times, as in *win*1* to find all files with win followed by 1 anywhere in their names. To find files of a particular type, use the asterisk followed by a period and then the file type's extension, as in *.mp3. And to find all files with either a .tif or a .gif extension, just type *.?if.

Find a better Find--FindX: Microsoft's free FindX utility allows you to customize your Start, Find or Start, Search menu with additional shortcuts. In the March 2000 Windows Tips I wrote that FindX does not work with Windows 2000, but in fact it does--though you may need to log on as the administrator to install it, and then log off and back on again to use it. FindX is part of Microsoft's PowerToys utility, which is available from the Downloads library at PCWorld.com.