How to Search for Files in Windows 10 by Specific Date Ranges

Do you want to know how search for files in Windows 10 by date ranges? Let’s say you’re looking for a file and realize it was last modified during a certain time period. For Windows 10, you can restrict your requests to date ranges, but this isn’t immediately apparent.

In Windows 10, searching for a specific date range is harder than it should be. In the early days of Windows XP, File Explorer implemented a front and back calendar picker. Even in Windows Vista and Windows 7, it wasn't hard to get to that picker.

In this article, we will guide you through the entire procedure to search for files in Windows 10 based on a given date range.

Method 1: Find files in Windows 10 by date range

To search for files in Windows 10 based on a specific date range, follow this step-by-step procedure.

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1. Step 1:: Open the File Browser. Write modified: Date… Date in the search bar as shown in the following image.

2. Step 2:: After typing this syntax, press the key Intro and the results for the entered date range will appear as shown in the image above.

NOTE: : You can also select the date range using the mouse. As the search result of the above syntax will appear, click on the search tab as shown in the following image.

3. Step 3:: As soon as you click on the tab Search, a submenu will appear as follows.

4. Step 4:: Now click on the option Modification date and choose any range as per your choice as highlighted in the image above. The search result of the selected range will appear.
5. Step 5:: To select a more precise date range, after the colon, click anywhere in the text in that box and a calendar will open as shown in the following image.

6. Step 6:: Click on a date on the calendar and drag the mouse to choose the range as shown in the following image. This method is useful when the date range is one month.

7. Step 7:: Click on a date. Hold down the key Shift and click on another date in any month. The search result for the selected range will be displayed. This method is useful for selecting date ranges from different months.

Method 2: How to search for files in Windows 10

Understanding how to search for files in Windows 10 can be a game changer. Imagine There that you can save if you know how to locate your files in the blink of an eye with a fancy search query instead of having to go through all the material you've accumulated on your computer for months, maybe even years.

Windows 10 comes equipped with powerful search capabilities that let you find files with an astonishing degree of accuracy and flexibility.

You can have Windows search by file type, search for large files, search for date ranges, and of course, specific file names (even if you only remember part of the name). These are just a few of the possibilities and I'm going to explain how to search for a file in Windows 10.

How to search for files in Windows 10 using File Explorer

Now, we'll explain how to search for files in Windows 10 using File Explorer, instead of the search box at the bottom of the screen in the taskbar (where it says: "Type here to search").

Although the painting "Type here to search» works well for the commands basic search results, there may be limitations when performing more advanced searches. We have also experienced situations where the exact same search query did not return any results in the “Type here to search", while we did get the expected results through File Explorer.

1. Step 1:: That said, you can launch File Explorer by pressing the Windows logo key. Windows + E on your keyboard.

Windows will now open a File Explorer window that looks like this.

2. Step 2:: In the left pane of the window, you will see a “Quick access» with several locations, as well as a « iconThis PC» and some other items, depending on configuration.

NOTE: By default, File Explorer displays the header "Quick access» such as the active selection and locations just below the Quick Access heading should look familiar to you, as these are the locations you have accessed most frequently on your computer (yes, the items in “Quick Access” change dynamically based on which locations you visit most often).

Search for files in Windows 10 by name

Now that you have the open File Browser, let's see how to search for files in Windows 10. One of the most common types of file search is when you know the name of the file, or at least part of the name.

Let's say, for example, that you are looking for a file pdf with the name "mypdfdocument» that you know you have somewhere but can no longer find. By default, Windows 10 allows you to save your documents in the “Documents«, you just have to do the following:

1. Step 1:: click on this folder under «This PC» (if you don't see anything under «This PC» In the File Explorer window, hover over the “This PC” icon until a right-pointing arrow appears to the left of “This PC,” and then click the arrow.)

2. Step 2:: In the right pane of the File Explorer window, you will see all the files that are stored in the “Documents«.

NOTE: : As you can see in the image above, there are quite a few files in the documents folder (286 to be exact, according to the number in the bottom left corner of the image) and it may not immediately find your file.mypdfdocument.pdf» among all the files that are there.

If you're not sure how to search for files in Windows 10, you can always look at the search box near the top-right corner of the File Explorer window.

3. Step 3:: This is where you can type any search query to start searching for files with that name. For example, if I start typing mypdf in the search box, Windows will automatically populate the search results list with all files that match that pattern (in this case, mypdfdocument.pdf).

4. Step 4:: If you pressed ENTER, the right pane of the File Explorer window will be populated only with files that match the search text. All other files will be filtered out.

How to search for files in Windows 10 if you only know part of the file name?

As you may have noticed in this example, Windows filters out file names that begin with the search query you enter. If you only remember part of the file name, you can use an asterisk like “wildcard» for your search.

1. Step 1:: In the following example, I entered «*doc» to illustrate what you can do if you just remember that the file name contains «documentary» somewhere in the name, but not necessarily at the beginning. This would also return files as yourpdfdocument.pdf.

2. Step 2:: You can also use Windows Search to filter files of a certain file type. For example, if you search for «*.pdf», will only be displayed PDF files in the search result.

3. Step 3:: For more advanced search options, you can click on the “Search» in File Explorer whenever you search for specific files, which will offer a whole new set of search possibilities.

As you can see in the image above, you can search for certain file sizes, date ranges when files were last changed, whether or not to search in subfolders, and many other search options.

Find files in other locations in Windows 10

So far we have only searched in the folder "Documents“, which is where Windows lets you save your documents by default. However, if you’re wondering how to find files in Windows 10 that are located somewhere else, just follow these steps:

1. Step 1:: You can click on the icon «This PC» in the File Explorer window.
2. Step 2:: The search box will automatically change to “Search this PC» and it will now search all locations on your entire computer.

NOTE: : It should be noted that searching your entire computer will take much longer than searching just in the Documents folder. If you are searching for files on your entire computer, you will also see search results where it is not entirely clear which folder the found files are located in. The following image illustrates this: the file name is displayed but there is no way to tell which folder the file is located in.

3. Step 3:: If that is the case, you can right-click on any particular search result and select “Open file location» to open a new File Explorer window in the location where the file resides.

4. Step 4:: That will open a File Explorer window to the location where the file is located and you can now see which folder the file is located in.

With that, we have covered how to search for files in Windows 10 based on file name, date modified, size, and other properties. If you want to search for text within files (i.e. any file that contains a certain text string)

Method 3: Find Files in Windows 10 by Date Modified in Windows

Using the modified date feature in Windows File Explorer allows you to find files that were modified on a specific date or within a range of dates. Using this tip is helpful for anyone who has lost a file but knows when it was last edited.

How to search for files in Windows 10 by the date they were modified

1. Step 1:: Press the Windows key + E on your keyboard to open File Explorer.
2. Step 2:: From the drop-down menu on the left side, select the drive or folder for which you want to see the last modified dates ( A) for the content.

1. Step 3:: On the right side of the screen, Type date of modification: (be sure to include the colon) in the search box ( B ).

NOTE: To search for files modified on a specific date or between two specific dates, see the Search for files by specific date or date range section below.

1. Step 4:: Once this is done, all current contents of the drive/folder are sorted by last modified date, from newest to oldest.
2. Step 5:: After writing «Modification date:» In the search box, you can click the button Modification date ( A ) in the top center menu to select a date range ( B ).

Search for files by specific date or date range

If you want to find files that were modified on a specific date or between two dates, add a date or date range in step 3 above. For example, you can do the following:

1. Step 1:: To search for files modified on a specific date, you can type the following.
   1. modification date: 15/01/2022
2. Step 2:: In the example search string above, the search results would show files modified on January 15, 2022. Enter any date after the modified date - use the format mm / dd / yyyyto search for files modified on the desired date.
3. Step 3:: To search for files modified between two dates, you can type the following.
   1. modified date:1/1/2022 .. 1/2/2022

In this example, files modified between January 1, 2022 and February 1, 2022 are displayed in the search results. Enter any two dates after the modified date: using the format mm / dd / yyyy, separated by a space, a colon, and another space, to search for files modified in a specific date range.

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Conclusion

By following these methods, you will be able to search for files in Windows 10 based on a certain date range. Each of these methods is very useful when looking for lost documents on your hard drive. We hope we have helped you with this information.