Searching in Windows 7 is a little different than it was with XP. Open My Computer and you’ll notice at the top right hand corner a search box that says “Search Computer”
What’s not there is the search options. Click on Start and type in search where it says “Search programs and files” and you will get results that looks something like the following:
- Windows 7 search options for files and folders
Choose change search options for files and folders. This will bring up the Search tab in the Folder Options window.
If you want to search file names and the content inside files you can do that from the Folder Options window as shown below.
- Windows 7 folder options
The default option is to search file names only. Here you see that Always search file names and contents has been selected.
You can search external hard drives, mapped network drives etc. If you want to specify which location to search you can do that.
Open My Computer and type in the search field. Once the search is completed you will always get an options menu at the bottom of the search. Click on Custom. This will open the Choose Search Location box where you can check which locations you want to search.
