Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time

Searching for Items in File Explorer

Windows 8 offers a new Search feature accessible from the Windows 8 environment, but you can still search for folders, files, and other content using the traditional desktop via File Explorer. Using File Explorer provides more options than does the Windows 8 search feature. As always, you can search for folders and files throughout your hard drive or other locations. You can search the contents of files to find specific documents. You can also set a variety of parameters to filter the search. The Windows 8 version of File Explorer offers a new Ribbon menu called Search specifically to help you find items. This task explains how to search for items in File Explorer.

1 Launch File Explorer: Open the desktop and launch File Explorer full screen.

2 Access the Search menu: Double-click your hard drive. Click in the search field to the right of the address bar. A Search menu appears from the Ribbon.

3 Choose the location: Click the Computer button on the Search toolbar if you want to search your entire computer. Click the Current folder icon on the ...