How to search for excel file, that I have opened last month

Hello @protocoder,

If you know which folder the file is Saved in, goto that folder and then Sort by Date. You should be able to scroll down to the date you require.

I hope this helps.

protocoder said:

Any command help would be appreciated.

Open a Command Prompt (not Admin, just a normal one). This should open in your User folder, you can confirm that as it will display the prompt: C:\Users\yourname>

Type the command dir *.xls* /s > files.txt This will create a text file listing all your user files with .xls or .xlsx extensions, and the folders they are in, as C:\Users\yourname\files.txt. You can open this with Notepad and look for files with for the date you saved it.

from brees cmd prompt you may need to change the first prompt to c:\ that will search the whole hd if you saved it outside you folders

If you know some of the content then just type that into the File explorer search box in the top right-corner then click on its little green right-arrow.
- Make the search term as unique as you can to reduce the number of unwanted responses - residual is better than left over, just for example.
- If your Excel file is in one of your folders within C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents then it will almost certainly be set up to allow contents searching already.

Advanced search syntax can be useful at terms but I've forgotten almost all of it and just rely on rough searches such as what I'm suggesting to you.

Best of luck,
Denis

protocoder said:

Hi Experts,
I work in govt and cannot install any third party or any software and I am not an admin.
I am poor in file management and I forgot the file name or folder but I know I have opened that particular excel file a month ago on a certain date from my response in teams chat. This is not showing up in my excel recent list.
I cannot search by modified on as I have not modified, I have opened it. Can I search on file content given windows 10 with no admin ? No power shell here, I can use a command prompt but with no admin.
Any command help would be appreciated.

Hello protocoder and welcome to TF ,

Assuming your have Windows Search configured and use it, this may be helpful:

Learning Windows Search: Use Boolean, Dates, and Wildcards to Give Your Searches a Boost

Learning Windows Search: Use Advanced Query Syntax to Find Everything

My Windows Search works wonderfully and I rarely have to rely on 3rd party search apps - only when searching outside my indexed folders.

Searching for

Code:

date:>01/01/2022 *.txt

worked nicely for me to find .txt files.

Try

Code:

date:>01/01/2022 *.xl*

for your case for Excel files. It should work. You can then refine our date, extension, etc.

If you don't already have Windows Search indexing enabled:
Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows

steve108 said:

Searching for

Code:

date:>01/01/2022 *.txt

worked nicely for me to find .txt files.

I never knew that. Thanks.

Callender said:

I never knew that. Thanks.

they could definitely make it less cryptic to use