How to use Search in DOS mode?

 

Suppose your Windows Search does not work due to some virus or malware, then how would you search for a file or folder? DOS Search is a very good utility provided by Microsoft. You will have to run the command prompt ( Start -> Run -> command)  and using the following command.

 

C:\> dir C: /s | find "tech"

 

The above command searches for all files and folders in C: drive which contain "tech" in their names. The output may be something like this.

 

10/27/2008 11:44 AM             321      suraj shrestha@techcreeze.blogspot[1].txt

09/18/2007  07:43 AM            1,296   tech2525.jpg

 

The first column is Date of Modification of file or folder, second column is size in bytes and last one is the name of file or folder.

 

The above command is an example only. You can use other switches with this command. Or also you can get help using dir /? Command.

For example the following command searches for files and folders with name "tech" but displays the last access date instead of date of modification.

 

C:\> dir /s /t:a | find "tech.