Searching By Date Range Easier In Windows 7

On my guest appearance on the Personal Computer Radio Show last week, one of the callers was concerned that he could not search for files in a given date range on Windows Vista.  He claimed this feature was available in XP, but not in Vista. I checked to verify, and you can indeed search for files in a date range in Vista.  It isn’t as intuitive as one might like it to be, but the good news is that searching by date range in Windows 7 is much easier!

Search By Date Range in Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, doing a search by date range is a multi-step operation. 

1. Open an Explorer window. 

2. Open a Search window by entering the keyboard short-cut “CTRL+F” while in the Explorer window.  This will result in seeing the window below:

   

3. Select “Advanced Search” to bring up the search details view.

4. Once the search details view is open, you can select a date range by clicking the start date in the drop down calendar control and “dragging” out the range to the end date. When you release the mouse, you will have selected a date range to search within as the image below depicts:

Search By Date Range in Windows 7

In Windows 7, doing a search by date range is a much simpler operation. 

1. From any Explorer window, enter the keyboard shortcut “CTRL+F” to move the cursor to the Search box in the upper right hand corner of the window.  This will display a drop-down list with several search filters in it as depicted below:

   

2. Select “Date modified” in the search filter list and a calendar control will appear where you can “drag out” a date range just like the control in Vista. 

   

This is just one of the many “little” features in Windows 7 that makes things easier!