For years one of the more nagging but not quite worth jumping up and down frustrations with my computer was the lack of a decent way to search my files and e-mail. To be sure, the Windows "Search" mechanism (that can be found off the Start menu in Windows XP at least) provided help in searching for files.

When it worked, which for some reason is no longer the case, I would use it to find recent documents (often PowerPoint files) because I couldn't remember in which folder I had put them. Thus, a search in my "Slides" folder for *.ppt would traverse the many subfolders I have accumulated from years of speaking and show me in reverse order whatever PowerPoint file was the latest. I could do the same with Word documents. If needed to find a recent contract to use as a base for updating, the *.doc search against my client files worked like a charm.

Read full article