How to Narrow the Search Parameters in Windows 7

Search Filters
1. Press the 'Windows' key and 'F' to open the search window.
2. Click the specific drive or folder you want to perform the search within, such as 'My Documents' or 'Computer.'
3. Click inside the 'Search' box. A drop-down selection box appears with recent previous searches you typed, and the 'Add a Search Filter' option appears at the bottom where you can click on 'Kind:,' 'Date Modified:,' 'Type:' or 'Name:' to refine your search.
4. Click the term you want to use to narrow the search. The term pops into the search box, where you add the text for the search, either by typing or selecting it from the list that pops up. For example, click 'Type:' then select '.doc' from the list to find all .doc files.
5. Select another option, such as 'Name:' to further refine the search. If you want to start over, simply press 'Escape' while the search box is selected until it is cleared of all search terms.
Vocabulary and Symbols
6. Use Boolean filters such as 'Not,' 'And' and 'Or' to limit or add terms to the search. For example, typing '2010 and taxes' looks for files and folders with both 2010 and taxes included in the text while 'taxes not 2010' finds files with the word taxes, but not if the number 2010 is in the file, and 'taxes or 2010' returns all files or folders with either of those words included in the text.
7. Type the search term enclosed in parentheses or quotes when using more than one word to search on that specific string of words. Otherwise, the search finds all instances of any of the words. Quotes tell it to search the exact term while parentheses mean to search any combination of the words included inside them. Other symbols used to limit search parameters include =,
, ~ and !.
8. Use system keywords to limit the search to certain types of files or folders. For example, System.kind:document 'Annual Report' locates all document files with the words annual and report located together in that order in the text.
9. Turn on the natural language search function if you do not want to use the key words recognized by the system. Click the 'Start' button, then 'Control Panel,' then 'Appearance and Personalization' and then 'Folder Options.' Click the 'Search' tab, then select 'Use Natural Language Search.'
10. Type phrases such as 'Photographs Art' (without the quotes) in the search box to use the natural language function to find all photographs with the word 'Art' associated with them that you have on the computer. This provides an alternative to learning the correct system keywords for the files, although you can still use them if you want, as well as Boolean operators and punctuation.