In XP's search feature you could search for modified files by date. This was useful if you wanted to know daily what programs were modifying other files. It was a great tool to use to spy on the inner workings of other programs. Sometimes it would help you find malicious software when you saw things getting modified that should not get modified.
How do you do this in Windows 7?
I use a third party software called xplorer2, which allows you to search for modified date for last couple of days or more. In the result pane sort them with modified date. This file explorer replacement also has a folder flatten command which displays all the files in a scrap frame, which you may sort with modified dates.
If you were to want to find all .c files modified in the last month (july) then you would use this string:
*.c datemodified:>=07/01/12
This also works as a date range
*.c datemodified:>=07/01/12<=07/02/12
You can get a lot of that automatically by typing in "*.c" (or whatever) in the explorer search box and then click on "date modified" below it and chose a date range, but there are a TON of options for searching more than what the drop box allows. Full list of options here: Advanced Query Syntax (Windows)
agent ransack looks the better of the two, as although they both have free lite versions, the xplorer2 lite doesn't allow modified files searches
There is a way to do this in w7. I hope it is what you want but it's the closest thing I could find built in.
- Press the Windows Key and F to open Search.
- You will be presented with the window below.
- Click in the text box in the top right
- Click "Date Modified"
- Select a date or date range on the calender and press enter
- To sort from oldest to newest, right click and then choose 'Sort By' -> 'Date Modified'
Hope this helps. If it is not what you wanted, just say! :)
Stephen
Another good one, the search in Free Commander. mod date + *.exe in c: > picture 1. Same search in w7... results missing, c: and all subfolders selected > picture 2.
So far Tekno Venus has given me the best answer to do it from within Windows 7. fseal's method although doable takes to long to type out and you have to pay close attention to your syntax.
I havent looked at Agent Ransack or Free Commander but I have tried some other popular search tools and search tools built into popular windows explorer replacement apps. I tested a paid version of Xplorer2, Explorer++, CubicExplorer (all Explorer replacements) and the search tool SuperFinder XT. All other apps besides Xplorer2 are free versions.
While they all had this feature to search for modified files I performed a general search first to test their effectiveness. I searched for the string "AT&T" on my C drive because I knew I had 7 files on my system with AT&T in the filename. 6 documents and one shortcut. I used all default settings for all searches on these apps.
Explorer++ only found one out of the 7 files and was still searching my small 200 gigabyte drive 20 minutes later. I terminated the search.
Xplorer2 paid version took 10 minutes to search the drive and found all 6 files but did not find the shortcut.
SuperFinder XT took only 18 seconds to search the drive but only found the one shortcut and it's associated document.
CubicExplorer took 67 seconds and found all of the 7 files. This tool was the overall winner so I trusted it to test it's function to search for modified files. It worked perfectly. This free windows explorer replacement file manager amazed me vastly outperforming my paid for Xplorer2. I wasn't looking to replace my Xplorer2 but knowing it can't be trusted for file searches forces me to use the superior CubicExplorer.
I want to Thank everyone who answered this thread for the great info given.
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thanks for the feedback on the research :)