How to Search for Files by Creation and Modification Date in Windows

Searching for files based on their creation or modification date in Windows is a valuable feature, especially when you need to quickly locate recently edited or older files. There are several methods to perform this search using Windows' built-in tools.

Method 1: Using Windows File Explorer

Windows File Explorer provides a simple way to search for files based on various criteria, including dates. Follow these steps:

  1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder where you want to perform the search.
  2. In the search box at the top, enter the desired criteria. For example, to find files modified in the past week, type datemodified:this week.
  3. You can use various keywords such as datemodified or datecreated and specify a period, like datemodified:01/01/2023 .. 12/31/2023, to find files modified within a specific date range.

Method 2: Using Command Prompt (CMD)

The Command Prompt also allows you to search for files by creation or modification date using the dir command:

  1. Open the Command Prompt by pressing Win + R, typing cmd, and pressing Enter.
  2. In the Command Prompt, navigate to the desired folder using the cd command, for example, cd C:\Users\Your_Username\Documents.
  3. Enter the command dir /T:W to display files by their last modification date. You can replace /T:W with /T:C to display the creation date or /T:A for the last access date.

Method 3: Using PowerShell

PowerShell is a powerful tool for searching and filtering files by various attributes, including dates. Here’s an example command for finding files modified within a specific date range:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Folder_Path" -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -ge (Get-Date "01/01/2023") -and $_.LastWriteTime -le (Get-Date "12/31/2023") }

This command finds all files modified in 2023. You can change LastWriteTime to CreationTime if you want to search by the creation date instead.

Method 4: Searching with Windows Indexing Options

To simplify future searches, you can use Windows’ indexing options:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Indexing Options.
  2. Configure the indexing settings to include specific folders or drives, which will speed up future searches.