Display an index all the files on your system

To get an index of all (or a subset thereof) of the files on your system, follow these directions:

Windows Vista:

• Open Windows Explorer, select Computer in the tree, and type *.* in the Search box on the upper-right side of the window.

Windows Me/2000/2003/XP:

• Select Search and then For Files or Folders from the Start Menu, select a drive (or use Local Hard Drives for all drives), and click Search Now without specifying anything in the Named field.

Windows 95/98:

• Select Find and then Files or Folders from the Start Menu, select a drive (or use My Computer for all drives), and click Find Now without specifying anything in the Named field. Note that Windowx 95 and Windows 98 have an arbitrary limit of 10,000 entries, so you may need to limit your search, or upgrade to a newer version of Windows (see below).

After the search:

• You can then sort the results by clicking on the appropriate column heading (useful for finding the largest or most recent file on your system).
• To save the results, you'll need the Copy to Clipboard as Filename utility (one of Microsoft's PowerToys). This allows you to select all the files in the results list, right-click, select Send To and then Clipboard as Filename. You can then paste the listings into a text editor, such as Notepad, for saving and printing.