K Desktop Environment
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# 5.4. Finding Your Lost Files

Everyone has undoubtedly encountered the following problem: You start ftp, log into a great site like ftp.kde.org and start downloading files. It is late in the evening and you shut down your machine after completing the transfer. The next morning, you are at the keyboard again, and you start wondering into which directory you placed the recently transferred files. Using KDE's KFind utility makes finding those lost files a snap.

## 5.4.1. Starting KFind

Starting KFind is simple: Choose Find Files in the Application Starter. KFind uses an interface part you probably do not know yet: register tabs. When KFind starts, you see that Name & Location is selected. When you click on Date Modified, the register content changes. Since you have never run a search before, most of the icons on the toolbar and most of the menu entries are disabled. We will change this now.

## 5.4.2. Finding a File by Knowing Parts of Its Name

As long as you know a bit of the file name, searching is easy. Select the Name & Location tab, and enter the file name. Wildcards may be used as needed. As a test, type `*.tar.gz`. By default, the search begins in your home directory, but you can select any starting directory you wish by clicking on the Look in or Browse.... To start searching, click the icon (which looks like a magnifying glass over a sheet of paper) on the left of the toolbar. After a moment, a list of files will appear in the search results window. If they do not appear, you started the search in the wrong directory, made a spelling mistake in the name field, or no files ending with a `.tar.gz` extension are located on your machine.

## 5.4.3. Finding a File by More Complex Criteria

There are many categories you can use to make your search more precise. The more you know about the file, the better are your chances of finding it.

Date modified

  Here, you can specify that you only want to see files which were last touched in a given period of time. You can also specify that you only want to see files that were touched since a specified number of months or days ago.

File type

  If you know that the file was of a special type (e.g., a tar/gzip archive or a jpeg picture), you can tell KFind to find only this type of file.

Text string

  You can specify text that the file must contain.

Size

  If you know the file size, you can limit your search in this regard, as well.

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