How to Find Files by Date Modified on Windows

You changed a file recently but can't find it now. Maybe you were working on a document yesterday, or you downloaded something last week and forgot where it went. Windows has a few ways to find files by when they were last modified, but some work better than others.

Method 1: File Explorer Date Filter (The Quick Way)

File Explorer has built-in date filters that let you narrow down files by when they were last changed. It's the fastest way to find something if you know roughly when you last worked on it.

Steps:

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the folder you want to search
2. Click the search box in the top right corner
3. Type datemodified:today or datemodified:this week

Other useful date filters:

• datemodified:yesterday
• datemodified:last month
• datemodified:1/1/2026..3/31/2026 (files modified in a specific date range)

You can also click the Date modified column header in Details view to sort files by date. This is a quick way to see the most recently changed files at the top of the list.

Limitations:

• Only searches within one folder at a time, unless you search from "This PC" which can be very slow
• Only matches filenames by default, not file contents
• The search filter syntax is hard to remember and easy to get wrong

Method 2: PowerShell forfiles (Search by Date Across Folders)

For a more precise search, PowerShell can find files modified after a specific date across an entire folder tree. This is useful when you need to search multiple subfolders at once or want exact control over the date range.

Using forfiles:

forfiles /P "C:\Users\YourName\Documents" /S /D +01/01/2026 /C "cmd /c echo @path @fdate"

This finds all files in your Documents folder (and subfolders) that were modified on or after January 1, 2026, and prints their path and date.

Using Get-ChildItem:

# Find files modified in the last 7 days
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\YourName\Documents" -Recurse |
  Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) }

You can change -7 to any number of days. Use -30 for the last month, -1 for the last 24 hours, and so on.

Limitations:

• Requires typing commands, which is not ideal for everyone
• You need to know the syntax or look it up each time
• Only finds files by date, not by what is inside them

Method 3: FileScope — When You Don't Remember the Exact Date

Date filters are useful when you know roughly when you last worked on a file. But sometimes you remember what was in the file, not when you saved it.

FileScope takes a different approach. Instead of filtering by date, you describe what the file is about and it finds it for you.

Steps:

1. Download and install FileScope
2. Choose the folders you want it to scan
3. Press Ctrl+Space anywhere on your desktop
4. Describe what you are looking for
5. Open the matching file directly from the results

For example, instead of trying to remember if you edited the file on Tuesday or Wednesday, you can search for:

"budget proposal for the marketing team"

FileScope finds the file based on what is inside it. And because it also tracks when files were last modified, recent files naturally appear higher in the results.

More Than Date Search

FileScope searches across all your files at once:

• Excel spreadsheets
• PDFs
• Word documents
• CSV files
• Text files
• Images using OCR

Everything runs locally on your Windows PC, so your files don't need to be uploaded to the cloud and you don't need a cloud account.

Why FileScope Is Useful

The biggest advantage is simple: you don't need to remember when you saved the file, what you named it, or which folder it's in. You just describe what you need, and FileScope finds it.

Comparison

Conclusion

File Explorer's date filters are the fastest way to find recently modified files when you know the rough timeframe. PowerShell gives you more control if you need to search across multiple folders with precise date ranges.

If you remember what the file is about but not when you last touched it, FileScope finds it by content and meaning.