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Home : Tutorials : Finding Important Files & Folders : Change XP to Windows 98/2000 style search

Change XP search to Windows 98/2000 style search.

Windows XP search default settings have much to be desired.  I perfer the old method of searching so I change it back so it's more like Windows 2000.


  • Open My Computer from either your desktop or Start menu.

  • Press the F3 key to search.

  • Left-click on Change preferences.

  • Left-click on Without an animated screen character. (optional)
  • OR just Left-click on Change files and folders search behavior instead. (& skip past the next two steps.)

  • Left-click on Change preferences.

  • Left-click on Change files and folders search behavior. (Continue from here if you kept the dog around.)

  • Change to Advanced search behavior & left-click OK.

  • Left-click on the down triangle next to My Computer under Look in:   You will see a dropdown menu similar to this.  Select Local Hard Drives to search all local drive letters.  Search My Computer to search everything including any network drives.  (My (M:) drive is networked.  In the right pane of My Computer you can see the picture in front of g$, an indication a drive is networked.)
  •   Searching networked drvies can be quite slow using this method.
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