Guides · for everyone · updated August 2026
How to find a file you lost on your computer.
The fastest way: search your whole machine at once. By part of the name, or by any phrase you remember from inside the file. An indexed search tool like Interlinked Files answers in milliseconds across every drive and folder, including inside PDFs.
Three ways in, depending on what you remember
1 · You remember part of the name
Type it. Even a fragment works: “invoice”, “henderson”, “tax 2024”. An indexed name search covers every file on the machine and answers as you type; a single name lookup takes well under a millisecond. Windows Explorer's search, by comparison, walks folders and skips anything outside its indexed locations.
2 · You remember something inside it
Search the contents. Any phrase you're sure appears in the file (a person's name, an address, a sentence) finds it, even when the filename is something useless like scan_0417.pdf. Interlinked Files searches inside PDFs, text files, and code; a whole-machine content search typically answers in about 8 milliseconds.
3 · You remember what it was saved with
Use its connections. Files keep company: the contract that was always open next to a quote sheet, the export saved the same day as the photos. Interlinked Files records these relationships automatically, so finding one file from that day surfaces the others alongside it, including files whose names never matched your search at all.
Honest scope: content search reads PDFs, plain text, and code files. Word and Excel files are found by name (and by their connections), not by the text inside them. Windows 10 or later.
Common questions
How do I find a file if I can't remember its name?
Search by what's inside it instead. If you can remember any phrase that appears in the file (a client's name, an address, a sentence you wrote), an indexed search tool like Interlinked Files finds every file containing that phrase in milliseconds, including inside PDFs and plain-text files.
Why can't Windows Search find a file I know exists?
Windows Search only indexes certain folders (mainly your libraries) and often skips file contents entirely. A file saved outside the indexed locations, or a phrase inside a PDF, is invisible to it. A whole-machine index covers every drive and folder, so nothing is out of bounds.
Can I search every drive and folder at once?
Yes. That's the difference between an indexed search and folder-by-folder browsing. Interlinked Files builds one index of every file on the machine, so a single search covers all of it at once, typically in under 10 milliseconds.
Do I need to be technical to use this?
No. You type words into a search box (a bit of the name, or a phrase from inside the file) and results appear as you type. There is nothing to configure; the index builds itself after install.
Everything local in Interlinked Files is free forever, no card. Download for Windows · works for you, and for any AI assistant you use, through the same index.