Tip- How to create Virtual Folders in Windows XP and Vista?

29 Mar

Posted by Abdul Aziz as Tips, Windows, Windows Vista

It is one of the best yet most unnoticed feature of Windows Xp and Windows Vista- Virtual Folders.

Vista has introduced the concept of Virtual Folders which are dynamically updated folders that contain shortcuts to files that match a certain criteria/filter. For example, you can create a Virtual Folder that can contain all pictures on your hard drive that were taken on 1st feb, 2007.

To create a Virtual Folder in Vista, do the following:

1) Open Search and type your search criteria
2) After the search is complete, click on File and Select Save Search

The Query is saved as a Vitual Folder as shown below, the contents of which are updated automatically as and when files matching the filter are added to your computer.

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Surprisingly this feature also existed in Windows XP but not in the form of dynamically updated folders. in Windows XP, after the search is complete, if you right click in the search results pane, you would an option to “Save Search”. The resultant file is in the FND format. If you open the FND file, it will not instantly display the files in Windows Explorer but will bring up Microsoft Search program to manually search for the files again.

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7 Responses

nyunyu

October 22nd, 2007 at 1:24 am
1

nice tip..i use vista but this tip never have been known to me. thanks. added you to my blogroll.
Terence

March 21st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
2

Interesting,,,But, I am using xp pro…how can i now use the .fnd file ??

I have a need to create a virtula drive or folder which envapsulates 2 seperate physical drives ?
Peter

July 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
3

The problem with XP’s saved searches is that, if you specify a certain drive or folder to search in, this information isn’t saved - opening the saved search, you default back to all drives, all folders, so you have to browse through your computer and make the selection all over. Virtual Folders doesn’t require this. I’m still looking for something comparable.
vbkun

September 14th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
4

to terence, that does not exist in windows xp, what he requested. the better approach was a Japanese application that had it’s own issues and the user stopped it’s development.
i still don’t know why there’s isn’t such application since each time u get more and more people wit various hard discs.
vbkun

September 14th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
5

adding:
http://www.winfate.com/archives/51002565.html

the application, as far as i remember the main bug was that asian seems to consider A different from a …. so the words Apple abacato mixing and Zebraa would get arranged like:

Apple
Zebraa
abacato
mixing

Each 6 months I search for an application like over the last 4 years and still nothing -.-
Dave Leippe

November 25th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
6

If it’s photos, audio, or other media, use Photoshop Elements to keep track of all your media regardless of whether it is online or offline. It has “watched folders” so that when a new media file is downloaded to any folder you designate as a watched folder, then the library is automatically updated as to the files name, location, and metadata.
Floris

February 24th, 2009 at 11:21 am
7

If you mention Photoshop Elements for media you can mention Coppernic(free) for all desktop files as well.
The idea is great! But it doesn’t index ‘mdi’ files and it uses a lot of cpu to index.