Where does Windows 7 hide files?

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:26:10 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:

> One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one can
> waste a lot of time trying to find them.
>
> The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
>
> I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find the
> file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
> directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.
>
> When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to install,
> but I cannot find the file.
>
> Any hints about where I could look?

Look in the "Program files" marked with "x86".
sometimes the folder name will be different from the program name.
try looking for the company name.

One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one can
waste a lot of time trying to find them.

The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.

I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find the
file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.

When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to install,
but I cannot find the file.

Any hints about where I could look?


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 18 Jan 2012, Steve Hayes <> wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

> One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files
> and one can waste a lot of time trying to find them.
>
> The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
>
> I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i
> can't find the file. I can find the download of the previous
> version in the C:\Download directory, where, if I remember
> correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.
>
> When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready
> to install, but I cannot find the file.
>
> Any hints about where I could look?

Use another search tool rather than Windows's built-in one. I find it
difficult to use and not very accurate.

I like Everything Search: <http://www.voidtools.com/>

and Agent Ransack
<http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home>

I have them both installed. Agent Ransack has more options and is able
to search file contents, size, date, etc., but it is slower than...

Everything only searches file names, but it's VERY fast. Since I'm
looking for files by name 95% of the time, that's the one that gets
used most.

On 1/18/2012, Steve Hayes posted:
> One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one
> can waste a lot of time trying to find them.

> The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.

> I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find
> the file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
> directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.

> When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to install,
> but I cannot find the file.

> Any hints about where I could look?

Did you look in Acronis's menus?

Frequently what you want will be in Help - Check for updates, but
Acronis might do it differently.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Steve Hayes wrote:
> One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one can
> waste a lot of time trying to find them.
>
> The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
>
> I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find the
> file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
> directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.
>
> When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to install,
> but I cannot find the file.
>
> Any hints about where I could look?
>
>

I can get the Windows "dir" command to make a nice file list, but it doesn't
list file sizes. Run from an elevated command prompt (cmd.exe , then "Run as Administrator").

dir /B /S/ c:\ > output.txt

Maybe there is some way to get file sizes with another option, but I gave up on it.
At the very least, it seems to be able to list things just below c: (with the
conspicuous exception of C:\System Volume Information).

The other tools for listing a disk, is the Sysinternals "contig" program. This is a
side effect of the program, rather than it's main purpose. Note that the 2011 version
was butchered to remove this capability, so we have to download an old copy. I tested
a 2006, a 2008, and a 2011 version, and the 2006 and 2008 ones were OK.

http://wayback.archive.org/web/20060...les/Contig.zip

Same deal, open a Command Prompt window, and run something like this:

contig -v -a -s c:\ > output2.txt

On my laptop, that produced a 44MB output2.txt file, to be opened with
a text editor.

This is the output format from contig. Not very useful, unless data mined programmatically.

------------------------
Processing c:\\Windows\winsxs\x86_wwf-system.workflow.activities_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17514_none_346d5ccdd640c664\System.Workflow.Act ivities.dll:
Scanning file...
File size: 1142784 bytes

c:\\Windows\winsxs\x86_wwf-system.workflow.activities_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17514_none_346d5ccdd640c664\System.Workflow.Act ivities.dll is in 1 fragment
------------------------

It gives a file path and a file size, and if you're desperate enough,
maybe that's enough.

Paul

On 1/18/2012, Paul posted:
> I can get the Windows "dir" command to make a nice file list, but it doesn't
> list file sizes. Run from an elevated command prompt (cmd.exe , then "Run as
> Administrator").

> dir /B /S/ c:\ > output.txt

> Maybe there is some way to get file sizes with another option, but I gave up
> on it.
> At the very least, it seems to be able to list things just below c: (with the
> conspicuous exception of C:\System Volume Information).

That was confusing here: my newsreader thinks slashes mean italics :-)

Without the B switch, I get file sizes.

Another alternative is a file-size graphical display, such as
WindDirStat or SequoiaView:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

http://w3.win.tue.nl/en/research/res...n/sequoiaview/

These days I like the first one better, but both are OK. They aren't
useful if you're looking for a small file, though :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 1/18/2012, Gene E. Bloch posted:
> On 1/18/2012, Paul posted:
>> I can get the Windows "dir" command to make a nice file list, but it
>> doesn't
>> list file sizes. Run from an elevated command prompt (cmd.exe , then "Run
>> as Administrator").

>> dir /B /S/ c:\ > output.txt

>> Maybe there is some way to get file sizes with another option, but I gave
>> up on it.
>> At the very least, it seems to be able to list things just below c: (with
>> the
>> conspicuous exception of C:\System Volume Information).

> That was confusing here: my newsreader thinks slashes mean italics :-)

> Without the B switch, I get file sizes.

> Another alternative is a file-size graphical display, such as WindDirStat or
> SequoiaView:

> http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

> http://w3.win.tue.nl/en/research/res...n/sequoiaview/

> These days I like the first one better, but both are OK. They aren't useful
> if you're looking for a small file, though :-)

While I think of it, another switch for the dir command is /O which
sets the sort order. For example,

dir /S /O-S .

would sort the current directory (.), and in turn each subdirectory, in
reverse order by size (the - sign reverses the order).

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:23:26 -0500, richard <>
wrote:

>Look in the "Program files" marked with "x86".

You mean the directory C:\Program Files (x86) ?

>sometimes the folder name will be different from the program name.
>try looking for the company name.

richard, it's best you stick to asking questions, not trying to answer
them.
--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious and .invalid from my e-mail address.

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:26:10 +0200, Steve Hayes
<> wrote:

>One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files and one can
>waste a lot of time trying to find them.
>
>The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
>
>I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i can't find the
>file. I can find the download of the previous version in the C:\Download
>directory, where, if I remember correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.
>
>When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready to install,
>but I cannot find the file.
>
>Any hints about where I could look?

Well, it doesn't really have to do with Windows, that's an Acronis
issue

Easiest thing is download Total commander - a very nice file manager
program from http://www.ghisler.com/ ..

Then, navigate to C:\, (assuming you saved it to your C drive) hit
Alt-F7 to search, advanced, search for larger than say 200 MB, and
date in the last <X> days from when you downloaded it. Give it a few
minutes to find the file
--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious and .invalid from my e-mail address.

Nil wrote:
> On 18 Jan 2012, Steve Hayes <> wrote in
> alt.windows7.general:
>
>> One of the things I dislike about Windows 7 is that it hides files
>> and one can waste a lot of time trying to find them.
>>
>> The latest one that it has done this to is an update to Acronis.
>>
>> I downloaded it yesterday, all 250 or so megabytes of it, and i
>> can't find the file. I can find the download of the previous
>> version in the C:\Download directory, where, if I remember
>> correctly I asked it to put downloaded files.
>>
>> When I run Acronis, it tells me there is an updated version ready
>> to install, but I cannot find the file.
>>
>> Any hints about where I could look?
>
> Use another search tool rather than Windows's built-in one. I find it
> difficult to use and not very accurate.
>
> I like Everything Search: <http://www.voidtools.com/>
>
> and Agent Ransack
> <http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home>
>
> I have them both installed. Agent Ransack has more options and is able
> to search file contents, size, date, etc., but it is slower than...
>
> Everything only searches file names, but it's VERY fast. Since I'm
> looking for files by name 95% of the time, that's the one that gets
> used most.

Thanks Nil. I just installed Everything Search. Its very fast
and does what I want. I found the native 7 search worthless.