how to sort files according to date of creation

[brannsiu]

I have a folder, in which inside there are many many sub-folders and files

I'd like to sort out all files created according to years, I'd like to find out all files created before a particular time like , created before 2016

How to sort out quickly and easily instead of manually looking at each folder?

 

[gdmaclew]

What version of Windows are you using?

 

[CyberBlade]

Right click on the white page anywhere in Windows explorer and goto sort by and select date. Thats it.

 

[Nigel Spike]

In Windows Explorer you can click on the date column header. In Command prompt, you can use "DIR /OD".

Nigel

 

[Math Geek]

notice that the OP states the files are all in a bunch of folders. so simply sorting by date does nothing for all the files inside of the folders. i assume he knows how to sort by date

what i would do is start a search withing file explorer and limit it to the main folder holding all the sub-folders so it includes everything below in the sub-folders. the search for *.* which will show every file in all the folders. now you got them all in one list like you want without having to open each folder.

now sort by date to get them all in timeline order. from here you can cut and paste them into new folders based on year or do whatever other sorting/organizing you want to do. cutting and pasting from the search result will remove it from the folder it is in now. might be better to create a new series of folders by year and copy and paste into them as you go. then once it is all sorted how you now want it, you can just delete the first set of folders to get rid of them and not have duplicates everywhere

 

[Nigel Spike]

Ops, missed the part of listing and sorting files in sub folders.

For speed and simplicity I would then recommend a third party software such as Total Commander, which lets you search the full drive on different criteria such as file date between A and B.

Nigel

 

[Math Geek]

i should also add that with windows 10, this is damn near impossible to do through file explorer. my method works on previous versions but win 10 has crippled the hell out of the search feature. 3rd party software is probably a better way to go with win 10.

not sure how they managed to screw up such a simple thing in windows with v. 10, but it is almost useless now. odd since MS catalogs everything on your pc for their easy of use by seems to forget folks may want to actually access their own data as well.

 

[gdmaclew]

i should also add that with windows 10, this is damn near impossible to do through file explorer. my method works on previous versions but win 10 has crippled the hell out of the search feature. 3rd party software is probably a better way to go with win 10.

not sure how they managed to screw up such a simple thing in windows with v. 10, but it is almost useless now. odd since MS catalogs everything on your pc for their easy of use by seems to forget folks may want to actually access their own data as well.

Now you know why some people think that Win10 is a step backwards. I can just see the people around the table at a design meeting..."now, what can we do to piss our users off".

 

[Math Geek]

lol, like that was the first hint. been cussing at win 10 as an insider well before it went public. this is just one more thing to note they screwed up.

won't be too much longer and we'll be using terms like "jailbreak" and "root" in reference to win 10. looking at insider builds and where they are headed, i have no doubt they will be taking more and more control away over the next couple large updates. introduced a setting last week to only allow windows store apps on the pc and nothing else. when it goes live i'm sure they will "accidentally" enable it by default. another update down the line and it won't be an option but policy.