Abstract:
A method, program and system for searching for files in a computer system employing a Windows operating system is provided. The invention includes receiving search criteria through a Run menu command line, wherein the Run menu is opened by selecting a Start menu, and wherein the search criteria include: a directory and at least one wildcard symbol that represents any number of unspecified characters. The wildcard symbol may represent characters in a file name or character desginating a file type. The search criteria may also include a definite identifying character (e.g., t), which may be part of the file name or file type. The invention searches the directory specified in the search criteria and retrieves a list of the files in the directory that match the search criteria. The invention then opens a window and displays the list of retrieved files.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Technical Field  
         [0002]     The present invention relates generally to the file system in a computer, and more specifically to file search and retrieval.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0004]     Most all operating systems use a hierarchical file system to store data and programs. Examples include DOS, OS/2, Windows NT and UNIX. Hierarchical file organization stores data in a top-to-bottom structure. All internal access to the data starts at the top and proceeds through each level of the hierarchy. In hierarchical file systems, the starting point in the hierarchy is the root directory. Access to other directories and subdirectories in the hierarchy requires naming them in the root directory&#39;s path. For example, in DOS and Windows, the command line symbol for the root directory is a backslash (\). In UNIX, the symbol is a forward slash (/).  
         [0005]     In UNIX or DOS, a user can view specific files from any directory by using a “*” character (where * can signify any number of characters). Windows does not have this capability.  
         [0006]     In the Windows operating system, a user may have a window open, which displays specific files when doing a search. For example, from a browser window, a user can type in “c:\” and the window will display the complete contents of the root directory on the c drive. However, unlike UNIX and DOS, the user cannot type in “c:\*.txt” and receive a display of the root directory contents of the c drive, limited to files that match the text (.txt) criterion. Currently, a Windows user must either search through a long list of files a directory or use the search function under the start menu and select advanced options and uncheck search subfolders. Both options are cumbersome.  
         [0007]     Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method in Windows for searching for specific files types in a directory immediately from the Start menu, without having to use the “Search” and then “For Files or Folders . . . ” option.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     The present invention provides a method, program and system for searching for files in a computer system employing a Windows operating system. The invention includes receiving search criteria through a Run menu command line, wherein the Run menu is opened by selecting a Start menu, and wherein the search criteria include: a directory and at least one wildcard symbol that represents any number of unspecified characters. The wildcard symbol may represent characters in a file name or character desginating a file type. The search criteria may also include a definite identifying character (e.g., t), which may be part of the file name or file type. The invention searches the directory specified in the search criteria and retrieves a list of the files in the directory that match the search criteria. The invention then opens a window and displays the list of retrieved files.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]     The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0010]      FIG. 1  depicts a pictorial representation of a data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  depicts a block diagram of a data processing system is shown in which the present invention may be implemented;  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  depicts a diagram illustrating the user process of performing a targeted search in Windows in accordance with the prior art;  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  depicts a flowchart illustrating the process of performing a specific file search directly from the Run menu in accordance with the present invention; and  
         [0014]      FIG. 5  depicts a pictorial diagram illustrating a Windows file search display in accordance with the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0015]     With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference to  FIG. 1 , a pictorial representation of a data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. A computer  100  is depicted which includes a system unit  110 , a video display terminal  102 , a keyboard  104 , storage devices  108 , which may include floppy drives and other types of permanent and removable storage media, and mouse  106 . Additional input devices may be included with personal computer  100 , such as, for example, a joystick, touchpad, touch screen, trackball, microphone, and the like. Computer  100  can be implemented using any suitable computer, such as an IBM RS/6000 computer or IntelliStation computer, which are products of International Business Machines Corporation, located in Armonk, N.Y. Although the depicted representation shows a computer, other embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in other types of data processing systems, such as a network computer. Computer  100  also preferably includes a graphical user interface that may be implemented by means of systems software residing in computer readable media in operation within computer  100 .  
         [0016]     With reference now to  FIG. 2 , a block diagram of a data processing system is shown in which the present invention may be implemented. Data processing system  200  is an example of a computer, such as computer  100  in  FIG. 1 , in which code or instructions implementing the processes of the present invention may be located. Data processing system  200  employs a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus architecture. Although the depicted example employs a PCI bus, other bus architectures such as Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) may be used. Processor  202  and main memory  204  are connected to PCI local bus  206  through PCI bridge  208 . PCI bridge  208  also may include an integrated memory controller and cache memory for processor  202 . Additional connections to PCI local bus  206  may be made through direct component interconnection or through add-in boards. In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter  210 , small computer system interface SCSI host bus adapter  212 , and expansion bus interface  214  are connected to PCI local bus  206  by direct component connection. In contrast, audio adapter  216 , graphics adapter  218 , and audio/video adapter  219  are connected to PCI local bus  206  by add-in boards inserted into expansion slots. Expansion bus interface  214  provides a connection for a keyboard and mouse adapter  220 , modem  222 , and additional memory  224 . SCSI host bus adapter  212  provides a connection for hard disk drive  226 , tape drive  228 , and CD-ROM drive  230 . Typical PCI local bus implementations will support three or four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors.  
         [0017]     An operating system runs on processor  202  and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system  200  in  FIG. 2 . The operating system may be a commercially available operating system such as Windows 2000, which is available from Microsoft Corporation. An object oriented programming system such as Java may run in conjunction with the operating system and provides calls to the operating system from Java programs or applications executing on data processing system  200 . “Java” is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive  226 , and may be loaded into main memory  204  for execution by processor  202 .  
         [0018]     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in  FIG. 2  may vary depending on the implementation. Other internal hardware or peripheral devices, such as flash ROM (or equivalent nonvolatile memory) or optical disk drives and the like, may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in  FIG. 2 . Also, the processes of the present invention may be applied to a multiprocessor data processing system.  
         [0019]     For example, data processing system  200 , if optionally configured as a network computer, may not include SCSI host bus adapter  212 , hard disk drive  226 , tape drive  228 , and CD-ROM  230 , as noted by dotted line  232  in  FIG. 2  denoting optional inclusion. In that case, the computer, to be properly called a client computer, must include some type of network communication interface, such as LAN adapter  210 , modem  222 , or the like. As another example, data processing system  200  may be a stand-alone system configured to be bootable without relying on some type of network communication interface, whether or not data processing system  200  comprises some type of network communication interface. As a further example, data processing system  200  may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is configured with ROM and/or flash ROM to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data.  
         [0020]     The depicted example in  FIG. 2  and above-described examples are not meant to imply architectural limitations. For example, data processing system  200  also may be a notebook computer or hand held computer in addition to taking the form of a PDA. Data processing system  200  also may be a kiosk or a Web appliance.  
         [0021]     The processes of the present invention are performed by processor  202  using computer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory such as, for example, main memory  204 , memory  224 , or in one or more peripheral devices  226 - 230 .  
         [0022]     In UNIX or DOS, a user can view specific files from any directory by using a “*” character (where * can signify any number of characters). For example, a user may enter the DOS search command: 
        c:\winnt\system32&gt;dir a*.dll 
 
 In response to this search, DOS will return all DLL (dynamic link library) files in the directory for c:\winnt\system32 that begin with “a”. Windows does not allow this type of specificity in a search from a browser window or run menu. Instead, the user must search the entire directory. 
       
 
         [0024]     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a diagram illustrating the user process of performing a targeted search in Windows is depicted in accordance with the prior art. In order to perform an exclusive search for specific types of files, the user must first go to the Start menu for Windows (step  301 ) and select “Search” (step  302 ). The user then selects “For Files or Folders” (step  303 ). The user has to expand the advanced options (step  304 ) and unselect Search Subfolders (step  305 ). The user then enters the search criteria containing a wildcard symbol, e.g., “a*.dll” (step  306 ).  
         [0025]     In response to the search criteria, the Windows operating system finds all of the files contained in the directory (step  307 ), selects the files that satisfy the search criteria (step  308 ), and displays a list of the selected files to the user (step  309 ).  
         [0026]     Within the context of the Search menu, Windows does recognize that the wildcard symbol (i.e. “*”) represents any number of indefinite characters. However, the Windows Run menu does not recognize the wildcard and instead interprets the wildcard symbol literally. The present invention provides a way for the user to perform an exclusive file search directly through the Run menu, without having to make a search through the Search menu, with the extra steps that involves.  
         [0027]     Referring to  FIG. 4 , a flowchart illustrating the process of performing a specific file search directly from the Run menu is depicted in accordance with the present invention. The user begins the search by selecting the Start button (step  401 ) and then selecting Run (step  402 ). When the Run dialog box opens, the user enters a directory structure followed by search criteria (step  403 ). Using the same example from above, the user decides to search for all DLL files that begin with “a”. Therefore, the user enters the appropriate search parameters, including the wildcard symbol “*” to represent all characters that come after “a” (i.e. C:\winnt\system32\a*.dll).  
         [0028]     The wildcard symbol may come before or after the specified identifying characters. In the example above, the parameter a*.dll, refers to all DLL files that begin with “a”, no matter what comes after the “a”. Another example would be *a.dll. This refers to all DLL files that end with “a”, regardless of what characters come before the wildcard. Similarly, the wildcard may represent characters designating the file type. For example, the file designation might be “.t*”, which would indicate any file type that began with “t”, e.g., text or TIFF. Similarly, “.*t” would indicate any file type that ended with “t”. Yet another example might be “a*.t*”, which denotes any file name beginning with “a” in any file type beginning with “t”.  
         [0029]     In the present example, the user runs the command (step  404 ) and the Run menu navigates from the root directory on the C drive (c:\), to the Windows NT directory (winnt), and then to the system directory (system32) (step  405 ).  
         [0030]     After the run menu navigates to the specified directory, it attempts to execute the search program based literally on the characters entered in the command line (step  406 ), and determines if such a file is in the directory (step  407 ). If the characters entered in the command line do indeed literally match a file name in the directory, the Run menu retrieves the file(s) matching the search criteria (step  407 ) and then opens a window that displays the retrieved files (step  408 ).  
         [0031]     However, in the present example, the run command (C:\winnt\system32\a*.dll) includes a wildcard symbol (*) that does not correspond to an actual file name. In the prior art, the search program would return an error message. In the present invention, when an error code is returned, the Run menu first parses the command (step  410 ) and looks for a non-allowed character (step  411 ).  
         [0032]     If all of the characters in the search terms are allowed, then the file does not exist in that directory and the Run menu returns an error message to the user (step  412 ).  
         [0033]     If any of the characters in the search terms are not allowed, then the browser determines if the non-allowed character(s) is a specified wildcard (e.g.,*) that represents unspecified characters (step  413 ). While the wildcard could be any symbol, an asterisk is the recognized symbol used in UNIX and DOS, as well as the Start menu Search function described above.  
         [0034]     If the non-allowed character is not the specified wildcard (i.e. *), then the Run menu returns an error message to the user (step  412 ).  
         [0035]     If the non-allowed character is a wildcard, the Run menu retrieves all files in the directory that match the command criteria (step  408 ) and opens a window that displays the files (step  409 ). These include file names that contain the definite characters in the Run command, with the wildcard character acting as a proxy for all other non-matching characters in the file names.  
         [0036]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , a pictorial diagram illustrating a Windows file search display is depicted in accordance with the present invention. The window  500  displays the files that are retrieved as the result of the search operation depicted in  FIG. 4 . In the address search field  501  is the search parameter that the user entered in the Run menu command line. The results of the search are displayed in field  502 . In this example, the search returned 40 items (files) in the directory that match the .dll criterion, as indicated by display  503 , but only 26 are displayed at any one time in this example. To view the rest of the files, the user must scroll down using the scroll bar  504 . As can be seen in  FIG. 5 , all of the files in display field  605  are DLL files that begin with the letter “a”.  
         [0037]     It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a RAM, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and transmission-type media, such as digital and analog communications links, wired or wireless communications links using transmission forms, such as, for example, radio frequency and light wave transmissions. The computer readable media may take the form of coded formats that are decoded for actual use in a particular data processing system.  
         [0038]     The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.