The window that appear as Find Shortcuts starts is similar to the Find Files window that comes with Windows 98. Most of the elements (menus, buttons, etc.) should be familiar.

Shortcuts always have a "target" which will be invoked. Depending on the target, the shortcut may open a folder, run a program, open a document, play a music file, open a web page, and so forth. When "Test" is selected (from the Edit menu, clicking the Test button, or by pressing F7), Find Shortcuts checks the target of each shortcut to see if it is valid. Since shortcuts can have a variety of targets, testing can involve various actions, but in most cases Find Shortcuts simply checks to see if the target exists on your system.

During testing, a progress bar appears in the second portion of the status bar. If any shortcuts fail the test, that part of the status bar will indicate how many failed. Shortcuts that pass the test will display a green check mark beside the filename. Those that fail will have a red "X" and the entire line for that shortcut will be red a

If the Named box is left empty, Find Shortcuts will search for all shortcuts. Otherwise, only shortcut filenames matching the search string will be found. Wildcards (* and ?) can be used, but are often not necessary. For example, entering "ms" in the Named box will locate all shortcuts which contain "ms" (or "MS") anywhere in their filename. The Named box also includes a drop down list of previous search strings.

The Types box can limit the search to only certain types of shortcuts. This can be useful if you are searching through large numbers of shortcuts (e.g., the entire Start Menu).

Once you click Find Now (or press Enter) you will see search results (if any shortcuts matching the search criteria are found). Once you see files you can test the shortcuts.

Related keywords: