how can I do a Windows file search by file owner

I want to find a particular Excel file created by a past employee. All I know for sure is the file format (Excel 1997-2003) and the file owner's name. How can I search for this file on a Windows network share by file owner?

Rory

Posted 2012-02-16T16:21:04.763

Reputation: 274

Which Windows version? – m0skit0 – 2012-02-16T16:30:13.760

My own pc is XP 2002 SP3 but I can run the search from the fileserver (Windows Server 2003) – Rory – 2012-02-16T16:35:49.327

Se this...http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/28798-file-search-ownership.html

– Moab – 2012-02-16T16:47:58.620

Thanks Moab. +1. SubInACL it is. Now how can I close this question? – Rory – 2012-02-16T19:50:51.377

Moab - add this as an answer if you wish – Rory – 2012-02-18T21:16:37.347

Answers

DIR C:\*.* /S /Q|FIND /i "username" > C:\userlist.txt

the above searches for every thing the user had in the C: drive, you can substitute the drive letter and the file extention. ex: C:\*.xls or P:\*.xls. the result is sent to C:\userlist.txt, you can direct it to any path of your desire.

user225007

Posted 2012-02-16T16:21:04.763

Reputation: 61

The output does not contain the file path for each file owned by the particular user. What combination of switches would you use to include this information? – BobJim – 2014-10-16T11:04:51.593

Info on DIR & FIND (surprisingly easy to follow) in case people want to do a few more advanced operations

– Greedo – 2017-06-16T08:35:18.493

If you don't really like command prompt (I wouldn't blame you) then simply type "owner:" It should change color as soon as you type the colon. The owner is not a person's name, but rather their user name. You can get a feel for the format, in case you use something strange, by adding the "owner" column in a normal file view.

To do that, right click at the top of detail view in a file explore window (Win+E, if you like shortcuts) and choose "More..." then add owner. Note: you have to right click on an existing column. It's sort of an oversight on microsoft's part. So if all you have is the normal Name, date, type, size, and folder, you can't right click to the right of the folder column.

That's a handy trick to find out who messed with your latest excel file. It'll show you whoever saved it last.

As an example, I wanted to find all Adobe Illustrator files that I made inside of a particular folder. I first go to that location then type: owner:myusername *.ai (where .ai is the file extension for adobe illustrator documents) This search shows me all of the illustrator files where I was the last person to save.

Andy Engelkemier

Posted 2012-02-16T16:21:04.763

Reputation: 31