Can I filter files by date and type at the same time in Windows?

Not cleanly in Explorer, which mostly lets you sort one column at a time. In Elegant File Explorer, open View ▸ Filters ▸ Advanced filter and set both a type (documents, images, videos…) and a modified-date window (last 7 days, last 30 days, this year, over a year) together — the list shows only the files that match both at once.

How do I combine type, date and size in one filter?

The advanced filter bar has all three axes side by side — Type, Modified and Size — plus a free-text Extensions box. They’re joined by AND, so a file has to satisfy every condition you set to stay in the list. Leave any axis on “any” to ignore it. It’s built for exactly this “recent AND big AND a PDF” kind of question.

What size ranges can I filter by?

The size axis offers preset ranges: empty files, up to 100 KB, 100 KB to 10 MB, 10 to 100 MB, 100 MB to 1 GB, and over 1 GB — plus “any size” to turn the axis off. Combine a range with a type and a date to pin down, say, big recent videos in a couple of clicks.

Does the filter search my whole computer?

No — the filter refines the folder you’re currently viewing, working on the files already listed, so it’s instant and doesn’t crawl your disk. To search your entire computer for a file, use the app’s instant search instead, which is built to sweep across your drives. The filter sharpens one folder; the search finds things anywhere.

Does the filter stay on when I switch folders or tabs?

Each tab remembers its own advanced filter, so switching tabs restores the bar exactly as you left it. A “filter active” chip and a live count in the footer remind you it’s on, and one click on Clear removes it and brings the full folder back. Available now on the Microsoft Store.

Filter files by date, type and size at once

You know the file is in this folder. You even know roughly what it is: a PDF, from around last month, on the larger side. But the folder has eight hundred things in it, and finding that one file means scrolling, sorting, scrolling again — because the folder answers only one question at a time. Sort by date and you lose the size ordering. Sort by size and the dates scatter. What you actually want to ask is a single combined question: show me the PDFs, from the last 30 days, over 10 MB — and have the list simply become those files.

Windows Explorer doesn’t really let you do that. This guide is about a folder that does: one bar where you stack type, date, size and even specific extensions together, and the list narrows to exactly what matches all of them at once.

Why Explorer’s filtering falls short#

Explorer isn’t filter-less. You can click a column header to sort, type into the search box, and there are date and size options buried in the search filters. The trouble is they don’t combine cleanly into a single, visible, adjustable set of conditions. You end up leaning on sorting — which only orders the list, it doesn’t shrink it — so the file you want is still somewhere in eight hundred rows, just in a different order. And because sorting answers one axis at a time, “recent and big and a PDF” is three separate mental passes over the same list.

The fix isn’t a cleverer sort. It’s being able to say all your conditions at once and watch everything that doesn’t match simply step out of the way.

The quick filter: one category, one click#

Start with the light version. Under View ▸ Filters, Elegant File Explorer has a quick type filter that narrows the current folder to a single category. The familiar ones are there — Images, Documents, Spreadsheets, Archives, Scripts/Executables — and the list now goes further with six more: Videos, Audio, Code, Fonts, Installers and Shortcuts. Click Images and the folder shows only images. Click Installers and only the .exe and .msi type files remain. It’s the fastest way to cut a busy folder down to “just the videos” without typing anything.

Each of those categories draws on the same internal definition of what counts as a video, an installer, a font — the same set the app uses everywhere else — so “Documents” means the same thing here as it does across the app. One click, one category. When one axis is all you need, this is it.

The advanced filter: stacking conditions that all have to be true#

When one category isn’t enough, open View ▸ Filters ▸ Advanced filter…. A compact, collapsible bar slides in between the toolbar and the file list, and this is where the combining happens. It lets you set four things at the same time, joined by AND — every file shown has to satisfy all of them:

Type — the same categories as the quick filter (images, documents, videos, installers, and so on).
Modified — a time window: today, the last 7 days, the last 30 days, this year, or over a year old (plus “any date” to leave the axis off).
Size — a range: empty files, up to 100 KB, 100 KB to 10 MB, 10 to 100 MB, 100 MB to 1 GB, or over 1 GB (plus “any size”).
Extensions — a free-text box for exact extensions when a category isn’t specific enough. Type something like psd ai indd and it narrows to just those. The field is forgiving about how you type it — spaces, commas, semicolons, a leading dot, upper or lower case all get sorted out for you — so you can jot psd, ai; .INDD and it understands.

Set two of them, or all four. Documents, this year, over 100 MB. Videos, last 30 days. Anything with a .psd extension, over 1 GB. The list becomes precisely the files that clear every condition you set — the thing plain sorting could never do.

A couple of thoughtful details keep it from getting in your way:

Folders never vanish because of the type, size or extension filters — otherwise you couldn’t navigate. (The date filter does apply to folders, the same way it does in Explorer, since a folder has a modified date too.)
You always know it’s on. A small “filter active” chip shows in the bar, and the footer keeps a live count — “Advanced filter: 12 of 840 items” — so you can see at a glance how much you’ve narrowed things. When you’re done, one click on Clear resets everything and the full folder is back.

It remembers per tab, and it’s instant#

Two things make this pleasant to actually live with.

First, the filter is remembered per tab. If you’re working across several folders in tabs, each tab keeps its own filter settings — switch away and back and the bar restores exactly as you left it. You can have one tab narrowed to “recent big videos” and another to “small documents from this year” and they don’t step on each other.

Second, it’s instant, because it works on the files already listed in front of you rather than launching a fresh scan of the disk. The filter refines the current folder’s view; it doesn’t crawl your drive. That’s the deliberate trade-off — for narrowing down a folder you’re already looking at, it’s immediate. When what you need is to search your whole computer for a file, that’s a different tool (the instant search, which does sweep the disk), and it’s worth keeping the two jobs distinct: the filter bar sharpens this folder, the search finds things anywhere.

Where a filter ends and a rule begins#

The filter bar is for finding — narrowing a folder in the moment so you can act on what’s left. It’s perfect for “let me isolate these files, then move or delete them by hand.” What it doesn’t do is keep doing it: close the filter and the folder is whole again.

If you find yourself setting the same filter over and over — every week you isolate the big old videos, or the installers piling up in Downloads — that’s the signal that a filter has quietly become a rule. At that point the same conditions (type, age, size) can be handed to automation that runs on its own, and the files sort themselves without you opening the bar at all. We walk through that shift in how to auto-organize your Downloads — but it starts here, with seeing exactly which files you mean.