Have you recently created an important file on your Windows 10 PC but are not sure where you saved it? Do you not remember the file name of a recently saved file? Want to view all recently saved files? In this guide, we will show you how to view all recently saved files in Windows 10.

You do not need to install or use third-party software to view recently saved files. File Explorer can do this for you.

The File Explorer can be used to view recently saved photos, Word and Excel documents, and other type of files that you created on your PC. There are actually two ways in Windows 10 to view recently saved/created files.

Method 1 – View recently saved files via File Explorer

Method 2 – View recently saved files using search

Method 3 – View recently saved Word/Excel documents

Method 4 – View recently saved Notepad files

Method 1 of 4

View recently saved files using Quick Access In Windows 10

Note that files downloaded from the internet with the help of a browser do not show up in File Explorer Quick Access. You need to open up the Downloads folder and sort files by Date modified to view recently downloaded files.

Apart from downloaded files, you cannot view this method to view files transferred from an external drive to your PC unless you accessed those files after transferring them to your Windows 10 computer. If that is the case, please refer to the directions in Method 2.

Step 1: Open the File Explorer either by clicking on its icon on the taskbar or using the Windows logo + E keyboard shortcut.

Step 2: If the File Explorer opens to Quick Access, you can see the recently saved files in the Recent files section, which appears below the Frequent folders section. The Recent files section shows up to 20 recently saved files.

NOTE: If the File Explorer opens to This PC on your computer, click on the Quick Access option located in the navigation pane (left-pane) to switch to Quick Access.

Method 2 of 4

Step 1: Open the File Explorer and navigate to This PC.

Step 2: In the search box, type the following syntax by making appropriate changes to the date.

modified:4/24/2021 .. 4/28/2021

In the above example, we are searching for files created/modified between 24th and 28th of April. You can change these days as per your requirement.

If you hit the Enter key after typing the above syntax, Windows 10 will search for all files that were modified in that date range. This should help you find the files modified in that range.

Method 3 of 4

View recently saved Word or Excel document in Windows 10

Step 1: Open the Office Word or Excel program.

Step 2: Right-click on the Word/Excel icon on the taskbar to view recently saved/created Word/Excel documents. The list (called Jump list) displays up to 10 recent documents. To view more recent files in the Jump list, refer to our how to increase the number of items in the Jump list guide. The recent document shows up at the top of the list.

Method 4 of 4

View recently saved Notepad files

Step 1: Open the Notepad program.

Step 2: Perform right-click on the Notepad icon on the taskbar to open Notepad’s Jump list, which shows up to 10 recently saved/created/modified files using Notepad.

Our how to view recently deleted files in Windows 10 guide might also interest you.