Find items in the Windows Media Player library

Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.
Which edition of Windows Vista am I using?

You can use Windows Media Player to find where items are in your library or to search for items in an online store that you have signed up with. You can also find where files in your library are stored on your computer or jump to music in the same album.

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To search for items in the library

To ensure that you can easily find items in the library, it is important that files have accurate and complete media information. If necessary, you can add or edit media information for the files.
1.	Click the Library tab.
2.	On the address bar, click the Select a category button , and then select the media type you want to search. For example, click Pictures if you want to search picture files in your library.
3.	In the search box, type the text you want to find. Note that it is not possible to use wildcard characters, such as * and ?, in a search. To clear the search box of previous search criteria, click the Clear Search button . You can also perform advanced searches.

To find where a file is stored on your computer

Click the Library tab, and then browse to the file you want to find on your computer. Or, if the file is displayed in the List pane, move to step 2.

Right-click the file and then click Open File Location.

To find where all files in a category are stored, do the following:

a.	On the address bar, click the Select a category button , and then click the category you want, such as Music.
b.	In the Navigation pane, right-click Library, and then click Show More Views.
c.	In the Navigation pane, click Folder. A column in the Details pane displays the path to all of the files in that category.

To find files that were recently added to the library

Files that were added to the library in the last 30 days are displayed in a Recently Added view in the library. This includes files that were added from monitored folders, downloaded from an online store, copied from a device, or dragged from a folder to the library.
1.	Click the Library tab.
2.	On the address bar, click the Select a category button , and then click the category that you want to look in, such as Music.
3.	In the Navigation pane, click Recently Added. If this view is not displayed, it means that no files have been recently added to that category.

To find files you downloaded from an online store

1.	Click the Library tab.
2.	On the address bar, click the Select a category button , and then click the category that you want to look in, such as Music.
3.	In the Navigation pane, right-click Library, and then click Show More Views.
4.	In the Navigation pane, click Online Stores. In the Details pane, the files in your library are grouped by the online store from which they came.

To find music from the same album in the library

When a song is in a playlist in the List pane, you can quickly find other songs from the same album.

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In the List pane, right-click the song and select Find in Library.

The Player will display all the songs in the library from the same album.