Unless you’re a perfectionist whose files are all diligently labeled and organized, chances are you’ve had to search for a file at least once in your life. If you’re a new Linux user, you might be wondering how to find files on Linux. The good news is there are several ways to do it, which means that everyone can choose the method that suits them best.

Generally speaking, there are two types of apps that help you find files and folders on Linux. The first are those that search the live filesystem every time. The second type are apps that build an index of files, then perform searches on the index. In this article you’ll find a balanced mix of both, and you can combine them depending on your needs.

How to Find Files in the Terminal

Yes, I know…you’re not a fan of the command-line interface. That’s cool – keep reading and you’ll discover apps that are more to your liking. However, don’t think you can escape the commands. Most of the apps on this list are just graphical interfaces for find and/or locate, so you’ll still be using them, only not directly.

find

Let’s start with the most important command. Find is one of the essential Linux utilities. It looks for a string in the directories you’ve set according to parameters ("switches") that you’ve included. This example:

find /home/username/Documents -iname "writ*" -type f

means that you’re performing a case-insensitive (-iname) search for files (-type f) in the Documents folder, and their filenames begin with "writ". As you can see, find supports wildcards, and you can also use them to find files by their extension (for example, "*.pdf" to find all PDF files in a folder).

You can search for empty files with the -empty option, or find files by size and modification time. Find supports regular expressions, and if you want to search file contents, you can combine it with grep. To learn more, check the official documentation (or just type man find in the terminal).

locate

Locate uses a different approach. It relies on the updatedb utility which creates a database of your files and periodically updates it via cron scheduling. This lets locate know which files are currently present on your filesystem. You can also update the database manually whenever you want.

Locate can search for files by name, and you can use wildcards and regular expressions in your query. For instance:

locate -ei grub.cfg

will list the paths to all existing (-e) files called "grub.cfg". The -i option stands for "case-insensitive". If you don’t know the full name of the file you’re looking for, just type a part of it, and locate will display all files with the word in their name.

whereis

This command has a very specific purpose, so you probably won’t use it every day. Whereis shows you the location of the source, binaries, and user manuals for a given application. This means you won’t run whereis when you want to find a random text file. You will, however, use it when you need to check where GIMP or Firefox keep their configuration and executable files.

You can run whereis without any options to get a list of all files, or add switches for their respective functions (-b for binaries, -s for source, and -m for manuals).

How to Use a File Manager to Find Files

Most file managers for Linux can filter files by name or perform basic searches. If you don’t need any advanced parameters, this is a quick method that does the job.

Nautilus

Access the search function (highlighted in green on the screenshot) by pressing Ctrl+F or by clicking the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar. The search is case-insensitive, so you don’t have to worry about capitalizing your queries. You can filter files by type and location, although the latter is somewhat limited in terms of what you can adjust.

Dolphin

Dolphin’s search responds to the same keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F), or you can open it from the Edit menu. It lets you filter files by name, content and location (current folder or the whole filesystem). If you have enabled file indexing with Baloo, Dolphin will be able to find files by type and modification date.

Krusader

Krusader is popular among KDE users as a Dolphin alternative thanks to its abundance of advanced options. Krusader’s file search functionality is two-fold: it works as a GUI for both find and locate commands.

The former lets you tweak many details, such as file type, included or excluded directories, size, ownership, and file permissions. Krusader can search for keywords within files and even archives (like ZIP and TAR), and you can use regular expressions to customize your query. If you’ve never tried Krusader, now is the time to give it a chance.

Thunar

Thunar integrates with the file search utility called Catfish to provide fast yet detailed results. You can filter files by type and modification date, and search file contents as well as their names. Catfish supports fuzzy (incomplete) filename matching, so you don’t have to know the exact name of the file you’re looking for.

How to Search for Files with Launchers

Launchers are usually used for, well, launching apps. However, you can also use them to find files by enabling various plugins. They’re quick and practical – you just start typing and the results pop right up. There are many launchers for Linux; we’ll focus on just a few examples.

Kupfer

Kupfer is a simple launcher available in the repositories of Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch Linux. It comes with a bunch of plugins that let you find files with the locate command, and it can create its own catalog of indexed folders.

Kupfer is an action-based launcher. After typing in your search keyword, Kupfer will list actions that you can perform on/with the results. These depend on the plugins you’ve enabled, and you can activate them by selecting them in the drop-down menu.

KRunner

KRunner is the default KDE launcher that you can configure in the System Settings – Plasma Search dialogue.

Like Kupfer, it supports numerous plugins that help you not only find files, but also interact with other Linux applications and parts of the Plasma desktop environment. KRunner can search YouTube and Wikipedia, show your recent documents, find files by type, and much more.

Albert

Albert is inspired by the Alfred launcher for OS X. Although it looks simple, Albert has plenty of options to play with. It also has – you guessed it – plugins, with "Files" being the most important here.

This plugin lets you create an index of directories that Albert will monitor and rely on. You can enable fuzzy (incomplete) matching and choose which types of files should be indexed. To find files, simply run Albert by pressing the designated keyboard shortcut and start typing your query.

Mutate

Another Alfred-inspired launcher for Linux, Mutate doesn’t have as many options as Albert. Still, it features multiple search types, including file search. You can look for files by name and by file extension. The Preferences dialogue is somewhat unusual, because it shows which scripts Mutate is using, but doesn’t let you configure much apart from keywords and keyboard shortcuts.

Finding Files with Specialized Linux Apps

So far we’ve covered mostly simple file search solutions. They’re great for everyday lookups, but not so useful when it comes to complex queries and file contents search. If you need something more powerful, consider the following suggestions.

GNOME Search for Files

In case GNOME Search not installed on your distribution, look for the gnome-search-tool package in the repository. GNOME Search is powered by locate, find, and grep commands, and supports wildcards as well as partial filename matching. You can combine multiple search options by choosing them from the drop-down menu and clicking "Add".

KFind

KFind is the KDE equivalent of GNOME Search with a few extra options. It can search for filenames or file contents, and if you’ve enabled file indexing on your KDE system, it can search the index to speed up the process. The options are divided into tabs, and the last tab ("Properties") lets you find files by size, modification date, and ownership. Apart from regular expressions and wildcards, KFind supports the question mark as a stand-in for a single character in your query. For example, searching for "no?es" will find files named "noses", "notes", "nodes", and so on.

Unity Dash

Ubuntu users faithful to the Unity desktop will be familiar with the Dash. Unity Dash is capable of finding your files and folders according to several parameters (filename, modification date, file type, size). To extend its functionality, you can install various Unity Scopes and Lenses. They integrate external services into Dash, enabling it to search for your browser bookmarks, Google Docs files, web history, and more.

SearchMonkey

SearchMonkey is a relatively old, but still completely functional desktop search app. Regular expressions are its main focus, and it has a "Test Regular Expression" tool that helps you build them. SearchMonkey supports all the essential search parameters (filenames, modification date, size, and file contents), plus the option to restrict the recursive search depth to a selected number of folders.

You can also save search results as a CSV file and limit the amount of results for every query.

DocFetcher

DocFetcher is a desktop search engine for people who often need to search for file contents instead of just filenames. Think researchers, students, and other users who work with large collections of text-based files. DocFetcher first builds a database of files and folders that you choose. This database is automatically updated whenever DocFetcher detects that you’ve modified the files.

When searching for files, you can filter them by type and size, or use regular expressions for fine-grained queries. DocFetcher can search within PDF, EPUB, HTML, RTF, and Office files, as well as within archive files (ZIP, TAR, 7z...) and even Outlook emails.

One great thing about DocFetcher is that it has a portable version, so you can carry your database and the app on a USB stick and use it anywhere.

Recoll

Recoll is probably the most powerful desktop search engine for Linux. It’s similar to DocFetcher: you use it to search through file contents. On first run, it will prompt you to create an index of files. You can select which directories and file types will be indexed, and limit files by size. Recoll will then set up an update schedule so that the index is always synchronized with the actual files. If you want, you can create multiple file indexes and search for files only in one, or in all of them.

You can look up files by name or search for keywords within files. Recoll lets you filter results by several criteria. It can also show related or similar files, search for phrases within files, and recognize word forms thanks to support for stemming. This means that you can search for "work", and the results will include files that contain "working", "worked", "workers"…

Supported file formats include regular text files, logs, man pages, HTML, PDF, CHM, RTF, DJVU, and EPUB files, Libre and Microsoft Office files (including Excel and Powerpoint documents), TAR, RAR, 7z and ZIP archives. Note that external libraries or helper utilities might be required for some of them.

Since most file search tools support the same options, choosing one is largely a matter of convenience, or deciding what works best for your typical workflow. This list might seem long, but there are more file search utilities for Linux. We’ll mention ANGRYsearch, a new project that strives to be the fastest search tool. And what about you? Do you know any other apps for finding files on Linux? What do you use – and can you share some tips? Let us know in the comments.

Image credits: Mutate screenshot, DocFetcher screenshot

Origin is Electronic Art’s digital distribution platform, which is widely used by people for around the world for purchasing video games in addition to online multiplayer gaming. As physical media is dying, digital distribution platforms like Origin and Steam focus on convenience by letting you buy your favorite games, right from the comfort of your home. However, there are downsides to using these platforms as well, because you’ll have to wait for the whole game to download, before you can start playing. If you have a poor internet connection, you might have to end up waiting for days to download a game. Having said that, what if the platform you’re using is throttling the download speed, even when you have a high-speed internet connection? Well, Origin is infamous for throttling the download speeds, as reported by numerous users across the globe. However, there is a solution and it’s all about running Origin in R&D mode. So, without delaying furt her, let’s take a look at how you can use R&D mode to increase download speed in Origin:

Creating Configuration File For Origin R&D Mode

Origin’s desktop client is available for both Windows and macOS operating systems. If you haven’t installed it already, you can simply download the latest version of the client from here. You’ll need to create a configuration file in order to get Origin R&D mode to work. Simply follow the steps below to get it done:

Note: I’m showing this method on my Windows 10 laptop but the process should be similar on the Mac as well.

• Open Notepad on your computer and type the following lines exactly how its shown below:

     [connection]       EnvironmentName=production       [Feature] CdnOverride=akamai

• Now, simply click on File -> Save As in order to save what you’ve typed in. We’ll be saving the file under a different name and format as well.

• For the file name, type in “EACore.ini” as shown below, and make sure you choose “All Files” for the Save as type as shown in the screenshot below. You have to save this INI file on your desktop.

• Once done, open the Origin desktop client. You will receive a pop-up on your screen asking if you’d like to “Use Configuration File On Desktop”. Click on Yes.

• Now, you’ll be taken to Origin’s Sign In page. If you’ve done the above steps correctly, you’ll notice that Origin is now running in R&D mode production by simply looking at the top of the Origin client’s window.

Well, that’s all to it. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and download your favorite games to notice the difference in speed right away. You will now be able to download at the highest possible speed that your internet connection can handle and will no longer be restricted to Origin’s throttled speeds.

Download Speed in Origin: Before vs After

Well, we wanted to show you how much of a speed improvement we were experiencing and it’s quite noticeable to say the least. At our office, the WiFi speeds usually hover between 8 – 16 Mbps. Well, that’s not necessarily a high speed internet connection, but the results will vary from person to person. Well, before we used R&D mode, we were trying to download Battlefield 1 CTE at about 215 KB/s. Obviously, we couldn’t handle it, as the file size was almost 47 GB and it was a pain to watch. So, we restarted Origin after setting up R&D mode and immediately noticed a huge improvement in speed. We were now downloading at approximately 1.5 MB/s, which is close to 7 times improvement in speed, compared to what we were getting without the R&D mode. Unlike us, if you have a high-speed internet connection, you might notice way better improvement in your download speeds.

                     SEE ALSO: How to Increase Download Speed On PS4

Download At Full Speeds in Origin using R&D Mode

We’re pretty confident that once you start using Origin in R&D mode, there’s no turning back. Who wants to face sluggish download speeds in the first place? We really hope that EA doesn’t render this tweak useless, by fixing it in Origin’s future updates. So, have you tried out and enjoyed using the R&D mode? Do let us know how this article has helped you in improving your game download speeds by simply dropping a few words in the comments section down below.

Android is a platform for various developers to come out and showcase their ideas that aim to enhance the ability of the system. If you’ve ever used a custom ROM, or GravityBox on your rooted and Xposed-infused Android device, surely you must have come across a brightness slider that allows you to slide your finger across the status bar to adjust the screen’s brightness. The feature is simple and nifty. It’s disheartening that such a feature is not available on stock Android. Cue – Display Brightness. This app allows you to modify your screen’s brightness with the help of a brightness slider without the need to go to the quick settings option.

What makes the Display Brightness app even more awesome is that it’s completely free, doesn't even require root access, and unlike custom ROMs, you can use this brightness slider on any edge of your screen. So, if you’re interested in getting this feature on your device, read on as we discuss how to easily adjust your device’s brightness with the help of a brightness slider on status bar.

Get Brightness Slider on Status Bar in Android

• To start off, you need to enable installation of third-party APK files. To do so, simply head over to the Android Settings and tap on the "Security" option. Once there, make sure that the "Unknown Sources" option is checked.

• Next, you need to download and install the Amazon Underground app from here.

Note: You need to have an Amazon account to proceed

• Now, download the “Display Brightness” app from Amazon Underground and install it.

• Once you open the app, you can customize various features of the brightness slider such as select the size, adjust the transparency, alter the overall length of the slider, change the bar type and much more. Furthermore, you can also select the screen position to relocate the brightness slider to best suit your preferences.

• Lastly, simply drag the slider to adjust the brightness of your device. For example, I’ve placed the brightness slider in the top center, which is the status bar, and when I adjust the slider to change the screen’s brightness, the brightness percentage is also displayed in the center of the screen.

Control Your Device’s Brightness With Brightness Slider

The Android developer community has always come up with new and interesting features, that should be a part of the stock Android. Display brightness is a perfect example of one such app, that certainly deserves the fame. Despite the app being outdated, it still works flawlessly, and successfully ports the brightness slider feature in status bar from many custom ROMs to every Android device. Share with us how you feel about this app and how you intend to use it in the comments section below.

Recently, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was announced. The new Note device from Samsung comes with a plethora of new features such as Edge Lightning, Air Command, Live Messages, and much more. It also brings some new updates to the In-call UI, Samsung Keyboard, Gallery, and other system apps. While these new apps might sound great, they might not justify the $930 price tag. Well, fret not, because if you own a Samsung device running Android Nougat, you just might be in luck. A developer at XDA has figured out a way to port all the new Note 8 apps and features on any Samsung device. So, if you’re interested in getting all those new features, read on, as we bring to your guide on how to install Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Apps on any Samsung device running Nougat:

Install Note 8 Apps on Your Samsung Device

Note: The following method only works on Samsung devices running Android Nougat (7.0) or above. Also, it requires a custom recovery like TWRP or CWM to be installed on your device, as well as root access. I tested the method on my Samsung Galaxy S7 running SuperStock ROM 7.0, as well as on my Samsung Galaxy S8 running Stock ROM based on Android 7.0, and the method worked just fine.

• To start off, download the flashable ZIP file containing Galaxy Note 8 apps from here, to your device.

Note: The link is to a download folder that will be updated periodically. Make sure to always download the latest version.

• Next up, download Root Uninstaller (free). Open it up and grant it root access.

• Once you’ve downloaded Root Uninstaller, open it up and use it to uninstall Samsung Browser/Internet and Samsung Calculator. After they’ve been uninstalled, restart your device to proceed.

• Once you’ve done that, head over to the custom recovery on your device. From there, flash the ZIP file you downloaded earlier.

• And that’s it. Once you’ve completed flashing the ZIP file, reboot your device to enjoy Samsung Galaxy Note 8 apps on your Samsung Nougat Device. For example, I tried using the Live Messages feature on my device, and here’s how it worked:

And here’s the Live Message that was later exported as GIF:

Live Message made using Live Messages feature on Samsung Galaxy S8

Along with Live Messages, many other features were also ported, including an updated Gallery, In-Call UI, Calendar, Messenger, Browser, Clock and more. Also, the port brought about Edge Lighting, which basically adds a colorful glow to the edges of your device whenever a notification arrives. The port also brings about an updated fingerprint service that allows for faster fingerprint recognition. Additionally, users having a Samsung Galaxy Note device running Android Nougat will also be able to make use of S-Pen specific features such as Air Command, Air View and more.

Note: Although Air Command and other S Pen features were installed on my S7 as well as on my S8, I could not make use of it since my devices do not support the S-Pen.

Get Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Apps on Your Device

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with a ton of new features and updates. If you own a Samsung device that’s rocking Android Nougat, the above tutorial should work well to aid you for experiencing the latest that Samsung has to offer. Tell us about your favorite app from the Note 8 device in the comments section below.

Heads-up notifications on Android is a very useful feature. While this setting is on, you get heads-up notifications on the top of your screen for a small duration, thus saving you the effort of viewing them from the notification drawer every time. Though you may turn off this setting completely, there is no way to turn it off for only some particular apps. Having said that, there are phones out there like the Galaxy S8/S8+ and the OnePlus 5 which have a game mode that can block them for selected apps. However, if you use stock Android or any other skin that does not feature such a mode, here is how to block Android heads-up notifications in any app:

Prerequisites to Block Android Heads-Up Notifications

Before we learn how to block heads-up notifications while in games and video apps, there are a few things that you will require in the process. Here is a list of those things for a seamless procedure:

• Download Tasker (7-day trial, $2.99) and one of its plugins called SecureTask (free).
• Depending on your device OEM, first download the USB drivers and then install them. If you are unsure of how to go about that, the same link has the guidelines for that.
• Download the ADB Binary files according to your platform.
• Download a software like WinRAR to extract compressed files and folders.
• Enable Developer Options on your Android device. You can do this by going to Settings –> About phone, and tapping 7 times in succession on “Build number”.

Note: I am using a computer with Windows 10 Pro and a rooted Moto G3 with a custom ROM and Android 7.1.1. The following method can work with any non-rooted device as well.

How to Block Android Heads-Up Notifications in Games or Video Apps

When you think of any system tweaks that are not natively provided by Android, the first thing that comes to your mind is Tasker. It is a great app that lets you customize your phone beyond what you can imagine – and most of them don’t even require a root access. Once you have taken care of the prerequisites, you can proceed with the steps mentioned below.

• In your phone, go to “Developer options” and enable “USB debugging”. In some devices, this may appear as “Android debugging”. You will be prompted for a confirmation. Tap on “OK” and then plug in your phone to your computer.

• On your computer, extract the ADB Binary files in a folder. I extracted it on my desktop. Now open this extracted folder and while holding the Shift key, right-click anywhere on the screen. You should now see an option called “Open PowerShell window here”. Click on this.

Note: If you are not using the latest build of Windows, this option would be called “Open command window here”. Also, you can open up Terminal on Mac to complete the same process. 

• In the PowerShell/Command Prompt window, type “adb devices” and hit enter. If this was the was first time you did this, you’ll get a prompt on your phone. Tap on “OK” to allow it.

• Again type “adb devices” in the PowerShell window on your computer followed by hitting enter. This should now list your phone as an attached device. If it doesn’t, the drivers didn’t get installed properly.

• Now, on your phone, go to Settings –> Accessibility –> Tasker. Toggle this on, as this will be needed by Tasker in order to recognize the app in use.

• After you do this, open SecureTask and grant all the permissions it requires. Now, back on your computer, in the same Windows PowerShell/Command Prompt window, type “adb shell” and hit enter. Follow this by execution of the following command:
  

  pm grant com.balda.securetask android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

• Go back to your phone and open Tasker. Under the “Profiles” tab, tap on the plus icon on the bottom-right of the screen and then choose “Application”.

• From the list of apps that you see, select the ones for which you want to block the heads-up notifications, and then go back. I selected Subway Surfers on my phone. When you come back to the Profiles tab, tap on “New Task”.

• You’ll now be prompted to name it. As it is optional, you can choose to skip it. Finally, tap on the check mark displayed on the screen. In the following “Task Edit” screen, tap on the plus icon to add an action.

• From the action category list, select Plugin –> Secure Task –> Secure Settings.

• In the “Action Edit” page that follows, tap on the edit icon against “Configuration”. The icon will be shaped as a pencil. You may get a warning after this. Ignore it and tap on “OK” to continue.

• You’ll now land on the configuration page for SecureTask. Here, change the “Action” to “Write”. Now input “New value” as ‘0’ and type the following in “Setting”:
  

  global heads_up_notifications_enabled

• When you save this, go back to the main screen of Tasker, and under the Profiles tab, long press on the text written on the right-hand side of the green arrow. From the menu that appears, tap on “Add Exit Task”. Again, you can choose to name this task and then tap on the check mark.

•  Now, similar to the previous steps, tap on the plus icon to add an action, go to Plugin –> Secure Task –> Secure Settings. While editing configuration, again change “Action” to “Write”, and enter the same value as above in “Setting”. The only change in this step is to enter the “New value” as ‘1’ instead of ‘0’. Save this before finally going back to the main screen of Tasker.
  

Now the next time you open any of these apps (Subway Surfers in my case), the heads-up notifications would be blocked automatically. And when you exit the app, they’ll be enabled again. If you ever want to add or remove any of the apps to this list, you can do that by tapping on the list of existing apps under the created profile.

Disable Heads Up Notifications to Play Games and Watch Videos Conveniently

Given that how irritating it can be to get notifications on your screen when you are playing on a game or watching a video, it only makes sense to block them. But the only option you’ll find in your phone’s settings is to block them completely – for all the apps. However, now that you have read this article, you can now block them for any particular app that you want. Apart from the aforementioned method, is there any easier method that you know of? Do let me know in the comments section below.

This tutorial was first posted on XDA Developers. We tried it out and it works without any problems.

Snapchat is a great app that lets you send self destructing images and videos to your friends. It becomes way more interesting, if you are connected to more of your friends, interesting people and celebrities on Snapchat. If you haven’t yet installed Snapchat, install it from from here (iOS, Android).

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to find people on Snapchat

1. Open the app and swipe down. Tap on the ‘Add friends’ option.

2. A new screen opens up that shows two options for adding friends on Snapchat.

• Either you can add people by typing their username.

• Or you can add people from your phone’s address book.

If you know Snapchat username of the person you are trying to connect to, type their username and add as friend by tapping on plus sign.

If you don’t know the username, you can ask their username via Whatsapp, Facebook or Twitter.

If you are trying to add someone famous, you can find their Snapchat username on their Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

You can also add friends from your phone’s address book. Just tap on ‘Add from Address book’ option and on the next screen you can tap on ‘continue’ to proceed.

Snapchat will once again ask you to confirm. Once you confirm, it will take you to the next screen.

Now, you will start seeing your contacts who are on Snapchat. You can add them directly by tapping on the ‘plus’ sign adjacent to their name.

For the contacts who are not on Snapchat, you can invite them too.

Bonus: Add Friends via QR Code

Apart from the above mentioned ways of adding people on Snapchat, there’s one more unique way.

Let’s say you met someone at the party, and you decided to connect with him on Snapchat. Instead of asking for the username, all you have to do is to open snapchat on your phone, and point it to the ghost icon of other person’s snapchat. Tap on screen once, and you’re connected.

The Ghost icon works as QR code and every user has their own QR code. You can take screenshot of the ghost icon of your profile and share it among your friends on other social sites. They can point their Snapchat on the QR code to add you. Simple, isn’t it?

So, that’s how you find and add people/friends on Snapchat. If you face any difficulty, feel free to ask in comments.

SEE ALSO: 18 Amazing Snapchat Tricks