Lost Powerpoint document somewhere between Explorer and C drive

Question

Opened (and not saving) a Powerpoint presentation attached to an online email message. Modified the document and clicked on the Save (not Save As) and now the presentation is nowhere to be found.

How do I find this document? I have run a serious search on the C drive to no avail. It's not even in the Temporary Internet Files.

Computer system

• Windows XP Professional version 5.1.2600
• Explorer version 6.0.2900

Answer 1

I would check three places.

1. The File menu of powerpoint to see any recently open documents.
2. Your XP recent documents
3. The download folder of the browser used to open the file.

Answer 2

It might be in the TEMP folder of the system (most likely C:\Windows\Temp).

Answer 3

The Everything search engine will find it if it's there! Type a few letters of the file name, and the file type (.ppt, but try with .pptx, pps, or .ppsx to cover all versions of Office). You can order the search by date and time to bring the most recent to the top/bottom.

Answer 4

If you've only done a Windows Explorer search of Temp Internet Files it possibly won't find it as Windows Explorer knows this folder is "blessed" (sorry to use Mac terminology but I don't know what the Windows equivalent is!) so ignores it.

In IE6 you can go to Internet Options, click the Settings button in the Temporary Internet Files section, then click View Files to see the full contents of the folder.

Not sure where that option is in IE7 or 8 as I am at work and we are locked to 6...