Advantage over find - Actually not probably in terms of speed, but... only point of this is that it's an observation, but... you can do like 'search only in' */*/*Programs* , /*/*Programs*/* , this may compensate the extra time took by using two commands 1. To search in current folder only (1 level... only this folder, no subfolder) Type... ls | grep Search_Term 2. To search in current folder only (till level 2... this folder + subfolder) Type... ls * | grep Search_Term #ls and ls * are NOT same! 3. To search in current folder only (till level 3... this folder + subfolder + subfolder) Type... ls */* | grep Search_Term 4. To search in current folder only (till level 4... this folder + subfolder + subfolder + subfolder) Type... ls */*/* | grep Search_Term ... and so on... FORMULA - To search till 'n' level (considering current folder as 1)... go till (n-1) stars If wanting to search whole disk... better type stars, like this... ls * ** *** **** *****