I have adopted the habit of naming important files by yyyymmdd-subject.ext. These automatically sort in Windows Explorer.
If files are spread across devices or folders, I rely on Everything that instantly delivers against partial filenames. I have 2.5M files on local storage.
If really desperate, I use Notepad++'s Find in Files for content.
As I have different devices and operating systems as well, I rely on Dropbox.

Acorn