File Explorer Issue

I use File Explorer several dozen times per day to locate files. For the last several months, the term I put in the search box doesn't "persist," or stick -- I have to type it again every time I go back to it. I know how to save searches, but that's not nearly as fast as clicking in the search box and selecting one of the drop downs. I feel like I inadvertently changed a setting. Any ideas? Thank you. GML

Click on the three dots and selectoptions. There's a checkbox for 'show recent files'.

Thank you, but that only shows me files I have already opened. If I use the term "Anderson" in the search box, I will get maybe 20 files returned with the name Anderson in them. So, I open one of those, but then later I need to open a different Anderson file. To do that, I need to type "Anderson" into the search box again. It sounds trivial, but I do this ten times per hour, and typing the names repeatedly is a chore. What is particularly frustrating is that I used to be able to do it, but then the feature went away. I do appreciate your taking the time to respond.

I abandoned File Explorer years ago because it does such an utterly crap job of locating files that I'm searching for. In its place I've been using locate32. It is very economical of system resources, tiny footprint, and is almost instantaneous and accurate.