• Desktop Search
• Copernic Desktop Search Free Version

I had ceedo on my stick with Copernic desktop search installed. My stick broke and I lost Ceedo. So I installed Portable Apps on a new USB stick and downloaded Copernic Desktop search home. However, the latter refuses to install but to the local dir (i.e. C-dir); it doesn't accept the drive letter my USB stick is mounted on.

Introduction A couple of years back there were no contenders for this title. Today we have a wealth of choices. NOTE: I have made a decision to mainly highlight programs that meet 2 specific needs that I have: 1) the ability to search within files (find words within files) and 2) programs that will work across network shares (index files on my work network where all my documents are stored).

There are literally tons of software programs that will search for files and folders, but that do not search within files. There are also several alternatives that might search network shares, but do not search within files.

Again, my focus has been on programs that meet the primary needs I've identified above. It is beyond my scope to review all types of desktop search tools. NOTE #2: I recently upgraded to Windows 7 (64-bit). To be honest, after upgrading and using Windows 7 built-in search tool, I see no reason to use a third-party desktop search tool. It takes a little tweaking, but the new search tool within Windows 7 is quite good. It even searches within files and will search my home network for files. My recommendation is that if you are using Windows 7, you really don't need a third-party tool.

For an excellent resource on how to maximize your use of the Windows 7 search tool, please check out this article. Rated Products. Google sidebar and gadgets. Large resource utilization. Difficult to remove once installed.

Does not appear to work with Outlook 2010. No longer being developed. Related Products and Links.

indexes your entire hard disk and then you can search for a file by typing in part or all of the filename and it will display results as you type. Then just double click to run the file or right-click for the menu to open the path. The beauty of Everything is that it can be completely portable! Everything was recently updated and now supports Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

(There is no mention of 32 bit or 64 bit on their website.) If all you are looking for is a specific file or folder, then this little program totally rocks! Cons: It does not have a right click preview of common file types (txt, doc, pdf, etc.). It works only on NTFS drives. And, Everything does not search file contents, only file and folder names. For home users, this is a serious contender for my top pick. It's been around for a while, but only recently has become totally freeware. It's fast and the options are quite handy.

It opens up in a browser window with preview options and other search options. Recently updated to version 4.6. Supports Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2 and SP3), Vista/Vista SP1, Windows 7. Cons: I don't recommend Exalead Free version in a networked environment unless you have a ton of storage capacity. On my work laptop, the index file took up a HUGE 46 GB of storage space! In addition, Exalead does not allow users any option about where the index files will be kept on computer.

For an interesting review of this product, see. is an Open Source desktop search application: It allows you to quickly access documents on your computer by typing keywords.

You can think of it as Google for your local document repository. The application is currently available for Windows and GTK-based Linux distributions. It does offer the ability to search within files (actually only certain document types). A Java Runtime Environment (JRE), version 1.6.0 or higher, is required. Note: If you have a 64-bit OS, you might have to replace an installed 64-bit Java Runtime with its 32-bit counterpart in order to make DocFetcher work. 64-bit Java is currently not supported. The Windows version runs on Windows XP or later.

Windows 98 is not supported. There is also a Linux version and a portable version. Cons: (though some might see this as a pro) It indexes documents only - pictures, music, videos, etc.

is one of my favorites when I'm in a hurry. It is very similar to Locate32. It does not index your hard drive, but is still relatively quick. It also has the ability to search within files. When searching the contents of files Agent Ransack displays the text found so you can quickly browse the results without having to separately open each file! Have Your Say You are invited to share and discuss your views in our. To post in the forum you need to register first but that's quick and immediate.

Alternatively, anyone can leave a comment at the bottom of this page. Editor This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Kendall Alexander. Please rate this article. George, I think you saved my day (and my remaining hair). I have tried many of the other suggestions, and had not found one that did ALL of this - 1) I can have windows indexing switched off for eternity 2) It (the chosen search program) does not require a massive index, nor a massive indexing time 3) It can search within the files for a desired text string 4) It can exclude folders (like Windows, Programs, Documents and Settings) I have about 600,000 files, so I figured that all of the above were required for a reasonably fast search. I was unsure if I could use 4, but I installed UltraSearch based on your 'heads up'. BEFORE I could work out how to do 4, the program had returned the single file I was looking for (which contained the word 'ToDo').

Thank you for your recommendation, Rob. or to post comments. I thank the author for his labor in collecting the best candidates but i'd like to make two disagreements. 1 Windows 7 best? Tis to snort!

Desktop Search

'. its indexing is a PITA and system-resource gobbler,. its interface is far inferior to most others.while, as the windows secrets page details, it is tuneable, that's only at the cost of work, time!, and a minimum aptitude i don't have much of a life, so I'm eager not to spend what little i have on. like this. My second point: it's ALL garbage. Yes, i know that sounds like more troll ranting, but it's true: like software uninstallers, these apps.never.

find or uninstall all that's there. Or at least i've never seen an app that does either. PS: Both Locate32 and AgentRansack used to have HD forms that made it possible to pick individual drives, but in newer versions that's now impossible- one must choose one drive, or all.

Progress marches on. PPS: August 18.

I was using Agent Ransack today only because anything is better than Micros.t's Search for a search of my.cbr's yes, with search-subfolders checked. It completely missed a dozen in a sub-folder. I wouldn't say the makers are liars, just optimists. As i said, it's ALL.hot wet smelly brown stuff. Justified cyncism aside: if you know of one that's substantially more accurate, please share it with the rest of us!. or to post comments. I am using Fileseek (for a some months now, and I am very happy with it.

Copernic Desktop Search Free Version

No database to store the information, Every time all files in selected folders are scanned, for matching patterns in filename or content. It is fast enough for me - especially when I can specify selective patterns or selective folders. And when I want to scan all drives, I know that i can take a little coffee break. The payable version has a lot of options, but the freeware version gives me almost all I need. I am only missing the automatic upgrade feature, but I can live with it. Bart. or to post comments.

You may want to check out Docfetcher again. Version 1.1.12 seems to include MP3's, and at least jpeg/jpg among images. It has no issues on windows 7 for me (e.g. No 64-bit java problems). Because it is portable and I'm mostly interested in searching my pdf library, it has become my new indexer. I had been looking for a capable portable desktop indexer one for quite some time and had been previously disappointing.

Docfetcher looks to be getting 3 updates per year the last couple years so it's being supported currently as well. or to post comments.

That's strange - I've been using Everything version 1.2.1.371 for many years and it definitely doesn't have to rebuild its indexes after a reboot (though if it detects that changes have occurred since it last ran it needs to update the index to reflect them, which takes very little time unless the changes have been very extensive). And it has caused no problems with Windows Explorer on Win2K (which is where I generally use it). A quick run of the current version (also on Win2K even though it's not supposed to run there) doesn't rebuild the database either when the program is completely exited and then restarted, though changes to the index seem to get incorporated less immediately for some reason (possibly a difference in set-up values - I just performed a quick check using defaults). or to post comments.

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With this handy guide, you'll be an expert in no time. Windows Search has always had a number of, but it was never quite on par with the search features of OS X and Linux. And while Windows 10 did lessen the gap in a lot of ways, it’s still slow and imperfect. If you find yourself constantly searching for files and folders throughout your system, you may be better off switching to one of these third-party tool instead. Windows Search is only good for basic and casual use. Everything is consistently lauded as Search is one of the digital tools we take for granted and heavily rely on.

Fortunately, Windows comes with a handy search feature. Could third-party tools be better and faster? We made the test. Using it is as simple as it gets: install it, open the program, and give it a bit to index your entire system. (It can index a fresh Windows install in under a minute.) Once that’s done, all you have to do is type anything into the text field and you will get instantaneous results as you type. And as long as you allow Everything to sit in the background and monitor system changes, it will always be instantaneous.

And as you type, Listary will show a list of all files on your system that match the query — in real-time. In addition, Listary can execute commands like “Open Folder” and “Copy Folder Path”. You can even use Listary to quickly hop into a different folder just by typing its name. Some of its best features require Listary Pro which is $20. But even with Listary Free, you get a lot of power and flexibility.

Back when I was a serious programmer, grepWin was one of the most useful tools I had at my disposal. With it, you can search through any directory tree and it will find files by matching contents with your search query (regular expression are supported). If you’ve ever used Linux, it’s basically You can do lots of amazing stuff with commands in Linux and it's really not difficult to learn. So the next time you need to search for a specific line of code or a specific line of documentation, this will cut your search time by orders of magnitude. It’s really that useful.

AstroGrep is a great alternative to grepWin in case the latter doesn’t fit your fancy for whatever reasons. It does the same thing — finds files that match your search query by content rather than file name — but is slightly less advanced and easier to use. You can designate which file types to search, view file contents within AstroGrep itself, and save or print results for later.

Potential future features include searching through PDFs, MP3s, ZIPs, RARs, and more. AstroGrep has been around since 2006 and continues to receive regular updates. SearchMyFiles seems helplessy primitive at first glance, but it’s deceptively flexible. Once you get over the slight learning curve, you’ll be able to put together complex search queries using filters and wildcards. For example, search all files created in the last 15 minutes, between 300 and 600 bytes in size, and containing the word “error”.

The application is lightweight and portable (no installation required), so you can USB flash drives are great for storage, but they have so many other uses. Here's how they're worth their weight in gold.

NirSoft also maintains hundreds of other small tools, such as utilities for Sick of having a right click menu that's filled with a bunch of shortcuts you don't need? Clear them up with this one tool! All of them are clean, portable, and available free of charge. Copernic has been in the search industry since 1996, starting first as a web search engine, but eventually becoming known for its spectacular desktop search application. In fact, it’s considered by many as the #1 desktop search tool in the world.

It comes in a free version and a commercial version. Unfortunately, the free version can’t search network drives, external drives, cloud storages, Outlook emails, Lotus notes, and has an index limit of 75,000 files. But for basic home usage, it’s more than enough.

Exselo Desktop isn’t as well-known as other desktop search options, which is a shame because it’s actually quite good. It supports powerful search queries, has a simple interface, securely share data, and even integrates with Outlook. Not only can it search local drives, but Exselo can also comb through network and cloud stores. And best of all, the Free edition is feature complete. The only difference between Free and Enterprise: support for multiple users. Can you guess how much of your hard drive space is wasted by duplicate files?

The answer might surprise you. Duplicate files are more common than we tend to think, and if those duplicates are image, audio, or video files,. Duplicate & Same Files Searcher is a tiny portable program — less than 1 MB in size — that finds all files that are identical by content (not by file name). As such, the scanning process can be a bit slow, but you can filter and set parameters to speed things up. And not only can the program delete said duplicates, but it can replace them with “hard links” that are basically shortcuts to one single file, thus saving you space without breaking anything in the meanwhile. Despite the extra searchability in Windows 10, the registry is still a bit crude and could use a lot of love.

Whether you want to In most cases, fixing our registry will do nothing. Sometimes registry errors cause havoc after all. Here we'll explore how to identify, isolate and fix registry problems – and when to not bother at all. Or just The registry editor is the only way to enable some of Windows 10's hidden features. Here we'll show you easy tweaks like enabling the dark theme or hiding folders., the process of finding keys can be slow and tedious.

Registry Finder is a free tool that makes registry navigation easy. It also has the ability to search keys according to when they were last modified, meaning this tool comes in handy when you want to see all recent changes that were made (e.g. For troubleshooting).

What’s Your Preferred Search Tool? After you’ve Windows File Explorer is one of the most underrated features of Windows 10. Here we demonstrate how to manage and control the Windows 10 File Explorer from the bottom up and reveal features you never., if you still feel like Windows file navigation and searching just isn’t good enough, then you owe it to yourself to start using one or more of the tools listed above. That’s one of the nice things about Windows. Sure, there might be It's not a secret that Windows 10 isn't perfect.

Cortana borders on being intrusive, mandatory updates can cause issues, and much appears half-baked. We present our top 7 of most glaring Windows 10 annoyances., but the user base is so large that you’ll always be able to find a third-party tool that improves upon Microsoft’s shortcomings. So tell us: which desktop search tool do you like the best?

Which features are the most important to you? Or are you totally fine with Windows Search? Share with us in the comments below! You should have included locate32, which is a highly impressive program to search files and folders based on their names stored in a database. It is available for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7, and much faster than Windows Search. You can choose to include or not include folder names in the search, and can search for text strings within files.

Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. A con might be that it uses databases to store information about directory structures and uses these databases in searches. And it's not as full-featured as Copernic or Google. Many great tools on this list.

They do however cover different scenarios within Windows 10. As Eric says, if you need something that provides more in-depth capabilities and support for indexing data from inside the different files, my experience is that there are only 3 of the tools that can do that: Exselo Desktop Lookeen Copernic (with restrictions) They also come with capabilities to index your email items and other locations as well. All in all, these products seems more geared towards a professional user, even though they offer free versions.

I aslo think everything is great. It's light on resources and usually completes the initial index in a few hours. If you need to search the content of documents or files though, everything can't do that.

In this situation, you'd want to use Lookeen which takes a bit longer in building the initial index, but will search content, as well as file names. #2 on the the list. Please let me know if you try it out and have any feedback for me. Cheers, Eric (Full disclosure: I work for the developers of Lookeen).