File Search Tools - Comments Page 1

I tried Google Desktop; I didn't like it. Now I use Yahoo! Desktop Search, and it does exactly what I want it to without *calling home*.

I am a user of Copernic and Google plus Ultra File Search. What I have been looking for is an on the fly search engine that will quickly give me results without all the massive indexing/disk space/slow down that usually goes with the first two.
Also Copernic is a free version that works fine, the biz one costs but I have never needed the features it has.
Overall Copernic is the winner delivering consistently reliable results.Google makes me nervous letting them know all my info, I know they say it's all private but still?,however the results aren't as consistent as Copernic.
Ultra the flash bang wonder boy makes huge amount of disk noise and takes resources and doesn't produce.Maybe it's me but I don't get the result after all the fireworks.
So stick with the free Copernic is my vote.

A very good search engine that I have been using for about 25 years is ZTREE. Started out as XTGOLD and when windows came out, it grew with it.
Free for 30 days, then a donation.

My bad.
Ztree is $29.95 after the 30 day trial.
Upgrade from v.1 is $10.00
Sorry
Dave

Google Desktop Search didn't provide for installation on other than C: and for that reason I discarded it.

Long before Windows Search utility I came across an exceedingly usefull utility called "Where Is It" by Robert Gaulle. I believe it is still infront of anything on offer now, although Robert would ask for a small registration fee in exchange for his hard work. It is worth it. Go and see, please. It will catalogue all your discs as you wish. (there's nothing in it for me!)
www.whereisit-soft.com

you will love it.

Kind regards to all,

Is there any way to get around the index search slow down? Of the times I've used any desktop search engine my PC would slow to a crawl.

The tool Everything at voidtools.com is incredibly fast and efficient!

Bob - the article is fine as far it goes - MS and Google are the 2 main players. Please compare their performance on at least these criteria. 1) resource use of CPU & hard drive, 2) obtrusiveness of indexing process, 3) privacy, 4) realistic h/w needs for not-new machines.

A free program called "Everything", at http://www.voidtools.com/, catalogs the NTSF file system and gives immediate results. I think that it is the best. Lightweight and fast.

I've been using 'Everything' by Voidtools, for quite a while. It's quick - will find any file by name, or part of a name.
It is donation ware.

With Windows XP, I have for years been using the free version of Agent Ransack. It doesn't index files (a plus in my book, considering how indexing slows down the machine) but it's much better than the built-in XP search function. It is fast enough for my simple needs and has never failed to find what I was looking for.

I use "Search Everything"(free). It shows results instantaneously, unlike other search engines. I'm not sure if it can search file contents.

Windows Search 4 is as useless as the proverbial mammaries on a male of any species. I watched all of the advertising videos, tried their go-bys searching for a known item in a known location and came up with zero results. I could not phrase my inquiry in any way to find the required file. So much for MS.
I refuse to allow Google or Yahoo access to my system so that basically leaves me out in the cold.
The Windows explorer search needs a function to look inside a file for a keyword just like all of the search functions before Vista.

try out Everything.. as it search everything

Windows 7 search is reasonably good but canthrow up an awful lot of false positives. Today I searched for a document - that in fact I had forgotten to scan in - using the text "A woman without her man" and came up with an unbelievable range of ill-assorted items, such as an Amazon receipt for a Monteverdi opera, and a range of other things which did not and could not contain the phrase (program shortcuts etc.)Similarly it sometimes overlooks the real file one is hunting.

My thanks to the first Andrew and to you Bob, I'll give Copernic a spin

Hey I can recommend a tool called Lookeen! It is primarly an Outlook search tool, but can also search through your whole desktop for every file! If you ask me this tool is unbeatable in speed and capacity! You can check out the 14 days free trial here: http://www.lookeen.net

copernic has a free version for non-commercial use.

I'll second the Agent Ransack comment. Been using it for years and love it.

All I can do with Windows 7 search is find file names, then it will let me look for more details in that results list. If I have no idea where a file is or what I named it, I can't find it just by searching for a word or phrase. Thanks for this info. I'll look at some of the options.