Some Recent Discussions
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Is there any software that combines a disk cataloguing function (and database) with desktop search?
as many professionals use huge amounts of data, the files are often in different locations (external archives, external hard-drives, DVD-RAM, etc.).
So at least for me it would be very useful to have some kind of "everything search" that would combine a database of my archived files on DVD with a desktop and LAN search.
so far, I could not find this kind of soft...
Perhaps you know one?
thanks!
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Great question! I have tried several of the projects mentioned by viewers and none of them support files in a networked or work environment. I have yet to see a freeware type of software like you describe. If anyone knows of one, I'll be glad to review it!
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Snowbird 6.1
"It's still the smallest and fastest non-indexing search tool!"
Yes it's really fast, 22KB, free and portable. What do you think?
http://www.geocities.com/casablanca2000in/msp/#snowbird6
XSearch is the fastest free search utility I've ever seen.
So many options, it can search by Date, by Time, by File Size, by attributes ... Also it can search in files.
It searched my hard disk in 3 sec!
http://www.easexp.com/xsearch/
(I tried Snowbird, it's faster for 1 sec, but it sucks, very crippled app)
I cannot find a single user review or editor review of this product/program online anywhere. It does appear interesting as it does not need to be installed. It downloads as a single executable file. I did NOT try it out, however.
Is there any software that combines a disk cataloguing function (and database) with desktop search?
as many professionals use huge amounts of data, the files are often in different locations (external archives, external hard-drives, DVD-RAM, etc.).
So at least for me it would be very useful to have some kind of "everything search" that would combine a database of my archived files on DVD with a desktop and LAN search.
so far, I could not find this kind of soft...
Perhaps you know one?
thanks!
Great question! I have tried several of the projects mentioned by viewers and none of them support files in a networked or work environment. I have yet to see a freeware type of software like you describe. If anyone knows of one, I'll be glad to review it!
Snowbird 6.1
"It's still the smallest and fastest non-indexing search tool!"
Yes it's really fast, 22KB, free and portable. What do you think?
http://www.geocities.com/casablanca2000in/msp/#snowbird6
Thank you for the reviews and to the person who mentioned Xobni because email AND desktop search are important to me. Xobni sounds like it has promise for me on the email front especially . I have tried all of the reviewed pieces except Exalead and apparently no longer free. In addition I have used the free IBM OmniFind Personal E-mail Search which is good but like X1 slows down with indexing although not as much.
While it technically not a Desktop Search tool, Xobni is the best tool for searching your email. They do one thing and they do it well. I find that 99.9% of the time I have to search for something it is in my email. Xobni adds a sidebar to your inbox, so you never have to leave there to search for anything. It also works as a contact management system. When it scours the inbox, it extracts phone numbers it thinks are associated with the sender. So when a user searches for a person, Xobni presents the number in a side panel to Outlook. The software also interprets the social relationships between people who are sending messages to each other and gives you a list of all attachments that have been shared between you and that person.
I just downloaded the free version of exalead desktop. There is a window on the right hand side of the page that says free download - takes you to another page where the download file is - states license:freeware - thought you should know...Michelle
Please write back and let us know if it expires after 30 days. That's what the post below indicates.
I've been using Windows Desktop Search for about 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. It also keeps the old Windows Search (the animated dog icon) which is a big plus because I still use it at times (different option menus). The new one will usually find what I'm looking before I'm done typing in the query!
I have installed and tried Windows Desktop Search over the last several days. Now, mind you, I installed it at work because I wanted to see how it handled networks or mapped drives. It doesn't! I messed around with it, checked out Microsoft forums, installed a user-pack that was supposed to fix it; all to no avail. It would not index my network or mapped drives on our network. I ended up uninstalling it. I cannot recommend it at this time.
What about:
Super Finder 1.5.2.1 http://fsl.sytes.net/ssearch.html,
File Seeker 3.5.1 http://www.freewarefiles.com/File-Seeker-V_program_14403.html,
Seeker 3.7.0.9 http://www.veign.com/application.php?appid=104 etc.
They are all fast and don't slow down your computer, also portable.
anyone try any of these ones ?
I tried snowbird 6.1 and it is quiet impressive
Also check out Snowbird 5 which can search by "Last modified" and "Size", (Search within files doesn't work) and you need mfc42.dll which is on his page.
Then check Snowbird XP which can search for text in Word and Excel documents.
Why the author is doing this? Probably because he wants to make better, but payware app. I think he already made it (Masterfind, Search GT (both payware) and Snowbird have the same speed, code)!
I forgot also excellent Locate32 http://locate32.webhop.org/
take a look to MasterFind (http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/MasterFind/), although SHAREWARE, it is worth a look, in case anyone finds a free alternative with the same principle. "No indexing in the background to slow your computer. MasterFind uses a special search algorithm and does not make use of indexing, meaning results are always up to date. What makes searches so fast ? MasterFind does not rely on the windows API. MasterFind searches the File System directly. No indexing in the background to slow your pc and again your searches are always up to date."
Thank you for the suggestion. However, as you indicated, MasterFind is not freeware. It is shareware. To quote from their website--"MasterFind is available for 30 day trial download with no limitations". Therefore, while I appreciate your comments, I will not be reviewing this product as it does not meet our purposes.
I used Copernic for a long time, and loved it. On my home machine, for some reason it was the cause of frequent crashes. I switched to Microsoft Windows Search, and I've been happy. Not the most flexible or best presentation of query results, but it hasn't caused any problems to my knowledge. I'm usually a fan of Google stuff, but Google Desktop Search was just too bloated.
Agent Ransack works quite well; it is the free version of File Locator Pro - http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/ - I especially like the "regular expression" search.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks as though the free version of Exalead has become a "free download" -- you have to pay for a license after 30 days. This is from the license agreement:
1. During 30 (thirty) days from the installation of the Software, you are granted a free, personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive license that allow you to use one copy of the Software for evaluation purposes only, on a single personal computer and to use the Documentation under the terms stated in this License (the "Evaluation Period").
2. After the Evaluation Period, you will not be authorized to use the Software any longer unless you activate the Software (the "Activation"). The Activation requires the purchase of a license online in order to obtain an activation key. The price of the activation key is mentioned on Exalead's website. When you acquire an activation key from Exalead, you are granted a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive license to use one copy of the Software on a single personal computer and to use the Documentation under the terms stated in this License. The Activation does not include a right to get updates of the Software. Title and ownership of the Software and Documentation remain to Exalead.
Oh well.
To me, X1 is excellent only for commercial environments, bloggers and people relying on rapid communication (hence its not abnormal for it to be appreciated by reviewers in the blogging field, since they fit in the targetted userbase, while newbies and random Joe does not)
Exalead truly is the only one I'd recommend to home users as the top desktop search. Its scanning and result fetching is simply very difficulty beatable. The only shortcomings one could find in Exalead is the absence of appropriate preconfigured paths to index, by default (trivial to fix), as well as true index encryption. Other than these 2 shortcomings (which are present in Copernic as well, though it still has preconfigured default paths for indexing by default so its not an issue for newbies)
Cheers.
Hard Core Rikki
Might be worth mentioning that this review is focused on personal searching. Business search engines have different requirements. Here's a white paper that describes "How to Choose the Right Business Search Engine": http://www.idgconnect.com/internet/searchengines/how_to_choose_the_right...
A possible lightweight approach (on XP at least ): 1) Locate folders and files using FindAndRun Robot [reviewed in Best Free Program Launchers]; 2) Search for text using XYplorer Free [see Best Free File Managers].
I've tried almost all Desktop Search programs out there and none of them beats Ava Find http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/
It does not index file content, only file names. It takes 128 seconds to index my 1.1TB HDD space and is a lot better than everything else out there. It does not slow down the computer like other Desktop search engines. Give it a try.
Available in both paid and free versions.
I've posted a brief review of Ava Find above. While a decent product, I do have some concerns about it.
I have tried Google Desktop, X1, and Copernic. I do not like how Google presents search results. I thought X1 slowed my computer noticeably and I could not figure out the settings to prevent this. Now, I use Copernic. I prefer the interface of X1, but Copernic is a close second. I am always tempted to go back to X1 and see if I can get it to work though.
I think I would have written the exact same comments: don't like Google's presentation, X1 slowed my computer to a crawl. X1's interface is nicer, but Copernic is not that much behind...
My only beef with Copernic is that there is no easy way to limit your search to email that has an attachment (you can search info in an attachment, you just can't say show me only email that came with an attachment).
I tried Exalead, but found that it wanted to access the internet each time I looked up an entry in its index. Not necessarily nefarious, but just a bit much as far as I'm concerned. But then it's free, so there has to be something in it for them. Anyway, I think I'll stay with Copernic for the time being. Another advantage of Copernic is that you can restrict the results displayed to a single folder of your choice. For more common words, this is quite useful, if you have a specific context (for a given client, for instance).
X1 is my favourite for content. If you set it to only index once a day, it doesn't slow down your computer.
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