The one in Windows Explorer is for too slow.
I search for a file and it says "working on it..." for ages.
Its much faster opening a CMD window and searching dir myfile*.* /s
Is there a utility that is good? (Dont mind paying a few $)
Hi, Windows search is fast if everything from below where you are searching in the file hierarchy (considering file explorer search) is indexed.
If you search and part of the file hierarchy you are searching is not indexed, you will get that horrible slow green bar.
Note that Windows search can include content indexing of a variety of text file types.
I use both a 3rd party indexing utility (Locate32) and Windows search. Simply to find files and folders, the former is more convenient and intuitive. The ones people typically recommend cannot index content, nor do they offer you the depth of search parameters available with Windows search, if you know how to use it. Frankly, few people do.
I find 'Everything' uses more background resource.
Searching with these is typically 'find-as-you-type'.
Docfetcher is a free 3rd party tool which offers content indexing. I've not tried it.. I've seen it mentioned.
DocFetcher - Fast Document Search
Locate32 is probably one of the very few that allows you to specify multiple different locations to search. (Note the #1- that's where to do that).
Then there's Copernic... not free- been around for years.
Our search products for desktop & server | Copernic
I just use SwiftSearch with wildcards.
Download SwiftSearch - MajorGeeks
Last edited by Callender; 04 Jan 2020 at 11:42. Reason: add image
Swiftsearch is non-indexing, so can be several seconds slower (according to MajorGeeks) than- searching with Everything by voidtools, Locate32, and Ultrasearch (to name but 3 free tools that are as fast as each other) or the other two I mentioned.
Is that correct?It ..reads the file table directly every time, which speeds up a search by many orders of magnitude.
Typical searches yield full results in ~10 seconds or less,
Yes it's very fast. A search for *.* shows all files on drive in around one second.
Added image to show search time:
Sometimes I use this for more options and it's just as fast.
NTFS-Search download | SourceForge.net
Both are portable but require admin rights. I launch SwiftSearch from elevated command prompt but for NTFS Search i juse use run as admin.
Tiny programs so just test and delete if of no use.
Last edited by Callender; 04 Jan 2020 at 12:57. Reason: change link again
I also use Copernic Desktop Search even though its not free. Maintains a database of most everything, and once indexed, rather fast.
I personally prefer programs that run on demand with no indexing required. Anyway for text search including find/ replace this might be of interest and a portable version is available.
Info:
grepWin - Stefans Tools
Download:
Release Version 1.9.2 . stefankueng/grepWin . GitHub
Last edited by Callender; 04 Jan 2020 at 12:59. Reason: change link
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