Interesting article. But there was no mention of whether any of these search engines would index Microsoft onenote files. I have a ton of notebooks and I would like to make sure that any search engine indexes those files as well. The other question is whether an iFilter is necessary to allow these search engines to search inside PDF documents.

It was an interesting article. I was hoping to see how X1 compares to the other programs in the article. Maybe someday they will add other choices and review them.

Okay the two utilities are good for searching file names. What about if I wanted to search inside files for a string? (Files as in Outlook, Word, Excel, Acrobat Reader, etc.)

In regards to using an app for searching, I have been using a product called X1 for years. As far as I know, it is based on an old Lotus product called Magellan which has long ago been discontinued. X1 is extremely fast and can search e-mail and file contents almost instantly. It is not free but I think it is only about $50. I use it every day to search my 25K mail messages in Outlook (stored locally in a PST file) as well as finding specific documents among the 50K+ I have on my system. The product has been updated to work with Windows 8.

	BEST UTILITIES Two apps for more powerful desktop searches
	By Nathan Segal Searching for a particular folder or file on a PC can be a real pain — especially when you run up against Windows’ built-in search limitations. If you’re looking for more comprehensive search capabilities, two third-party apps can help.

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/best-utilities/two-apps-for-more-powerful-desktop-searches/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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	BEST UTILITIES Two apps for more powerful desktop searches
	By Nathan Segal Searching for a particular folder or file on a PC can be a real pain — especially when you run up against Windows’ built-in search limitations. If you’re looking for more comprehensive search capabilities, two third-party apps can help.

---

The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/best-utilities/two-apps-for-more-powerful-desktop-searches/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

I have been using EVERYTHING (http://www.voidtools.com/) for some time and have found it to be a superior search utility, far better than anything else I have tried.

I second the Everything search suggestion as long as you don’t have a need to search within files.

Jerry

Nathan,
Thanks for this. Just one suggestion. You could have mentioned that the power of regular expressions available in Ransack goes well beyond what the wizard provides – good step up though that is. The extra capability only becomes apparent if the top menu “help” is consulted. Regular expressions can become daunting if pushed hard, but can also be life savers when pushed hard. It’s just nice to know that if a really complex find and replace task is needed – there is a tool there to do it.

I’ve been using X1, the last free version (6.1) the company released way back in 2007. It still works flawlessly in Windows 8 / Server 2012 R2. It’s very simply the best search program out there, paid or otherwise.
I asked the company if they would consider releasing a free version again (“Just think how many users would tell their bosses they MUST get this for the company!”), but they said “No.” Oh well…

Somebody asked about a free search utility — http://www.fileseek.ca/ has fileseek, free & fee.
I’ve been using the free version for months now. It can find files and stuff inside of files.
With a *.* in the file find section, you can enter a search string…and click search button.
it seems to do better if you have *.txt or *.doc — however, have fun with it 🙂

For searching (and/or global replacing) within files, try Windows Grep. One of our favourite utilities at work… it’s a lifesaver at times when you’re on a deadline.

Hope this helps…

I’m trying out SearchMyFiles it’s a standalone/portable program which has very customisable searches, including duplicate files and text search within files. It’s found stuff I’d forgotten about!

I use Everything all the time and in addition to others you mentioned I also use UltraSearch sometimes

I use the search within a good file manager. I use PowerDesk Pro Version 7 (later versions are questionable and I have not tested the latest). if you hunt, you can get a free licence for version 7 and it works with Win7. One nice feature is the ability to save previous saves, eg all your pdf files, and sort them on various features such as directory, size, date, etc. You can also search within files, and easily set criteria such as date before/after/between

For documents, I highly recommend Mendeley. You choose which folders to index and monitor. Mendeley is a free program mainly for articles and books and enables you to build up a document database exportable in various referencing styles. You can use the built in pdf viewer or your own, and type comments on the pdf files. Zotero also does this, but is a bigger tool.

For finding files, I am afraid I use the easy way. Dos text files. I create simple text files using the dir/s *.pdf >pdflist.txt and open the file pdflist in a text editor or spreadsheet.

	BEST UTILITIES Two apps for more powerful desktop searches
	By Nathan Segal Searching for a particular folder or file on a PC can be a real pain — especially when you run up against Windows’ built-in search limitations. If you’re looking for more comprehensive search capabilities, two third-party apps can help.

---

The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/best-utilities/two-apps-for-more-powerful-desktop-searches/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

Sometimes all you need is to search for a file without regard to the text within it. This would especially true if you need to find an executable file, a sound file, or any file without text. For this purpose two programs, SEARCH EVERYTHING and SWIFTSEARCH are extremely useful. They both give instant results, and you can click on the found file to bring it up. They are much faster than any of the programs in the article, but of course they do not find text.