Discussion:
Looking for a Windows 7 file search facility
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Peter Percival
2014-01-02 16:19:43 UTC
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I'm looking for a free file search facility for use under Windows 7. It
should accept parameters of two kinds:

filename (including ? and *)

string

Specifying just the first will find all matching files. Specifying just
the second will find all files in which the string appears. Specifying
both will find all matching files in which the string appears.

Any suggestions?
--
Madam Life's a piece in bloom,
Death goes dogging everywhere:
She's the tenant of the room,
He's the ruffian on the stair.
Char Jackson
2014-01-02 19:51:50 UTC
Permalink
On Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:19:43 +0000, Peter Percival
Post by Peter Percival
I'm looking for a free file search facility for use under Windows 7. It
filename (including ? and *)
string
Specifying just the first will find all matching files. Specifying just
the second will find all files in which the string appears. Specifying
both will find all matching files in which the string appears.
Any suggestions?
The top two free file search utilities, IMHO, are as follows:

Everything Search
www.voidtools.com
Pro: displays results as you type
Con: unable to search file contents or network shares

Agent Ransack
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack
Pro: extremely flexible
Con: slower because it has to search everything
Peter Percival
2014-01-02 20:10:20 UTC
Permalink
Post by Char Jackson
On Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:19:43 +0000, Peter Percival
Post by Peter Percival
I'm looking for a free file search facility for use under Windows 7. It
filename (including ? and *)
string
Specifying just the first will find all matching files. Specifying just
the second will find all files in which the string appears. Specifying
both will find all matching files in which the string appears.
Any suggestions?
Everything Search
www.voidtools.com
Pro: displays results as you type
Con: unable to search file contents or network shares
Agent Ransack
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack
Pro: extremely flexible
Con: slower because it has to search everything
Thank you. I'll try the second. I have the first and it doesn't do
what I want.
--
Madam Life's a piece in bloom,
Death goes dogging everywhere:
She's the tenant of the room,
He's the ruffian on the stair.
Spalls Hurgenson
2014-01-03 15:03:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Char Jackson
On Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:19:43 +0000, Peter Percival
Post by Peter Percival
I'm looking for a free file search facility for use under Windows 7. It
filename (including ? and *)
string
Specifying just the first will find all matching files. Specifying just
the second will find all files in which the string appears. Specifying
both will find all matching files in which the string appears.
Everything Search
www.voidtools.com
Pro: displays results as you type
Con: unable to search file contents or network shares
Agent Ransack
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack
Pro: extremely flexible
Con: slower because it has to search everything
I also like Locate32 (http://locate32.cogit.net/)
Pros: displays search results as you type, can search network shares
Con: only shows results as of last database update, searches aren't
"live"

The latter might be a deal-breaker if you do a lot of file updates or
are working on a system shared with other users. Essentially, once or
twice a day the program runs in the background and dumps all the
filenames into a big file; when the user runs a search it accesses
this file rather than search through the filesystem proper. The
advantage of this is that it's really, really fast; the disadvantage
is that if you add a file between the database updates, it won't show
up until the next update (In my case, the files I just created are
rarely the ones I need help locating anyway so it's not a problem for
me). The updates are very low-impact and run pretty quickly, so you
can schedule them to run several times a day if you need.

It also has a primitive file-content search feature (mostly just for
text files). And it's search window (which can be bound to F3/Ctrl-F)
looks a lot like the WinXP search window.
Char Jackson
2014-01-03 15:45:33 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 03 Jan 2014 10:03:36 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
Post by Spalls Hurgenson
I also like Locate32 (http://locate32.cogit.net/)
Pros: displays search results as you type, can search network shares
Con: only shows results as of last database update, searches aren't
"live"
The latter might be a deal-breaker if you do a lot of file updates or
are working on a system shared with other users. Essentially, once or
twice a day the program runs in the background and dumps all the
filenames into a big file; when the user runs a search it accesses
this file rather than search through the filesystem proper. The
advantage of this is that it's really, really fast; the disadvantage
is that if you add a file between the database updates, it won't show
up until the next update (In my case, the files I just created are
rarely the ones I need help locating anyway so it's not a problem for
me). The updates are very low-impact and run pretty quickly, so you
can schedule them to run several times a day if you need.
It also has a primitive file-content search feature (mostly just for
text files). And it's search window (which can be bound to F3/Ctrl-F)
looks a lot like the WinXP search window.
Thanks, I may give that one a try.

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