What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

[Darwin]

Anyone else who has updated to Archivarius 3.93 getting malware warnings about it from their AV? I'm using SpySweeper with AV, which uses Sophos under licence, and it identifies the Archivarius exe as a virus. I've reported this to Archivarius's author and am still trying to figure out how to report it to Sophos. I am confident that it is a false-positive, but wondered if I am alone or not!

[Grorgy]

just downloaded and installed it Darwin, ran kaspersky on it as an individual scan on exe file and the whole directory.  No threats detected.

[Grorgy]

I voted for locate, because its the general purpose all in one file folder finder for me, but i use archivarius for document i just know are there somewhere but cant remember the name but remember what they are about, gets quite a bit of use really 

[Armando]

I voted for locate, because its the general purpose all in one file folder finder for me, but i use archivarius for document i just know are there somewhere but cant remember the name but remember what they are about, gets quite a bit of use really 

-Grorgy (October 13, 2007, 03:16 PM)

IMO, locate shouldn't be put in the same category as software like X1 or Archivarius. AFAICT, Locate doesn't index content at all. No?

[Armando]

Darwin : I haven't installed the update yet. It's sitting on my hard drive. Maybe tonight.

[Armando]

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the latest beta of X1 v.6? I haven't as I am very happy with Archivarius 3000, but my wife loved X1 until it started messing up Outlook and I've tried her on both WDS (I hated it - she didn't mind) and Copernic (I like it a lot, she keeps complaining about it not indexing some of her files/e-mail). Just wondering if it is an advance over version 5.6x... the users forum isn't very informatiive on this.

-Darwin (October 02, 2007, 08:57 AM)

I haven't. Is it... free?

[Carol Haynes]

There is always a free version of X1 but it has limited support for Outlook (which killed it for me) and doesn't index any network folders or external drives - which is also a killer. I haven't looked recently but that was the situation when I packed in with X1.

[Grorgy]

IMO, locate shouldn't be put in the same category as software like X1 or Archivarius. AFAICT, Locate doesn't index content at all. No?

Thats really what I was getting at Armando, they do different things, but i like locate because thats really all i need for most things, and I find archivarius so easy to use and so configurable that it suits me perfectly.  I got so sick of the constant indexing and always running nayure of X1 and windows desktop search, i think they have some options for changing those things but i never found them and now i am happy with the solution i've got, works for me.

[Armando]

Yes X1 can be a bit of a resource hog. But it's the most feature full Desktop Search software out there I believe.

[Ralf Maximus]

Is Yahoo desktop search still based on X1?

[Carol Haynes]

Here is the current Yahoo Desktop Search - so it is clearly still using X1. Last time I tried it they were using the lastest version of X1 with the restrictions I mentioned above. There is also a permanent link on the top right offing to upgrade to the full Pro version for $50 (IIRC) - which seems a bit steep when there are so many good alternatives for free.

[KenR]

I use two programs for Desktop search. I use Where Is It? when I just want to find a file. When I want to search file contents, I use Archivarius 3000. I've tried lots of search software and like these two for the purposes I mentioned better than any other software - free or pay.

Ken

[Carol Haynes]

I just tried archivarius again - it doesn't seem to behave well with Outlook 2003 !!

• after indexing my PST had errors when I scanned it,
• it loaded Outlook into memory to index and then refused to unload it again - consequently I had Outlook running in the background permanently (that was even after I exited Archivarius),
• there didn't seem any way to index PST files without loading them into Outlook first - which is a complete pain and impractical - esp. if Outlook is permanently locked in memory  ... I would be using about 75% of my memory just to search my emails!
• the help file is useless - there is no useful index and no obvious way to search it - which for a search app seems a bit daft

Am I missing something? Quickly finding stuff in emails (and esp. the hundreds of megabytes of archived mail) would be a primary reason for me to keep a search engine on my system - as it is I have uninstalled it again and will just use the slow outlook search function.

Anyone found anything that works with multiple PST files in a sensible and proper manner (ie. it doesn't damage the file, like Archivarius and X1 seem to, and doesn't require Outlook to be permanently loaded to access the index, and doesn't require all the PST files loaded into the default profile)

[Carol Haynes]

I have edited the poll - a number of people use Locate and another full contents search engine. You can now select up to two items in the poll.

If you have already voted you can change your vote by clicking "Remove Vote" and then voting again.

[Darwin]

Hi Carol,

Archivarius is not perfect in its Outlook support. The author is aware of the problems and has mentioned to me that he intends to remedy the situation in the future. You could write to him to add to the volume of people complaining and perhaps rouse him to action.

This is what he said to me (and I hope it's OK to quote him):

Currently A3000 use OLE to access Outlook mailboxes. A3000 also support
direct access (via "Custom mails"), it is useful if PST file is not
connected to Outlook (e.g. just stored somewhere as backup).
But OLE access is slow and not good for latest version of Outlook. We should
switch to COM method (it is used in other search systems). We are planning
to switch in the future.

In the interim, I save my e-mails using MessageSave - this provides me with my e-mail in a format that Archivarius can index and search very quickly as well as a tertiary backup for my PST's...

[KenR]

I just tried archivarius again - it doesn't seem to behave well with Outlook 2003 !!

• after indexing my PST had errors when I scanned it,
• it loaded Outlook into memory to index and then refused to unload it again - consequently I had Outlook running in the background permanently (that was even after I exited Archivarius),
• there didn't seem any way to index PST files without loading them into Outlook first - which is a complete pain and impractical - esp. if Outlook is permanently locked in memory  ... I would be using about 75% of my memory just to search my emails!
• the help file is useless - there is no useful index and no obvious way to search it - which for a search app seems a bit daft

Am I missing something? Quickly finding stuff in emails (and esp. the hundreds of megabytes of archived mail) would be a primary reason for me to keep a search engine on my system - as it is I have uninstalled it again and will just use the slow outlook search function.

Anyone found anything that works with multiple PST files in a sensible and proper manner (ie. it doesn't damage the file, like Archivarius and X1 seem to, and doesn't require Outlook to be permanently loaded to access the index, and doesn't require all the PST files loaded into the default profile)

-Carol Haynes (October 14, 2007, 05:08 AM)

Hey Carol,

First of all, please know that while I am not worthy, I am honored to respond to one of your posts.

Having gotten that out of the way, I can tell you that when I initially tested it and in fact still, I have not had a problem with Archivarius with any program. I think I was using Bat! Pro at the time I first tried Arch. 3K. If not, then it worked on my computer with Outlook 2003.

I was pretty sceptical about the program, but decided to try it after all the good things people were saying. I must say, I have found it to be great. Once indexes are built it gives immediate answers and has worked flawlessly for me.

On the other hand, if you are having difficulty, then it would make sense to me to use locate for outlook and Arch 3K (or something else) for other searches.

I really hope you can get it to work. It really is a great program. I was generally satisfied with using X1 at the time, but Arch 3K blew it away. Maybe a forum post or email to the developer?

Ken

[Carol Haynes]

LOL - I don't usually command much respect, but thanks for answering.

The problem is that LOCATE only finds the PST file names (PST is the filetype used by MS Outlook for storing emails, contacts etc.) and doesn't have the option to search the content.

I really need something to index the contents of all my PST files - I have loads of stuff archived in separate archive files. I am not bothered about other file types (though that would be nice) as Locate and DOpus combine to give a quick way of finding and viewing files.

The only program I have found that will index Outlook data fully is X1 Pro (at $50) but I wasn't happy that my PST files regularly got damaged by X1. I am not the only person to report that as a bug but they never did come up with a solution.

Currently X1 Free version, Archivarius and Copernic all index Outlook data but they only use the PST files opened in the current profile. That is when I open Outlook it opens the normal "Personal Folders" file plus any of the archives I left open last time I used it. To keep things indexed and available it means that I have to open all of my Archive files every time Outlook opens - which takes huge amounts of time and memory and make Outlook 2003 crawl like a pig in a mud bath.

You can set up alternative profiles but unfortunately none of those apps take much notice of other profiles that are present - just the one that opens by default.

Copernic looks the most user friendly as it doesn't actually run Outlook to index your emails. Archivarius appears to load Outlook when it is indexing but there doesn't seem to be any way to close it again, even when indexing is finished!

I don't want to go back to X1 because I don't want to pay $50 to search my emails and I don't like having to regularly repair my Outlook data files.

[Darwin]

What about Lookout? I've no idea if this will do what you need it to do or not... Just throwing it out there as it suggested itself to me when I read that you are interested primarily in indexing pst files and not other file types...

[Ralf Maximus]

Whelp, I tried Archivarius -- it lasted about 30 minutes on my system before I undeleted it.

- Trial edition runs 30 days; groovy.  Should be plenty of time to evaluate it and compare side-by-side with X1.

- Trial edition only indexes 10,000 files.  Whaaaa..?  I mean, I have folders with more than 10,000 files in them.

- Whenever I did a search against my puny 10,000 file index I'd get a result pane full of stuff.  And it was QUICK.  Whoa, pretty.  Very cool looking. 

- Scrolling within that list was insanely slow, and displayed a pop-up "please wait" kind of dialog with a countdown calibrated in .1 second increments.  Sometimes the dialog would be there for 2 or 3 seconds, sometimes less than half a second.  Almost EVERY TIME I scrolled or did anything the stupid dialog popped up.  This behavior almost gave me siezures; I'd go for the mouse to click on something and up it'd pop.  D'oh!  I'd wait for the dialog to clear, click on something else... click again... wait... wait... no dialog.  Hm.  Clicky and... D'oH!! 

- If it does this with a measly 10,000 files, what'll it do after indexing 2TB of local files?

So it's gone.  I maye have been a bit quick with the uninstall, but honestly I was starting to react emotionally to this software, and not in the good way.

Apologies to anyone who's an Archivarius fan, I really REALLY wanted to like it.  X1 is slow sometimes but I'll take slow over annoying any time, any place.  I'm sticking with X1 unless somebody can tell me there's some secret "Do Not Be Annoying" switch I failed to notice for Archivarius.

[Armando]

I don't like having to regularly repair my Outlook data files.

-Carol Haynes (October 14, 2007, 09:51 AM)

This never happened to me. Do you have an idea of which specific conditions cause the corruption? And what are the symptoms of your corrupted PST file?

Thanks!

What about Lookout?

-Darwin (October 14, 2007, 10:17 AM)

Lookout is a good option for those who only want Outlook indexing.

Yes Archivarius is not an ideal Outlook companion. As Darwin knows, I've sent an email to the developer too, asking for better Outlook support, and other features (like the ability so save searches, a bit like what X1 allows to do).

I must add that even if I find that Archivarius does a good job, I don't like its interface that much : if you're a keyboard aficionado, it's not the best. In comparison, X1 is more keyboard friendly (tab switching is easy).

Ralf Maximus : weird. I have a lot of (huge) documents (and I'm sure Darwin and others do too) and I haven't experienced the pain you went through. in fact scrolling in the list is much quicker than with any other desktop search I've used. The interface is actually pretty light.

[Darwin]

Yeah, just to chime in here, Ralf, I've never had that experience, either.

WRT X1, it does wreak havoc with Outlook in my experience. When I was running it on my notebook, setting the system to either hibernate or go into standby on shutting the lid (pretty standard for most people using notebooks) caused X1 to crash and recover if Outlook is minimized to tray. Unfortunately, while X1 would recover, it would break the connection between Outlook and my pst so I'd have to shutdown and restart Outlook. This happened EVERY time and persisted through several builds and betas, including the latest full release. This behaviour was replicable on three different notebooks running XP Home, XP Pro and Win2k (now deceased, sniff). I've not bothered trying version 6 but haven't seen anyone raving in the forums about how it has fixed the Outlook problems. Anyway, the point is that Outlook frequently had to scan and repair my pst after these crashes, so I can undertand why Carol might have been experiencing corrupt pst's when she was running X1.

I *know* that all I needed to do was either disable hibernate and standby on closing the lid of my notebook or make sure that exited Outlook before closing the lid, but too often I'd forget to close Outlook and I hate having to boot my system everytime I want to use it (yes, I am a product of my generation - instant gratification required!).

[Carol Haynes]

Yep - pretty much my experience with X1. I did like its interface though - but I'm not going to pay $50 for something with major glitches (I can get around Standby/Hibernate problem easily enough by disabling them).

The trouble is that the Outlook Inbox Repair Tool is pretty crap at telling you what the problem is. It only has three messages:

• No problems
• Minor inconsistencies
• Errors

It does produce a log but often it doesn't tell you anything specific at all (like what it fixed) just the repair stages it went through. When it does give repair info it is total gobble-di-gook filled with unintelligible abbreviations and jargon that is specific the to PST format! I presume MS technical bods can understand it for debugging and problem solving purposes but since MS charge a fortune and don't provide any real non-corporate user support it just doesn't help the average user.

[tinjaw]

I am curious to know if anybody has found any program, pay or not, that works well, indexes all MS Office documents, including PSTs, PDFs, inside compressed archives, etc.

[Darwin]

well... so far in my experience Copernic comes closest. Note, though, that my wife is convinced that it is missing messages and files in scanning. I ditched it from my own computer about a year ago in deference to X1 and then to Archivarius. The tragedy of X1 is that it's *almost* perfect save the annoyances Carol and I have highlighted. I can't uderstand why they can't iron these wrinkles out... The other issue for me with X1 that I've not yet mentioned in this thread is that it is glacially slow in displaying previews and often hangs while trying to preview files. When it's on, nothing can beat it for functionality, though... Too bad it's "off" more often than "on", though.

[Lashiec]

I wonder, did anyone try Exalead?

EDIT: Hmmm, their search engine looks pretty cool. No privacy policy, though