Author Topic: What is the currently best Desktop Search software? (Read 809761 times)

tomos · « **Reply #400 on:** June 16, 2008, 11:51 AM »

(Archivarius is gone, sniff -
-Darwin (June 16, 2008, 11:27 AM)

I presume (cause of your praise of same) that that's a sad "sniff" as opposed to a ...sniffy

one

Darwin · « **Reply #401 on:** June 16, 2008, 12:00 PM »

Yup - sad sniff... I still love it, but am (late) spring cleaning my harddrive. The 60+ applications that I removed freed up over 5 GB of space

cranioscopical · « **Reply #402 on:** June 16, 2008, 01:55 PM »

The 60+ applications that I removed freed up over 5 GB of space
-Darwin (June 16, 2008, 12:00 PM)

Good heavens! It'll take you at least a week to replace those with alternative clutter...

Darwin · « **Reply #403 on:** June 16, 2008, 02:08 PM »

Minimum, Chris

Curt · « **Reply #404 on:** June 16, 2008, 06:15 PM »

.. I just received the Iconico newsletter announcing this
We're happy to announce the release of LookDisk.
-Darwin (June 16, 2008, 11:27 AM)

I received this letter from the author:

Hi Curt,

Glad that you like LookDisk (I'm the author).

In the current version LookDisk can only find text within 'plain' textfiles and PDFs but not within RTF/DOC. To be precise it will find text within RTF/DOC as long as it's not formatted text (e.g. in bold or italic) as the text would be interspersed with formatting characters. Nevertheless, support for RTF/DOC is something I'm planning to implement soon.

As for Vista support, unfortunately it's not a straightforward port from XP so that might take a longer...

Regards,
Vincenzo

Promising - but for now, I think $30 is too much.

Darwin · « **Reply #405 on:** June 16, 2008, 06:33 PM »

Hmmm... interesting, Curt. Thanks for sharing that. Did you write to the author only, or have you installed and tried the app as well?

Curt · « **Reply #406 on:** June 17, 2008, 01:59 AM »

LookDisk trial version's features are limited - you have to purchase it with a 30 day money back guarantee - so I didn't care to install.

Darwin · « **Reply #407 on:** June 17, 2008, 08:31 AM »

Fair enough! Thanks for getting back to us... I'm down to dtSearch and X1 for indexers but still have a NUMBER of non-indexing search tools installed.

vinc64 · « **Reply #408 on:** July 01, 2008, 08:07 AM »

The above statement on LookDisk's trial version is not correct, there are absolutely no feature limitations in the 30-day trial version of LookDisk, i.e. you can try for 30 days the full functionality of LookDisk without any limitations whatsoever.

Darwin · « **Reply #409 on:** July 02, 2008, 08:27 AM »

vinc64 - LookDisk is featured on BitsduJour today and I've downloaded and installed. I note, however, this line from the LookDisk homepage:

You may download the feature limited trial, and evaluate the software for as long as you need

Which is found here: http://www.iconico.com/lookDisk/

In truth, I can see no limitations on the trial that I am currently running. However, I am disappointed, after a very brief test run admittedly, with the speed and thoroughness of the file search function. It is MUCH slower than either FileLocator Pro or SearchGT and only returns about 2/3's the number files.

Will give text a shot now...

Darwin · « **Reply #410 on:** July 02, 2008, 09:32 AM »

Hmmm... text search is thorough, but takes a VERY long time. On the plus side, text search doesn't lock up the programme and doesn't render my computer unusable. I'm going to try the duplicate file finder function and then I'll likely be uninstalling. A very young application with some promise, but as may be evident from this thread, I've got all bases that it covers, er, covered! multiple times already

Darwin · « **Reply #411 on:** July 02, 2008, 09:41 AM »

Well, duplicate file finding is not bad. However, I'm already uninstalling LookDisk. As mentioned above, I already have tools that accomplish the same tasks and they do them better at this point as well. It looks like I'm wrong about LookDisk being "young" as the version I have instlaled is 4.1, unless of course the first public release was 4?!

I think it is worth a try for anyone looking for an all-in-one tool covering filename and text search (without indexing), duplicate file searching, and basic disk information. However, note that there is no regular expression support that I could find.

YMMV

EDIT: added brackets around "without indexing". Leaving them out REALLY changed the meaning of the sentence

Hope it's clearer now!

Darwin · « **Reply #412 on:** July 02, 2008, 09:49 AM »

Final comment on LookDisk - its uninstaller doesn't appear in Add/Remove Programs. You have to run the uninstaller via a shortcut in the start menu folder for the program or directly from the Program Files folder. The uninstaller works, but I like to use Your Uninstaller for a more thorough purging of installed files and registry entries. Not the end of the world, but I'd rather see the uninstaller accessible from Add/Remove...

A niggle, I know

vinc64 · « **Reply #413 on:** July 02, 2008, 10:12 AM »

Hi Darwin, thanks a lot for all your feedback, very much appreciated!

I will notify Iconico to correct the statement about the feature limited trial-version.

LookDisk was available for a long time as Freeware (up to version 2.97) and therefore you're second statement is correct, that it's not that young anymore

.

Adding the programm under Add/Remove Programs requires a registry entry which is blocked by many corporate PC/laptops (any registry changes) and that's why I decided not to add it there.

You mentioned that LookDisk didn't return some of the files when you tried a text search, do you have a specific example? (e.g. which text wasn't found).

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Darwin · « **Reply #414 on:** July 02, 2008, 10:31 AM »

Hi vinc64, thank you for your quick reply and a belated welcome to DC

It's alway GREAT to see developers on these boards discussing their programs.

LookDisk didn't return as many hits on a Filename search as did SearchGT and File Locator Pro. SearchGT doesn't search within files (ie text) and File Locator Pro's search within files feature is as slow as molasses.

I have a lot of files and folders with "neanderthal" in the name and tested all three applications with that as a search term. SearchGT returned 532 files in 10.7 seconds, FileLocator Pro 532 files in 11 seconds (only gives full seconds, so I *think* pretty much neck and neck with SearchGT) and LookDisk returned only 387 "hits" in a much longer period of time. There is no time counter provided with the program, but I started the search and after about 10 seconds though I'd try SearchGT. It completed its scan before LookDisk did so I then repeated the experiment with FileLocator Pro and it completed its scan before LookDisk did as well.

The interface is well laid out and the program easy to use. I didn't mean to damn the duplicate file finding feature with faint praise. It worked well, considering I simply set it to find all duplicate files on drive E without specifying file type, so I wasn't surprised that it was taking so long! When I stopped it it had found a number of duplicate files. In fact they were a surprise to me. I use Duplicate Killer Pro and have always specificed file type and a much narrower location to search so it has never turned these up for me.

Anyway, as mentioned, I think LookDisk is well worth considering, it's just not for me as I've already got tools that duplicate its feature set.

vinc64 · « **Reply #415 on:** July 02, 2008, 10:52 AM »

Hi Darwin, thanks for the welcome

As the developer it's always a bit of a challenge to ask questions on the own software without sounding defensive (hope I wasn't). I value any honest feedback I receive as this is the only way for me to know what needs to be improved.

On the number of found files, did you check under Options - Exclusions whether Exclude hidden/system files/folders was selected? Does it make any difference if you deselect those options? (if they were selected in the first place)

On the search speed, by default LookDisk searches inside archives (zip, cab, rar etc) and that could explain why it was considerably slower. If you deselect the searches in archives (under Options), does it make a difference in terms of search speed?

Glad to hear the positive comments on the UI and duplicate file finding.

Thanks again for the additional feedback.

Cheers,
Vincenzo

Darwin · « **Reply #416 on:** July 02, 2008, 06:06 PM »

Vincenzo - you didn't come across as defensive at all. I've been off-line all day so must apologise for not responding sooner. I'll play around with the settings that you suggested and get back to you.

Darwin · « **Reply #417 on:** July 02, 2008, 06:21 PM »

Nice. I incorporated your suggestions and figure the search took about 10 secs. (I also disabled the "display search progress" option) and turned up 537 files

The big difference in speed is due to turning off looking inside archives (I'm talking about searching for files, not text) and I enabled including folder names in the search. That's a nice feature and one that I will no disable again as it substantially reduces the number of "hits" to wade through. I'll also see if I can disable a similar option in my other non-indexing search applications (without looking I am pretty sure I can in FileLocator Pro and can't in SearchGT).

Curt · « **Reply #418 on:** July 02, 2008, 06:39 PM »

- you're right, Mike; you can't do it in SearchGT.
However, the program is still new, so we might have a chance to influence the author...

What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

vinc64 · « **Reply #419 on:** July 03, 2008, 07:51 AM »

Glad that LookDisk managed to find the remaining files at a reasonable speed

Curt · « **Reply #420 on:** July 03, 2008, 03:17 PM »

Hi vinc64, ... It's alway GREAT to see developers on these boards discussing their programs.
-Darwin (July 02, 2008, 10:31 AM)

- yes, I agree.

I like this LookDisk, but I cannot help thinking the author somehow may feel trapped between the customers and Iconico, and that he must be terrible busy! Though I really meant that word I said: "Promising", I also meant the words that followed: "- but for now, I think $30 is too much." Yes, I am still running XP, so I could use this program of his, now, but I am almost certain that my next PC will be a Vista, so guess if I am going to purchase a program that does not support Vista? No, Sir!

.. I just received the Iconico newsletter announcing this
We're happy to announce the release of LookDisk.
-Darwin (June 16, 2008, 11:27 AM)

I received this letter from the author:

Hi Curt,

Glad that you like LookDisk (I'm the author).
...
As for Vista support, unfortunately it's not a straightforward port from XP so that might take a longer...

Regards,
Vincenzo

Promising - but for now, I think $30 is too much.
-Curt (June 16, 2008, 06:15 PM)

I don't think we should confuse the author with our wishes for this and for that, while he is totally busy making his program Vistable! Only then I might accept Iconico's asking price!

Darwin · « **Reply #421 on:** July 08, 2008, 07:53 AM »

In the interest of being complete, I re-installed Archivarius a couple of weeks back. I no longer remember why - there was some file type or another that X1 and dtSearch didn't handle. At any rate, I keep the indexes for both dtSearch and Archivarius up to date but don't have either scheduled and rarely run either of them. Nice to know they're there, though.

I had occasion to use dtSearch to search a folder on a different computer on my network recently - very impressive, didn't take that long and allowed me to preview the results. It wasn't/isn't installed on the other computer. AFAICT, both Archivarius and X1 require that I install the application on the other computers on my network to take advantage of this.

Armando · « **Reply #422 on:** July 09, 2008, 12:01 PM »

Thanks for the info Darwin!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #423 on:** July 09, 2008, 12:26 PM »

I think X1 Pro (the paid for version) supports indexing network shares but the free version doesn't.

Curt · « **Reply #424 on:** July 16, 2008, 07:01 PM »

the website for Search GT
http://www.search-gt.com/
says - "Completely integrated into Windows Explorer"

can anyone say what that means... context menu or ..??
-tomos (March 13, 2008, 04:27 PM)

- tomos did get an answer, but I would nevertheless like to stress out an important point:

4. Complete integration into Windows Explorer. Search GT duplicates the Windows File Search functionality (check the screenshots). You start the search and get the search results within the Windows Explorer window.

What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

-search-gt.com

Some of the times I am in the need of renaming, the files in question would be scattered in different folders all over the My Documents directory, or even in C:\.. How do you rename files this far away from each other? The answer is: use SearchGT! Well, not for the actual renaming part, that is, but for the gathering of the files in question, of course. Apart from the blazing speed, this little feature, that SearchGT will show the search result in a normal Explorer window, is what makes that application extra useful. Because when the resulting files from a search within 3 seconds are shown in a normal Explorer window of it's own, you can OpenWith or SendTo your renamer at once, saving a lot of time and work.

I was just reminded of this extra plus today, when I found out that I had been spelling a certain name wrongly many times. ALL of the correction took me less than a minute, even though it included twenty files of five different file types placed in six different folders.

However, I am a little concerned that the program not has been updated for 3½ months. Hmm... Yes, it is both stable and bugfree (in my setup), but it is *not* as if there aren't a number of features still not available...

Poll

Which Desktop Search Tool(s) do you use? (Choose up to 2)

Author Topic: What is the currently best Desktop Search software? (Read 809761 times)