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What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

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fiddyschmitt:
How about file hound? Not to blow my own horn but I actually use it all the time at work...

Darwin:
Hi Fidel - thanks for reminiding me about File Hound - I love that it runs as an exe (ie without needing to be installed) and the simple, intuitive interface. Very nicely done  :Thmbsup:

sajman99:
+1 for File Hound. 100% agree with Darwin--simple yet powerful search with logical interface...and it's free.  8)

fiddyschmitt:
:) :) thx guys

halcyon:
Uh-oh... I thought upgrading to Windows 7 (Ultimate w/ Federation) would solve my problems, but no dice.

I have a HUGE collection of HTML, MHT, doc, rtf, PDF and djvu research articles, papers and even books on my hard drive.

I've tried the built-in Windows 7 feature, but it is sorely lacking on the following features:

 1) No clear search interface to input multiple search criteria. I hate learning a new query language (AQS) - yes I'm old, nothing I can do about that. Why oh why did Microsoft remove the older XP style search interface?

2) For some reason it fails to index all files, regardless of read/access rights and iFilters/settings active. Can't figure out why.

3) Appears to cut off indexing at some predefined limit for large files (?)

4) When searching for CONTENTS with preview pane open, the preview shows the first page of the file, not the first page with the search word occurring. How dumb is that? I want specificity and context for my search results. MS really blew this one up, imho.

5) Actually fairly slow to search/find (I don't mind index speed). Sure, it has a 150GB of files worth in the index, but I'm on a 4GHz quad-core, 12GB RAM, fast Intel SSD system. I'd appreciate a bit faster implementation of the algorithms for basic query.

6) Not sure it does stemming properly.

I'd be willing to pay up to $200 for a contents indexing/searching software that does the following:

 1. fast in searching, doesn't have to be a lightning fast indexer
 2. reliable: works without faults. no crashes. doesn't miss files
 3. can index files up to 100MB in size
 4. supports contents indexing/searching for pdf, doc(x), rtf, txt, htm, mhtm, djvu - if not natively, then via iFilters
 5. preview function shows the actual location hits for my content keyword queries, not just the 1st page
 6. works with Windows 7 (64bits, doesn't have to be 64bit version though)

Is there anything out there that fits the bill? I can't get Copernic, Google and other free try-outs to work properly.

Can X1 be made to work like this? How about the others. Many almost get there, but the DJVU content support seems to be a a miss for many.

If you've tried out and solved this issue yourself, I'd really like to hear what your solution was.

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