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What is the currently best Desktop Search software?
clk4suport:
Hi there,
i hv google desktop software.
jity2:
Update: one day after. I have updated several contents of this post. It may be better to read it again in full ! ;)
Dear all,
1) For keyword search in files content - Locally on my PC
I was using Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) for years (since V2 I think). A month ago I was still using their V3.7 released a long time ago.
I have bought their V4 more than one year ago but even recently it was too buggy for me. Note when V3 was released years ago, I remember that I had to wait one year so that it was not buggy ! Well, I don't think I can say they care about their customers (note: it costs a one time fee of about $50. And 50% coupon when a new version was released)!
Now I am testing X1 Search V8 for the last 10 days (I remember having tested unsuccessfully X1 when it was with yahoo. Apparently they changed the full code of their program around 2010 which I have missed!). So far I quite happy overall especially since it displays faster in the preview pane xls, pdf and html files.
The only problem I had is that it doesn't display correctly accents in the preview pane html files (see http://forums.x1.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=9638).
With CDS V3.6 size of the index was 85 Go with about 2,000,000 files indexed (Note: In one hdd drive I even hit the NTFS limit : too much files to handle ! edit: see https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=39992.msg373167#msg373167) . It took about 15 days to complete 24/24 7/7.
I still haven't finished indexing all my contents (mainly xls doc ppt mdb csv zip pdf eml msg files) with X1. So far speed of indexing and size of the index seems to be about the same. But I'll try to update that info here. ;) edit1: Apparently I have some locally saved email (.eml) that were not indexed. I need to try to find why ! Edit2: I have tried several thing but it won't index some eml files ! I also checked and discovered that some subfolders were not indexed even if X1 says all the index is up to date. I have tried 3 times to re-index and the last time it found alone some yearly folders that it had missed the first time ! I have still some yearly subfolders not indexed !
Update : Done. In my case with the same computer and the same data content (about 2,000,000 files) to be indexed, X1 did it in 10 days (5 days less than CDS V3.6) and the size of the index is 52 Go (less 33Go than CDS) ! See edits above! Note;: I had some strange problems yesterday. X1 was stuck and then suddenly it started to use twice the same amount of the size index ! Grrr I moved the index on another HDD from a SSD. I let it finish the indexing and moved back to the SSD where the index size is again the normal size (52Go)! Now I need to test extensively to see if everything is ok with X1 ! I'll try to update again about it here !
I haven't tested dtsearch yet (so I don't know if it is better/faster. Dtsearch index size seems to be 15% the size of the indexed content. http://support.dtsearch.com/faq/dts0206.htm so my guess is that the index will be bigger than with CDS or X1). Price seems high $200 but X1 is $50 +$25 each year. So maybe I'll give it a try. ;) In fact after watching some videos about it, I won't try it will try it even if I don't use regex for searching keywords, and because the interface seems not very enough user friendly (I don't want to click many times just to do a keyword search !).
1 bis) For keyword search in files content - online in the cloud
I have also uploaded my data in Google Drive (see my experiments here https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=34797.msg373077#msg373077 ). There, it also does index the content of the files with some limits : for instance :
- index only the first 100 pages of pdf files - But if you open a 1000 pages pdf files and do a keyword search in it, it will find the keyword !
- index only the first million characters of any file (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/37603?hl=en)
- may not be able to open very large xls files (note: I already created Google Drive Sheets close to the 2,000,000 cells limit but it consumed close to the 2Go RAM limit of Firefox 32Bits !). In reality I stay closer to less than 20 MB for xls files.
- doesn't display small extracts of the files (like we see when we do a keyword search in google.com). So you have to open each files to see if it is the document you were looking for !
- you have to wait a few seconds for the UI to preview or open the file.
- doesn't display correctly html files. In fact it displays the html code only !! This is strange as gmail can do so properly without images when you send a joined html file in an email !
If you have millions of small files (html plus their related gif etc files..) it may very difficult (it creates easily orphaned files without telling about it...https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!mydiscussions/drive/qM_Wdt6ElRQ) ! My next goal is to convert my html files in txt so I can do searches on it inside google drive. But I hit another problem : Google drive folders are not folders like in your pc but labels (see https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!mydiscussions/drive/qM_Wdt6ElRQ). It can take ages when you want to upload such many thousands files in Google Drive. It loads somewhere in a server memory all the google drive files, before adding new ones. Plus you can't search yet easily in a folder.
2) For keyword search in filenames only
I also use Everything for file searching. I like their folder filters shortcut (search only in some pre-defined folders).
I also use Listary files searching when I have opened a folder with many files. It can search inside very fast (I use it also for selecting very fast folders that I have previously bookmarked).
Well, as someone wrote hereafter, I think I am closed to limits for indexing all my data ! But day after day, it becomes better ! ;)
See ya ;)
My computer : win 8.1 64bits french +4cores + hdd + ssd +16Go ram.
40hz:
Can't speak to what's "best." But I use Everything Search Engine for very large file collections. And it hasn't let me down so far. I don't know if it will be a good fit for your particular requirements. But it's certainly worth a look.
cyberdiva:
I second 40hz's recommendation of Everything Search. I use it all the time. It's terrific as long as you know all or part of the filename. But it doesn't look inside files. When I know something about the content, or perhaps even just when the file was made, the program I turn to is File Locator Pro. It has never failed me. Though it's not free, the company also makes a free version called Agent Ransack, which is also quite good (it's also called File Locator Lite, since some people and companies are apparently reluctant to try a program called Agent Ransack :) ). You can find a comparison of the commercial and free version here.
One advantage/disadvantage of these programs is that they don't index your files...they search each time. This means that the search is usually slower than a program that indexes, but it also means that the program isn't using your computer's resources all the time as it indexes AND it means that even if you haven't indexed in a while, you can still find any file, no matter how recent.
Innuendo:
Desktop search software is very frustrating. I revisit the topic every so often as I'm always looking for better tools, but at the end I'm always left aggravated. Ideally, in my mind, the perfect solution would be something that provided quick searches, could search inside files as well as just filenames, and have something like QuickView Plus bolted on that would provide previews of most file types.
X1 - Far from perfect, but the absolute best if you use the criteria above as a guideline. Sadly, it seems they are very aware of being the best and have priced their product accordingly. Very expensive...just expensive enough to put it over the line of insulting. If you want the best, you and your wallet will be oh so painfully aware that you are paying for the best.
Copernic Destkop Search - This is the source of most of that aforementioned aggravation. On paper they are the golden child. The feature list is a dream, the UI is functional *and* attractive, and it has file preview capabilities to die for. However, their programmers are either extremely incompetent, drink a *lot*, or both. Stupid bugs that you can't believe that made it past QA that have been in the product for years and a liberal dash of WTF moments that make you wonder how they have managed to stay in business. Even if you can put all that aside, it's been proven that their indexing routine misses some files. What's the point of having a program that can search if it cannot find everything?
dtSearch - This is a solution geared towards corporations and the cold UI and barely there acceptable list of features make this an unappetizing choice for home users. I would wager they make their bones by providing lucrative support plans and willingness to accept company purchase orders. There are more capable, less expensive, more efficient options available.
UltraFinder - This is one that's slipped under my radar and it only just recently came to my attention. It's made by IDM, the same people who make UltraEdit. It's a weird hybrid between the search programs above and the likes of Everything Search Engine that use the MFT to find things lightning-fast. The product page is sparse on listing features, but near as I can tell it has a limited file preview capability that will support PDF, Excel, Word, and text files. I've never used this one, but I will give them credit for putting in a duplicate finding function. Makes sense when you think of it.
Everything Search Engine is very capable and very fast. Development stalled for a long while, but it's started back up again. It uses the MFT to search your NTFS drives super-fast. I used to use this, but have moved on to Listary Pro. It uses the MFT of your drives to search as well, but has some other features I have come to rely on as well.
File Locator Pro is an excellent stand-alone traditionally styled search program. However, when I need something like that I usually just use the search functionality built into my file manager of choice.
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