Author Topic: What is the currently best Desktop Search software? (Read 804612 times)

Nzyme · « **Reply #825 on:** March 24, 2015, 09:15 AM »

I personally found "Everything" to be the best. Unfortunately, it lacks the basic "View" functionality. That is, displaying the search results in different views - small, large, very large, tiles, list, details, etc...

This is a much needed feature and I have also asked the developer to implement this in the next release.

J-Mac · « **Reply #826 on:** March 24, 2015, 09:48 AM »

Also, of course, Search Everything does not index files; it can only search file and folder names. It cannot search any file contents. While file names only is OK for me maybe 75% of the time, I still need to search file contents enough that Everything simply can't do it all for me.

Jim

gt13013 · « **Reply #827 on:** April 19, 2015, 03:49 PM »

Hello. I am a long time user of X1 (since version 2.0).
I am still using daily my old X1 Desktop Search Version 5.2.3 (Build 1852bz-bs) (Released Friday, August 26, 2005), running on Windows 8.1 and indexing about 2,000,000 files (about 4 TB of data) on several volumes (internal drives, USB drive, NAS).
I have kept this version because after version 5.2.3, X1 began to deal with the accented letters in a bad way (I have written several posts on this subject on the X1 forum). And when finally X1 got a satisfactory way to deal with accented letters, X1 lost the ability to index Thunderbird email, which is incompatible with my use.
But more and more frequently, I realize that X1 misses some of my files. Sometimes it is solved by re-indexing (it takes around 36 hours), but some files refuse to be indexed for an unknown reason...
By the way, I do not trust X1 searches any longer, and I am looking at some other solutions.

I have found this forum today, and there are interesting discussions here.
That is why I post this message here, in order to follow these discussions.

Armando · « **Reply #828 on:** April 24, 2015, 11:13 PM »

Good luck gt13013! I found that I need to combine a few engines to get the best results. Repeating myself, but using a combination of Archivarius, DTSearch and Everything (when only file names are involved.) AFAICT, Archivarius and DTSearch don't miss any files -- unless their format isn't supported. Plus, they can index bigger files than X1 can.

gt13013 · « **Reply #829 on:** April 30, 2015, 06:44 PM »

Thanks Armando. It seems that Archivarius will be the next software that I will test.

David.P · « **Reply #830 on:** July 07, 2015, 04:13 AM »

Hi,

I was looking for an "OR"-operator in my copy of Archivarius 3k, but couldn't find one that works. Is "OR" search not supported in A3k?

Jibz · « **Reply #831 on:** July 07, 2015, 05:09 AM »

I was looking for an "OR"-operator in my copy of Archivarius 3k, but couldn't find one that works. Is "OR" search not supported in A3k?
-David.P (July 07, 2015, 04:13 AM)

I think if you press the dropdown on the Find button, and select boolean search, you can use OR:

You can also press the Enter query link on the left to get a dialog where you can seach for any of a list of words.

David.P · « **Reply #832 on:** July 07, 2015, 05:15 AM »

Great, thanks! I like that query assistant dialog, didn't know that it existed.

disenchanted · « **Reply #833 on:** July 13, 2015, 02:34 PM »

Just received an offer today for 50% off of Copernic Desktop 5.
50% off thru july 31,2015

disenchanted · « **Reply #834 on:** July 13, 2015, 02:37 PM »

I use a product called VEGNOS.
It is only $2.99 at this time.

VEGNOS link

Terms of license:
Home users may use their single computer usage license on all computers and mobile devices (USB drive, external hard drive, etc.) which are the property of the license owner.

disenchanted · « **Reply #835 on:** July 13, 2015, 02:44 PM »

I like DTSearch quite a bit except that the initial indexing takes several hours.
Plus you need lots of HDD space to store the index files produced by DTSearch.

But for speed of a search term look-up, it is almost instantaneous.

Fortunately I got a few copies of DTSearch a couple years ago, when it would sell on Ebay, in a retail box, for anywhere from
$25 to $65.
I haven't noticed it on Ebay in quite some time. Not sure if the DTSearch company requested that Ebay no longer accept seller listing for it or what.
I still keep perusing Ebay every month or so in hopes some seller will list a copy or two.

motiontwelve · « **Reply #836 on:** July 31, 2015, 02:24 PM »

Does anyone know of any note taker/organizer software for windows that stores each note in individual files that are searchable and can be previewed by X1?

mojope · « **Reply #837 on:** August 21, 2015, 04:48 AM »

Hi all

My current favorite is a tool called Exselo Desktop. They can handle all of my big documents, and is integrated with my Outlook in (for me) a natural manner.

Of course, it being blazing fast helps as well.

Download it from their web page and try for yourself: Exselo

Disclaimer: I am affiliated with Exselo

David.P · « **Reply #838 on:** August 21, 2015, 04:52 AM »

> Download it from their web page and try for yourself

Download it from their web page and try for yourself:
-mojope (Participant, Posts: 1) (August 21, 2015, 04:48 AM)

You sure that it is "their", not "your" web page?

mojope · « **Reply #839 on:** August 21, 2015, 04:57 AM »

> Download it from their web page and try for yourself

Download it from their web page and try for yourself:
-mojope (Participant, Posts: 1) (August 21, 2015, 04:48 AM)

You sure that it is "their", not "your" web page?
-David.P (August 21, 2015, 04:52 AM)

I am sure. Even though I know some of the people working in that company. I modified my post, and added a disclaimer so that there will be no misunderstanding as such.

highend01 · « **Reply #840 on:** August 21, 2015, 05:48 AM »

Exselo
=====
Requirements:
...
Java 7 or newer.

Good bye!

mojope · « **Reply #841 on:** August 21, 2015, 06:03 AM »

Exselo
=====
Requirements:
...
Java 7 or newer.

Good bye!
-highend01 (August 21, 2015, 05:48 AM)

Used by the underlying Search Engine, Elasticsearch.

exjoburger · « **Reply #842 on:** August 21, 2015, 01:37 PM »

Wow, things have changed so much since this question and Poll was first posted. Is Google Desktop Search still around? (I really didn't like that displaying of search results in a web browser).

Nowadays I would think a "Best" Desktop search would very much depend on your requirements and what viewers are important to you.

I'm a great fan of Everything Search, but that is because I mainly search for files rather than strings in files, and built-in viewers aren't that important to me.

I also still use Total commander a lot, and it works well enough for searching in text files when I know which folder(s) to search. The free MultiCommander has a pretty good File Search add-on.
But I guess these two aren't really Desktop Search tools.

gt13013 · « **Reply #843 on:** September 12, 2015, 05:49 PM »

Hello.
Following my previous discussion (here above, April 2015), I just decided to test Archivarius 3000 (4.74 version, 64 bit). A fine feature is that Archivarius gives an estimation of the index size before starting the indexing. But the index is HUGE. Look at the comparison with my old X1 Desktop Search Version 5.2.3 (Build 1852bz-bs) (Released Friday, August 26, 2005).
I have tried to select the same files, but they are some litte disprecancies (the directories excluded from the index are not exactly the sames).

X1 Archivarius
number of files 2,169,441 1,906,091 Almost the same files indexed
size of files 4 TB approx. 4110 GB
size of index 2.1 GB 1521 GB

Archivarius index is 700 times larger than X1 one!
For that reason, I cannot go on with this test. I need to buy a new drive, reserved for Archivarius index!

Armando · « **Reply #844 on:** September 12, 2015, 11:33 PM »

My own Stats

Archivarius:
Files : 494 870
Words : 11 395 416
Size of files : 192.54 GB
Size of text : 21.79 GB
Size of index : 8.55 GB

DT Search:
Files : 68 226
Words: 8 554 465
Data size (size of text) : 3.8 GB
Size of Index: 2.6 GB

Both have big indexes, but Archivarius doesn't seem outrageously huge here. It's actually smaller than DTSearch, proportionally speaking. I can't compare with X1 as it's long gone because of severe problems described earlier. I can't use a "desktop search " software that imposes strange limits on the document length it will index. I don't know if those limits still exist, but they've been there for quite a while.

[Edit : you'll notice that here the Archivarius index is about 22.5 times smaller than the file size, but only 2.55 times smaller than the actual text size. If the numbers you gave are only an estimate, the estimate might be off the mark, unless the text size is about the same as the file size (4110 GB) you gave.]

gt13013 · « **Reply #845 on:** September 13, 2015, 03:54 AM »

OK. Indeed I have a lot of media files with no text inside (does archivarius read the metadata in the images?).
Since I have 73 GB free on my HDD I decided to go on.
And Archivarius tells me that I cannot index more than 10000 files in the evaluation version.
OK. So I decided to index just a small directory to see what happens.
And first problem: my version of Archivarius only uses huge fonts (size 16), and I get very few information on my 1920x1200 pixels display!
And the option to change the font size do not accept any change. Is it the same for you?
EDIT: OK, I have found the problem. The font was 160% by default.

gt13013 · « **Reply #846 on:** September 13, 2015, 05:10 AM »

I have made the test explained here :
https://www.dropbox....ation_test3.zip?dl=0

And it is a complete failure for Archivarius. Here is the updated spreadsheet with Archivarius results:
https://www.dropbox....ation_test3.xls?dl=0

My conclusion: it seems that Archivarius is not suitable for people who use accented characters
Or perhaps I have missed something ?

Jibz · « **Reply #847 on:** September 13, 2015, 07:17 AM »

Strange, seems to work reasonably here:

unusualword ecz* -> 41 files found (18 + 5 outside, 18 in zip)
unusualword eczé* -> 41 files found
unusualword ecze* -> 41 files found
unusualword 67356976541 -> 3 files found (13, 20, and 13 again inside zip)
unusualword 77889954321 -> 3 files found (13, 20, and 13 again inside zip)

POZWOLIŁEM POZWOLILEM ŚRÓDŁĄCZĘ SRODLACZE, all found in Supplements.doc

Armando · « **Reply #848 on:** September 13, 2015, 03:27 PM »

I have made the test explained here :
https://www.dropbox....ation_test3.zip?dl=0

And it is a complete failure for Archivarius. Here is the updated spreadsheet with Archivarius results:
https://www.dropbox....ation_test3.xls?dl=0

My conclusion: it seems that Archivarius is not suitable for people who use accented characters
Or perhaps I have missed something ?

-gt13013 (September 13, 2015, 05:10 AM)

Don't know what to say except that I mostly speak French and hence use accented characters. Archivarius has always performed quick and found almost everything I need.

Maybe you haven't set up the encoding or morphology properly in the program settings?

gt13013 · « **Reply #849 on:** September 14, 2015, 06:15 PM »

OK, these are good news. It prooves that I an missing something.

I have the default settings.
It seems that I have the appropriate encodings selected (see attachment).

What is the currently best Desktop Search software?
I have added some options for cyrillic languages but it should not change my problem (I use French and English only).

What is the currently best Desktop Search software?
What else should I check ?

Poll

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

Author Topic: What is the currently best Desktop Search software? (Read 804612 times)