Extremely slow searches when adding whole drives to the search folders

[MHoefler]

Hi!

I like FARR, but its use is somehow limited because it can not really find all files and folders on my computer. When I add the drives (e.g. C:\, D:\, etc.) to the search folders, FARR becomes extremely slow and searches on these drives take eternally. How can this problem be fixed?

I also use the program "Everything" (http://www.voidtools.com/), which indexes all my files on all drives (about 250.000!) almost instantly! It's breathtaking, how fast Everything finds ALL files on ALL drives. I guess the whole indexing takes about a second (at best)!

Is there a way to implement the same indexing method in FARR? This would be nice, because then FARR could be used to really find anything on the computer...

Regards,
Martin

[phitsc]

Very good! Probably my favourite donationcoder post so far.

You should maybe read this thread: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=13421.0

But seriously, there are ways to get both FARR and indexing. One which is available right now is the Locate32 plugin, which I have never tried to be honest. Another one would be my Windows Search plugin. It's not available yet though and I'm still hesitant if I should put the extra work in to make it releasable.

[mouser]

Sometime in the near future, indexing will be added as an OPTION to farr.. some people want it, some dont.
Right now FARR is not the right tool to do full disk search, unless as phitsc points out, you use locate32 and the locate32 plugin.

[MHoefler]

I did read this thread about FARR not indexing - but that's why I pointed out here, that indexing can be extremely fast! As far as I understood, FARR doesn't index due to performance issues, but as "Everything" shows, indexing can be extremely fast!

Did you take a look at "Everything"? If not, I strongly suggest it, because it's absolutely amazing how fast this program is! I don't see why the same technique could not be used in FARR...

Regards!

[phitsc]

Still had a good laugh . Sorry about misunderstanding you!

Well, I had a look at "Everything" now. It only indexes file and folder names (not the contents), which I guess is what you want and probably what makes it so fast. Now if it offered an API ...

[Vrokolos]

Well it does offer an api through windows messages
But until then here's a beta release of my everything plugin (that uses command line es.exe)
Download es.exe from everything's web site
It's actually a copy-pasted locate32 plugin

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/400763/FarrEverything.dll

Is there a way to make only this plugin's results show in small result mode by default?

[mouser]

this is exciting vrokolas, but it doesnt seem to work for me..
it loads, i see the advanced config, i point it to the everything exe,
and when i type "loc test" it seems to start up everything.exe but no search results are shown to farr window.

EDIT:
I see my problem -- i was pointing it to the main gui everything.exe, when what i needed was the portable commandline es.exe from everything download page: http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

trying again now.

[mouser]

vrokolas, it works!
lets continue the everything plugin discussion here: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=16582