Author Topic: What is the currently best Desktop Search software? (Read 1,110,399 times)

tomos · « **Reply #375 on:** June 07, 2008, 07:34 AM »

Quote from: 4wd on June 07, 2008, 12:39 AM

That's because I use the original english spelling not the butchered, "americanized" version of the english language

nice reply 4WD, but really, there's no need to get snobby about english/english spelling

Curt · « **Reply #376 on:** June 07, 2008, 08:09 AM »

I am happy for you, 4WD, and I wish my XP machine was optimised too. However, it is not, not even optimized. Yes, I enjoy watching Top Gear, but I am aware that they are referring to themselves, and are always being spoken of by others, as boys, never as men. Of course the Jag went faster, but it was no longer a limousine (it never was, but you know what I mean).

Edited:

Did any of you guys try the new Windows Search 4 package?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157#top

Darwin · « **Reply #377 on:** June 07, 2008, 12:54 PM »

Yes I did try WDS 4, Curt. The services were RAM and CPU hungry (though it should be noted it is still only a Preview) and the file previewing feature was slooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww to load and, in the case of Office docs, actually loaded the office application in the background, along with any applications set to open with them (Endnote in my case, with Word). These processes then stay running - so I'd find Excel running in the background with 144MB of RAM being consumed.

Didn't last long as I discovered X1 had solved most of the problems I had with it a year ago...

4wd · « **Reply #378 on:** June 07, 2008, 01:19 PM »

Quote from: tomos on June 07, 2008, 07:34 AM

Quote from: 4wd on June 07, 2008, 12:39 AM
That's because I use the original english spelling not the butchered, "americanized" version of the english language

nice reply 4WD, but really, there's no need to get snobby about english/english spelling

Snobby?! Me?! Never?!

We Australians don't care about such things to become snobby

xcity · « **Reply #379 on:** June 07, 2008, 04:55 PM »

Picking up favorite desktop search is depending on you tasks expected from these desktop search software. As for me, email search is *MUST HAVE* task, file search is a plus but not have.

I finally picked up X1, after I tried copernic, WDS, GDS and others.

Copernic is the best in interface I think, it can break results into several categories, and it's beautiful. but as I said in early, its email search is just entry level. It can search, but gives you less capabilities to deal with searched items. For example, if you want to delete all the searched result, you have to do it one by one.

WDS is better in email handling, but it's tooooo slow. It slow down every things in my computer, I have to give it up.

GDS, oh, how I can say about it. It doesn't give you the opinion to choice folders in my outlook. I have 2000+ emails in delete folder, GDS just continue to index it without asking.

X1 is not as beauty as others in terms of interface, but it did get job done. In terms of email search, it's far better than any other desktop search application.

Except email search, I really don't think desktop search software is useful. If you want to locate a files, locate is good enough.

Dan

Darwin · « **Reply #380 on:** June 07, 2008, 05:05 PM »

Desktop Search software is useful for me, at any rate. I have 20 GB of pdf files (ie thousands of them, some are over 1000 pages long), all academic journal articles and masters and PhD theses and dissertations. Often I am after a bit of content - all pdfs that mention and discuss some arcane term like "microstratigraphy" or "olecranon process" or "HLA" - and desktop search is the only way to to this, short of opening each pdf up and reading through it...

tinjaw · « **Reply #381 on:** June 07, 2008, 05:45 PM »

Quote from: Darwin on June 07, 2008, 05:05 PM

short of opening each pdf up and reading through it...

You young people have no idea how lucky you are. When I was your age we had to read them ourselves. Forwards AND backwards. We had to TURN PAGES. We even had to stack them outside which meant retrieving them from the yard with 12 feet of snow in freezing temperatures at night with a candle.

Darwin · « **Reply #382 on:** June 07, 2008, 06:12 PM »

So... do you have a tin ear trumpet to go along with the tin jaw then?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #383 on:** June 07, 2008, 07:29 PM »

Quote from: tinjaw on June 07, 2008, 05:45 PM

We had to TURN PAGES. We even had to stack them outside

Pages? PAGES? Why, when I was a lad they were incised on stone tablets!
Try stacking those in the yard at 40C below, having carried them uphill with bare feet.
Holy Moses!

Darwin · « **Reply #384 on:** June 08, 2008, 12:11 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 07, 2008, 07:29 PM

Why, when I was a lad they were incised on stone tablets!

Shouldn't that be "When I were a lad..."?

kartal · « **Reply #385 on:** June 08, 2008, 03:04 AM »

My main problem with WDS is that it does not support thunderbird at all.

Quote from: xcity on June 07, 2008, 04:55 PM

WDS is better in email handling, but it's tooooo slow. It slow down every things in my computer, I have to give it up.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #386 on:** June 08, 2008, 03:30 AM »

Quote from: Darwin on June 08, 2008, 12:11 AM

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 07, 2008, 07:29 PM
Why, when I was a lad they were incised on stone tablets!

Shouldn't that be "When I were a lad..."?

Only for those born in 1948

Darwin · « **Reply #387 on:** June 08, 2008, 03:36 PM »

New version of FileLocator Pro is out (v. 4.5) - it's MUCH quicker in searching file names - 2 seconds to search 85 67 GB and find 491 hits.

SearchGT did the same search in 5.7 seconds and returned 489 hits.

Right, off to do a file content search with FL Pro...

Well... content search has been running for 13 minutes and is at 4% done

Curt · « **Reply #388 on:** June 08, 2008, 04:26 PM »

- compare versions:

[attachthumb=#]

I am impressed!

$30

Darwin · « **Reply #389 on:** June 08, 2008, 11:42 PM »

Me too, Curt, me too!

Note: I left the file content search running and it took 2 hours 26 minutes and 25 seconds to complete

4wd · « **Reply #390 on:** June 09, 2008, 03:32 AM »

Quote from: kartal on June 08, 2008, 03:04 AM

My main problem with WDS is that it does not support thunderbird at all.

Thunderbird uses plain text to store emails, (mbox format), any decent search software that can do a text search within files will work.

kartal · « **Reply #391 on:** June 09, 2008, 04:36 AM »

Sure, I can use grep to search emails. But it just does not look nice and hard to deal with visually. Unless I am desperate I would not use WDS or grep to search my emails.

Also WDS does not even support outlook express contacts which is a shame. I have just checked v4 format list and Outlookm express .wab format was not listed there.

Shades · « **Reply #392 on:** June 09, 2008, 05:23 AM »

For mail my preference lies with Mailstore (http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=12851.0). It will give you a lot of (fast) search capabilities for all your mail, it will convert those mail messages to any format you like and it can backup and retrieve messages directly from CD.

For most other data my GREP tools do a more than adequate job.

My problem is searching through my boat load of Office documents. Currently my method of searching those consists of converting whenever possible to PDF and using Foxit Reader to search through them all.

In short, I like to use specialized tools not generic search software (I like my computer to be just as lazy as me...about indexing I mean)

justice · « **Reply #393 on:** June 09, 2008, 08:46 AM »

Windows Desktop Search Thunderbird maybe these work for you?

Darwin · « **Reply #394 on:** June 09, 2008, 04:44 PM »

Quote from: Lashiec on June 05, 2008, 02:33 PM

Quote from: Darwin on June 04, 2008, 03:54 PM
I'm running all three on a notebook with a 120GB harddrive... The indices combined total about 3GB - the largest being Archivarius at about 2GB with dtSearch weighing in at 580MB and X1 at 472MB... I still have about 20 GB free so am not worried.

Oh, I thought the indexes were FAR bigger.

Just an update: Archivarius has been updated to version 4.05. This is noteworthy because my index has been optimized and now sits at a hair over 1GB instead of 2

kartal · « **Reply #395 on:** June 09, 2008, 04:56 PM »

I tried that with wds before and it did not work. I would doubt that it would work with wds 4 either.

Quote from: justice on June 09, 2008, 08:46 AM

Windows Desktop Search Thunderbird maybe these work for you?

Armando · « **Reply #396 on:** June 10, 2008, 02:01 AM »

Quote from: Darwin on June 09, 2008, 04:44 PM

Just an update: Archivarius has been updated to version 4.05. This is noteworthy because my index has been optimized and now sits at a hair over 1GB instead of 2

wow, that's a pretty big change... Thanks for the info Darwin.

Darwin · « **Reply #397 on:** June 10, 2008, 03:48 AM »

Quote from: Armando on June 10, 2008, 02:01 AM

Quote from: Darwin on June 09, 2008, 04:44 PM
Just an update: Archivarius has been updated to version 4.05. This is noteworthy because my index has been optimized and now sits at a hair over 1GB instead of 2
wow, that's a pretty big change... Thanks for the info Darwin.

I compressed it afterward and it's down to 925MB

tinjaw · « **Reply #398 on:** June 10, 2008, 05:26 PM »

TODAY on Giveaway of the day, they have NetSearch. A product I haven't heard of before. Allows searching files on every computer on a LAN that has the client installed. Has anybody taken a look at this?

I am having a problem getting there from work. I will have to wait until I get home.

Darwin · « **Reply #399 on:** June 16, 2008, 04:27 PM »

So... anyone given this a got yet? I just received the Iconico newsletter announcing this and I'm intrigued... just not enough to install it at the moment (see below for "why")

Quote

We're happy to announce the release of LookDisk. I know I've been frustrated by the regular search that comes standard with Windows, and once I've turned off the little animated character that comes with it i'm often left wanting more. With LookDisk you get all the advanced searching capabilites that you've wanted.

LookDisk is excellent at finding duplicate files, searching for files and finding text in files. Being able to specify multiple places to search in is a real timesaver, and the results grid has some powerful options that you can access by right clicking a file. You can easily select file groups based on your own parameters.

The software is available on trial download and can be purchased for $29.50. Feel free to download and give it a test run.

I *just* finished removing 60+ applications from my computer, so am in no hurry to add anything to the mix (Archivarius is gone, sniff - I wasn't using it anymore and dtSearch makes it a SNAP to search other computers on my network. X1 is handling my local needs).