Can anybody suggest a downloadable program to search for files on a computer? My computer has Windows 7 so obviously the built-in search program is no good. Agent Ransack is a bit better, but still far inferior to the search function that I used to have on Windows XP. Ideally I'd like to find a program that has a separate entry box for each supported search criterion, and all of these boxes displayed simultaneously, preferably on the side rather than the top of the screen. Any suggestions?
Well you could index everything so it works faster.. I personally hated windows xp's search function. It took way too long and the dog's "Oh hey there wanna search? Why not make your computer render my bone digging animations, so I can prepare for the shrugging animation when your search term is incorrect?" pissed me off. But oh well.
I don't know if it fits all your criteria but I've been using Everything for years. The first time you start it, it will takes maybe 30 seconds to index your computer, and then finding any files is literally instant. You get all the commands you normally would get in windows explorer in it as well, and more.
Oh, it works plenty fast, but that's pretty much a worthless feature when you can't enter your search criteria in the first place without having to scour the internet for the secret list of search filters. If I'm gonna have to scour the internet to complete my searches, I figured out I'd eliminate the middleman and find a search program with a functional interface. The animated search helper thingy is easily turned off and IIRC isn't even activated by default. That isn't the part I cared about anyway; its interface was basically the same as the new interface IIRC. What I liked was the real interface that took up that big sidebar and had all the different categories of things you can search for. I have it. It won't work on flash drives. ------------------------------------ ...Anyway, somebody on another forum suggested a program called FileSearchEX, which seems to be exactly what I was looking for; although the free version is described as a "Trial Version" which makes me worry that it may be one of those things that times out (although the program's website does not state this), and I don't have enough extra money for it to be worthwhile to pay $30 for the non trial version, so I'll still take more suggestions if anyone has any.
I swear, I was coming to this thread to suggest that exact title. It is perfect. I love it. http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home
Most Windoze users will cringe at having to use the command prompt. http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm Perhaps I am missing something, but this is for searching for content inside of a bunch of files. "Grep searches one or more input files for lines containing a match to a specified pattern. By default, grep prints the matching lines." Agent Ransack has many ways to search, and a nice GUI too.
If Windoze had a good command prompt, then it would be a great thing to have. But unlike Linux, Windoze has the worst command prompt ever. AR can do all of that and a whole lot more. The only other search program I used that was better than AR is "EnCase". And it is primarily sold to law enforcement to dig up details other searchers always miss. EnCase is useful if you have many, many files and some renamed copies mixed in. You can tell it to look for duplicates based on size, or to find a string, or damned nearly anything else you can imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EnCase But be warned, it is ludicrously expensive. I got a copy for $30 years ago and have not looked back. If I even remembered the site I bought it from, I would link that in. It is literally 1/100th the price.
