Using Windows’ built-in search function isn’t always reliable; more often than not, it’s sluggish and doesn’t turn up the results you need immediately. Windows has long had a search feature but is incredibly sluggish and lacks customization options. Microsoft’s new Windows search tool is a significant upgrade over its predecessor. It includes settings for personalizing the operating system’s system-wide File Search.
Hence, the purpose of this post is to disclose, among other things, 5 finest Free Indexing Software to search for files on the Windows PC drive (Windows 10, 8, and 7), a less than 589-byte utility that doesn’t even install because it’s a portable application.
These are effective free indexing software that helps keep all of your files organized. Let’s discuss the 5 Effective Free Indexing Software you can make use of apart from the inbuilt windows indexing software,
Everything
This free application is a great option if you need to find a file or see when certain files were last edited or created. The download process is easy and seamless.
After downloading Everything, simply unpack the archive into its appropriate folder and run the executable without first installing the program. Although a blank white window appears upon startup, processing and disk scanning, begin instantly.
Its processing speed for searching for and locating all the computer’s files and folders is impressive. When you begin typing a word, the list of files adapts to include just those that include that searched term. Its working operation is similar to Google Suggest. The only difference is that you get the results of your query instead of suggestions.
According to the task manager, each process uses between 10 and 20 megabytes of RAM. A file containing the Everything Database is written to the folder during the scanning operation. It takes less than a minute to find a million files; a brand-new installation of Windows has less than 20,000, so scanning the entire PC is a quick and painless process.
MasterSeeker
MasterSeeker is unique in that it produces a database in about 7 seconds on our test Computer with 2 million files, despite the fact that many other programs also index the drives on startup. Nevertheless, MasterSeeker.exe was using 400MB-700MB of system RAM after building our index, so there is a trade-off for its speed.
MasterSeeker is among the fastest tools we tested if you have many files to index and enough memory to do it. Real-time results appear quickly as soon as you begin typing a search query, filtering by file size takes almost no time at all, and sorting the list by clicking a column works quickly even when millions of files are displayed.
Sorting data by directory and excluding specific directories or files is possible. There is full compatibility with the NTFS, FAT, FAT32, and exFAT file systems, as well as a wildcard and regular expression search. MasterSeeker can be taken everywhere. However, it does need the.NET Framework v2.0 to run.
UltraSearch
Jam Software, makers of the widely used TreeSize, also created UltraSearch. Another one that indexes drives immediately upon starting the software; this one indexed our two million files in approximately fifteen seconds, which is really good.
It’s easy to use and fast at searching through your computer’s data, and it can be installed on Windows or used as a portable program. It functions without requiring background processes such as file indexing to run constantly. While it may take a minute for all of the files that match your query to be located, you can begin working with those already located.
If you have sluggish hardware and/or a lot of files, that figure could alter significantly. It only indexes the C drive by default; to index more drives, either choose them manually or pick “Check all” from the right-click menu in the drives pane at the bottom. Filtering by file size and dates is not an option, but you can use wildcards and regular expressions to help narrow down your search results and choose to view only files, only folders, or both. Use the “Browse” option or type in the full path to a certain folder or drive to narrow your search. You can choose between an installation and a portable version.
Results include the file’s name, location, size, and timestamps for both last access and modification. The search results can be printed and saved in TXT, CSV, or Microsoft Excel format.
TheSearchMan
The developer behind TheSearchMan is also responsible for TheFolderSpy, another lightweight and space-saving utility. What sets TheSearchMan apart from other comparable tools is that its database is only built when you tell it to and that it is a very easy portable application with no setup settings at all.
To index all of your disks’ contents at first launch, select “Build new index;” after that, the Index Search menu item will appear. Then, enter your search word; wildcards are allowed. Normal search will run a non-indexed, slower search on the disk (use “all” for all drives) or folder your input, while “Search within results” will open a new window to let you narrow down your results even further.
TheSearchMan was released in 2011, and despite the fact that it occasionally crashes, it is an effective and relatively simple file finder, provided that the appropriate 32-bit or 64-bit version is used.
Listary
It is a wonderful free tool for locating files rapidly on a computer. A tiny input field appears where you can specify the name of the file you want to open. Just typing a letter into the box brings up a list of all the files that begin with that letter, making it easy to find the desired file even if you can’t recall its specific name.
Like a Google search, you may start typing any part of the file name to view a list of probable items that include those typed letters. The great thing about Listary is that it doesn’t only search the currently open folder; it also searches all previously used folders in case the desired file isn’t in the current one.