gHacks technology news » windows search

Create A Windows Search Shortcut

Martin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:21:25 +0000

Users who want to perform a search in Windows usually do so from the Windows start menu where the search link (Windows XP) or search form (Windows Vista and Windows 7) is available. An alternative – and often faster – way of accessing the search interface in Windows is to create a search shortcut on the computer desktop or in another location that is directly accessible by the user. It would for instance be possible to pin the search shortcut to the Windows 7 taskbar.

Windows users need to create a new file in the location they want the search shortcut to appear. This can be the Windows desktop or any other location on the computer system. The file needs to be renamed so that it makes use of the .fnd extension, the file name itself does not matter in this case at all. You can for instance create a text document and rename it to search.fnd.

A click on the newly created file (e.g. search.fnd in this case) will directly open the Windows search interface. This is usually faster than having to use the start menu search option in the operating system.

Tags: desktop search, search, windows search, windows tips

Change The Default Windows XP Search Engine

Martin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:35:14 +0000

The default Windows XP search engine to search is neither blazingly fast nor does it provide many advanced options for locating files or folders. That’s the main reason why many Windows users install third party search programs like Everything, Locate32 or even desktop search tools like Windows Search 4.0 or Google Desktop Search. Many search software programs on the other hand do not integrate well with the underlying operating system.

The search option in the Windows XP start menu for instance will still use the basic Windows search functionality instead of that of the newly installed search tool. Enter Reroute XP Search, a lightweight software program that offers the functionality to change the default Windows XP search tool to another tool of the user’s choosing.

All the portable program does is to change the link in the Windows XP start menu so that it points to the third party search software instead of the default Windows XP search tool. It will not change the search functionality of the classic XP start menu.

All it takes to change the link is to run the Reroute XP Search application to browse for another search tool on the computer system. A click on the Apply button will change the link to the selected search tool (it apparently is also possible to select any software, even those that are not search related).

The program comes with a Restore Default button in case the settings need to be reverted again at a later time. Most users who have installed third party search programs are probably using hotkeys instead to open the search interfaces. It can still make sense to change the link in the start menu as well as there are definitely users out there who do not use hotkeys at all. Reroute XP Search is available at the developer’s website. via Technix.

Tags: reroute xp search, search, windows search, windows software, windows xp search, windows-xp

Windows IFilter Explorer

Martin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:13:08 +0000

IFilters are plugins that are used by various indexing applications like Windows Search, the Windows indexing service, Windows Desktop Search, Exchange Server or SQL Server. An IFilter makes the contents of a filetype indexable and thus searchable. File contents cannot be indexed or searched if no IFilter plugin is available for that specific filetype.

The Windows IFilter Explorer provides an overview of all IFilter plugins that are installed on the Windows operating system. It will display the path and name of the IFilter along with the filetypes that it supports. Various software programs are listed as tabs on the top to switch to the known IFilters of these programs.

It has to be noted that IFilter Explorer has not been updated for about three years which means that some newer applications that make use if IFilters are not in the list. This does not interfere with the data that is displayed in the application window on the other hand. (for example: Windows Search 3.0 is shown in the tabs but not Windows Search 4.0).

The IFilter Explorer can be used to analyze the various IFilter plugins that are installed on the computer system. It can also be used to find filetypes that are not fully indexed by the various applications that support iFilter. The developer of the application is offering several IFilters for download on the website. It does seem that the application is not developed actively anymore.

Tags: ifilter, ifilter explorer, search, windows ifilter, windows search, windows software

Portable Desktop Search Software TheSearchMan

Martin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:24:57 +0000

Desktop search engines come in all sizes and shapes. One can download and install one of the desktop search engines provided by big companies like Microsoft’s Windows Search or Google Desktop Search or a third party software like Everything or Locate which usually prove to be more lightweight.

TheSearchMan definitely falls in the second category with its tiny size of 19 Kilobytes. The portable desktop search software program can be executed from any location of the Windows operating system. It provides a very basic search interface that allows users to select a folder and search term. The program will then display the search results in its interface with the possibility to open the containing folder or files directly from the search results.

One of the most important features of TheSearchMan is the ability to perform a second search that only searches within the search results to refine the search results again.

It is possible to use wildcards to replace one character (?) or multiple characters (*). The search is performed fast, probably not as fast as in search engines that make use of a database or other means of storing file information to increase search speed. It does usually take a few seconds to display the results which is perfectly acceptable for most uses.

TheSearchMan will not search within files. Users who do need that functionality might take a look at Locate32 which offers that. TheSearchMan on the other hand is a lightweight – most likely one of the smallest if not the smallest – desktop search application (50 KB unpacked) that can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: desktop search, portable software, search, search software, thesearchman, windows search, windows software

Microsoft Bing Search Is Live

Martin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:17:54 +0000

Microsoft’s new search engine has created some buzz since its introduction a few days earlier. The search engine is now live for everyone to test. It has to be noted that Microsoft seems to have it optimized for English speaking users from the United States and the United Kingdom who get more functionality than someone from Germany or France.

Users from the United States get on-page previews of the contents of each site by hovering the mouse cursor over a search result while users from unsupported countries do not get these previews. The previews can contain up to five links to other content of the site which is an interesting feature as search engines usually limit the exposure to one or two links to a site on each page. Many aspects of Bing look like Google Search. There are sponsored advertisements on top of the search results pages and on the left. Bing will also add related content like images where appropriate to the results.

Bing categorizes search results where appropriate. A search for New York will start with all results on the top and display categories like maps, weather, travel or attractions below each with a handful of search results. This is actually an interesting concept as it might aid inexperienced users in their search. Experienced users on the other hand will perform targeted searches to find the information they are looking for.

Bing will display the categories, related searches and the search history on the left. The image search of Bing displays image results on an infinite scrolling page with options to filter images by size, layout, color, style or people. A virtual map can be displayed which is really interesting for location based searches. It will for instance link pictures to locations on the map.

Bing Video search makes it possible to play videos directly on the results page. This can be done by hovering the mouse over a video or by clicking on the play button that appears when hovering over the video. Videos can also be filtered by length, resolution, screen size or source.

Bing offers some comfort function and elements that users will not find using Google Search. It seems to be targeting English speaking users only at this point as they can access features that users from non-English speaking countries cannot (unless they change their country to USA or UK). Everything on the other hand comes down to the quality of the search results. Bing seems to have improved over Windows Live, especially for popular search terms.

Tags: bin search, bing, google search, microsoft, microsoft bing, microsoft search, search engine, windows search

Tags For Your Files

Martin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:45:49 +0000

The usual way of organizing files is by either performing a realtime search on the computer system or by using a search software that build an index of files which speeds up the search tremendously. The search usually finds file names and directories but can also search for information contained in the files, at least some file types like documents.

Tag 2 Find uses a different approach. It brings the tags known from indexing websites to the computer desktop. It is currently available in a preview version for the Windows operating system. Users who have been using services like Delicious and Flickr or run their own blog will be immediately comfortably with the software program. Any file located on the computer system can be tagged by the user. No user would want to tag all files as this would mean to work with hundreds of thousands of files which could take a lifetime. The software program can assist the user by automatically suggesting tags based on file names, directory names, file extensions and even metadata for multimedia files.

It is furthermore possible to include and exclude drives from the program completely. The software program will display a wizard after installation that is walking the user through the first initial configuration. The user can pick drives, directories and files that he wants to tag right away. Tag 2 Find can also be integrated in Windows Explorer to add tags right away for selected files.

It would be impracticable if the application window would have to be opened to search the files and tags. The application is therefor offering a floating transparent search window that can be moved around on the computer desktop. Entering tags into that search form will open another transparent connected window that is displaying the results which include hits, partial hits and related tags. A click on a resulting tag will show all the file names that have been tagged with the word or phrase.

Tag 2 Find can monitor the computer system for new files. The folders that are monitored can be defined in the application. It is for instance monitoring the Windows Clipboard and will display files that are copied to it for a while waiting for user input.

Additional options that might be interesting for some users are access to a tag cloud, automatic category management for selected file types, color coding tabs, drag and drop support plus import and export options for tags. It is really surprising how stable and extensive this early version of the software program is.

The only downside is the rather large resource usage. The software program uses roughly 23 Megabytes of computer memory while displaying the floating tags search box and about 53 Megabytes of virtual memory. Tag 2 Find runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0, an NTFS formatted file system (at least on the partitions that contain files that the user wants to tag and administrative privileges during installation.

Tags: desktop search, file search, tag, tag 2 find, tag files, tags, windows search, windows software

Microsoft Filter Pack

Martin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:32:44 +0000

The Microsoft Filter Pack adds additional IFilters to the Windows operating system which are used by Windows Search and depending applications to index the contents of document formats. To be precise, the Microsoft Filter pack will register additional IFilters with the Microsoft Windows Indexing Service.

The document formats that get added by the filter pack are .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx whcih are basically all the new document formats that have been introduced in Microsoft Office 2007.

An IFilter basically allow the Windows Indexing Service and Windows Desktop Search so that these file formats become searchable in Windows. The Microsoft Filter Pack can be installed on Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista or Windows XP.

The Microsoft page states that the software package has been updated to version 2 on October 9 although the download is still for the Microsoft Filter Pack 1.0.

Tags: ifilter, Microsoft Filter Pack, search, windows desktop search, windows indexing service, windows search, windows software, windows-vista, windows-xp

Windows Search 4.0

Martin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:37:43 +0000

Microsoft released a new version of Windows Search on Windows Update and made it a recommended update for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 users. Windows Search 4.0 introduces a wealth of new features and improvements over the previous version including the automatic indexing of shared folders, improvements in indexing online e-mail as well as in the performance and stability of the indexer.

Windows Search is basically a desktop search application much like Google’s Desktop Search. It builds an index of the files – and other information like emails – on the system after installation which takes some time depending on the size of the hard disks and the amount of files stored on them. Some users reported indexing times of several hours in previous versions of Windows Search.

It does take this long because Windows Search does not only index file names and attributes but also file contents for selected files including most text formats like Word and HTML documents but also media files like images and video formats.

I still prefer Locate32 which is resource friendly and faster in my opinion.

Tags: desktop search, file search, locate32, microsoft, search, windows search

Windows Vista Indexer Sidebar Gadget

Martin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:48:19 +0000

Ever wondered what and how the Windows Search Indexer is indexing your files in Windows Vista ? Wonder no more the Indexer Status Gadget displays information about the current indexing status and the number of indexed files in the Windows Vista sidebar. Don’t be surprised to see 100K or even more items in the index.

The Indexer Status (via Genbeta) Gadget has another interesting function which is probably even more useful than displaying the information about the search indexing process. Users can pause and resume the Windows indexer which is excellent if you want to make sure that the application that you start in a few seconds will have all possible system resources available.

Users who have installed the Windows Live 4.0 search update which is a preview release can enable its Index Now feature in Indexer Status as well.

Tags: search indexer, vista-gadgets, vista-sidebar, windows search, windows-vista

Windows Search Replacement Fileseek

Martin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:50:07 +0000

Fileseek is another application developed by the creator of Display Fusion, one of the best multi-monitor wallpaper applications in existence. The software is a file search that can be seen as a Windows Search Replacement. Why could it be a great replacement ? Because it does offer features that the default Windows search does not offer and it provides results much faster than the default search.

The two parameters that you always have to select are a path and a search term that you want to find, every other parameter is optional. Search results begin to appear immediately while other files are still processed. The time it takes to process all files depends on the size of the hard drive(s), the cpu, ram, files on disk and several other factors. It is still fast enough and responsive so that it is possible to work with the search results even if the search is still going on.

Search queries are not only compared to filenames but also with file contents. This is extremely useful if you are looking for documents that contain a specific phrase. The line containing the phrase is shown in the search results together with the filename and path of the file.

Fileseek offers a few functions that allow users to refine their searches. Files and Filetypes can be included or excluded in the search. This feature supports wildcards and multiple entries.

Regular Expressions are supported in the search queries. This is a powerful advanced feature of Fileseek. Best of all though is the size of Fileseek. It’s tiny with only 186 Kilobyte unpacked.

Fileseek uses a different approach than my favorite search utility Locate32. Locate32 uses a database that has to be updated regularly. The benefit of this approach is a blazing fast search, much faster than that of Fileseek. If you do not search that often Fileseek might be the better alternative.

Tags: desktop search, file search, fileseek, locate32, search, windows search

The fastest Windows File Search just got better

Martin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:58:28 +0000

Locate is one of the fastest ways to search for files and content in files in Windows. It uses a file database which is created once at first run and then updated regularly to reflect the changes to the system. The initial scan takes a few minutes while the updates usually finish in a matter of seconds.

I did mention Locate before here at Ghacks and thought that this awesome program deserves another article. The software developer is constantly working on Locate and he has added several new functions since the last time that I wrote a review about it. The biggest change in this new version of Locate is the Find as you type function. Locate does not wait anymore until the user presses the submit button to find files or text in files but presents results immediately.

You can still filter results in so many ways that it would take ten articles to explain all the options. It is possible to filter by file size, file date, extension and file path for instance. Normal file searches take about a second before all results are displayed, it takes a bit longer to search for content in files naturally but it is fast as well if you consider that all files on all hard drives can be searched.

I would suggest to schedule daily updates for Locate if you have the intention to use it regularly. You can either configure this option in Locate but the application has to be running to start the file update process on its own or you can use the task scheduler of Windows to update the Locate database regularly.

Tags: file search, locate, software, Windows, windows search

Save and Locate all Files on your hard drives fast

Martin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:54:01 +0000

The build in Windows search is slow, really slow compared to a software like Locate that indexes all of your files on all hard drives and offers almost instantaneous results. But let us start at the beginning. Locate32 is a small software for Windows that works like updatedb and locate on Unix machines.

It scans your hard drives initially for all files, writes them to a database and offers a basic search form that can be spiced up with advanced search options. The basic search lets you search for filenames, extensions and specific locations on your hard drive. Advanced search parameters let you specify minimum and maximum file sizes, file age and other parameters like searching for files and folders or matching names only.

After the initial scan which takes a few minutes normally all search results are presented in 1-2 seconds. The speed is really incredibly and it is well worth using it. I wish there was a way to replace the Windows search with Locate for Windows.

Locate comes with its own scheduler that can update the file database on a regular basis. Those updates don’t take long because only new files will be added to the database (and old removed). There are so many options available that it would take a book to describe them all.

To sum it up. Locate is the best file search for Windows that I encountered so far. A must have software.

Read More:

Locate for Windows
Locate Introduction (Screencast from Donation Coder)

Tags: desktop search, file search, locate, windows search

Smallest Desktop Search Tool

Martin — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:53:49 +0000

Let me introduce the smallest desktop search program available. Snowbird Xp is small, only 26K in size and fast at the same time. Just download and run it from whatever location you like. Snowbird does not index search results which has the advantage that you will always recieve up to date information. Some features have been updated in the new release, amongst them is the capability to search in word documents and excel spreadsheets.

The new Snowbird is highly customizable – you can edit the new catalog file and add new categories under which results are placed, specify what type of files appear under each category and you can minimize Snowbird to the system tray and continue with your work. Whenever you need to find something, just pop Snowbird up, type in your search, and let it search in the background as you continue your work.

Tags: desktop search, search, windows search

gHacks technology news » windows search

Create A Windows Search Shortcut

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