Exselo - desktop search

[webfork]

Update: for reasons discussed later in the thread I no longer use Exselo. It is currently free and still very useful if you need to do research on a large number of files and Outlook emails. However, the program takes up so many system resources, I recommend running it on a separate computer and having it index a network share. Other issues are discussed in the thread.

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Synopsis

Exselo is a "desktop" search program that searches a wide set of files across your computer and provides quick results. The currently free program has a lot of features and capabilities not found in commercial offers.

Usage notes / Review

Although the program shares a lot in common with DocFetcher and seems to handle a larger file volume (can handle 200+ gigs of documents). There weren't may differences between the two programs apart from an image search and lots of nice interface extras. Anyway, it's one of the better Desktop Search tools I've tested. If it just added "NEAR" operators (e.g. the word "portable" and "freeware" in the same paragraph but not necessarily the same file), it would beat out X1 Search.

License: freemium, but nothing you'll miss

Pros:
* More intrusive than DocFetcher
* You can set it to very low (below 1%) CPU usage.

Cons:
* Several hiccups working with Outlook 2016, but is able to search Outlook emails
* It's Java-based so it's RAM hungry (over 300megs)

I'm excited about some of the other features such as peer-to-peer collaborative search (that would be huge where I work) but I'm a little worried that development has stalled as there's nothing new on the site since last year.

Status: Not portable (installs system service)

Requirements: Java

[mojope]

Hello webfork,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the kind words in regards of Exselo Desktop. I am affiliated with Exselo were we are busy making ready the next release of Exselo Desktop, and then some.

Exselo Desktop is 100% free to download and use for everyone without any restrictions. It is freeware, and we have no plans on making it a paid product.

The next release will be faster, sturdier, have several more features and overall be a better product. We are already looking at "NEAR" operators, and will do our best to have it in the next release. We have just started the test phase of the next release and will release when that phase has ended successfully.

In regards of Exselo Desktop being Java-based, that is not entirely correct. We are using Elasticsearch as a search engine, which requires Java. Knowing that we index everything within your documents (whatever size your computer can handle), the search index size can become quite big, thus the memory usage. The actual Exselo Desktop program itself is a modern .NET program.

If you are interested to know more, or have ideas or features you want implemented feel free to contact us, either here or through our web pages at http://www.exselo.com. Incidentally, this is also where Exselo Desktop is available for download if anyone else have need for the product.


Kind regards,

Morten Pedersen
Exselo

[webfork]

Exselo Desktop is 100% free to download and use for everyone without any restrictions. It is freeware, and we have no plans on making it a paid product.

Generally if you have a component you sell, that's considered "freemium" rather than standard freeware. It sounds like (from the website) you're charging for the peer-to-peer component.

The next release will be faster, sturdier, have several more features and overall be a better product. We are already looking at "NEAR" operators, and will do our best to have it in the next release. We have just started the test phase of the next release and will release when that phase has ended successfully.

That's amazing news.

A few suggestions:

• I realize this is difficult, but I'd change the name. Google and everyone else keeps correcting me to "excel".
• As this is a freeware site, I'm glad to have you but I can't honestly suggest you set the program to anything but freeware for personal use only. With some of the updates you suggest in your message, that's approaching some of the best desktop search software available, all of which is commercial software. X1 is not better than your program and it's not cheap.
• As this is a portable site, I'd like to recommend creation of a portable version. I can provide some reasons if that's interesting.

[mojope]

Hello webfork,

Thanks for your excellent feedback! I'll dive straight into it.

Generally if you have a component you sell, that's considered "freemium" rather than standard freeware. It sounds like (from the website) you're charging for the peer-to-peer component.

We have an offer for companies wanting to have extended support, but seeing that we already give support and answer all questions we are sent anyways, we are probably undermining ourselves here. We do not charge for the peer-to-peer component. All in all, it is probably a very good idea for us to freshen up the web pages. Even before we do the next release (as originally planned).

I realize this is difficult, but I'd change the name. Google and everyone else keeps correcting me to "excel".

Changing the name of the company might take some time and be troublesome, the product itself could perhaps get a more distinct name?

As this is a portable site, I'd like to recommend creation of a portable version. I can provide some reasons if that's interesting.

Please do. We do have some trick up our sleeve in regards of Exselo Desktop. We have it successfully running on both macOS and Linux, and also within Docker containers. The main concern I think when making it portable, is where to place the index, since it can become quite big.

[webfork]

We have an offer for companies wanting to have extended support, but seeing that we already give support and answer all questions we are sent anyways, we are probably undermining ourselves here.

Well my main concern is that you don't start out in a freeware route, realize that you don't have time or resources to effectively add to or support the program, and then take it in a commercial direction. That happens at least once every few months here on the site.

If you're certain you don't want to go the commercial route, please consider opening the source code for some or all of the program.

We do not charge for the peer-to-peer component.

I definitely work in an environment where drawing from multiple machines for search results would be very useful and would save a lot of time and energy running analysis on lots of the exact same files on multiple machines.

All in all, it is probably a very good idea for us to freshen up the web pages. Even before we do the next release (as originally planned).

I realize that's not a reliable indicator, but I sometimes equate project activity with overall viability.

Changing the name of the company might take some time and be troublesome, the product itself could perhaps get a more distinct name?

That's my recommendation, yes. I can probably come up with some possibilities if you need some suggestions. One of our fellow users came up with a great model for program naming.

I'd like to recommend creation of a portable version. I can provide some reasons if that's interesting.

Please do.

There's a long list of standard reasons to create a portable version of a program and I've covered those in detail under a "use cases" thread.

For your program in particular, I can think of several advantages:

• Avoid re-analysis. Running a search process on all your files can be both resource and time-consuming. There's no reason to have to re-analyze it all when moving to another computer (as I just did twice in the past two months) when you could just copy the files and the index. Portable software means the ability to move them both in one go.
• Storage is cheap. the additional space required by the index really shouldn't cause an issue. Why skip the index when saving your files to a backup?
• Security. Search details may contain sensitive data, which might make sense to keep under encrypted storage such as VeraCrypt or similar.

The main concern I think when making it portable, is where to place the index, since it can become quite big.

I'd say (for a portable version) save to the local folder by default, maybe present a warning upon first launch to note that it can be saved to (for example) AppData to avoid zapping free space if using (for example) cloud storage or a USB drive.

We have it successfully running on both macOS and Linux, and also within Docker containers.

Wow, that's going to solve a LOT of problems. Amazing news.

[mojope]

Thank you for a lot of good input webfork,

Although we will not be able to implement everything in one go (Rome wasn't built in one day), we appreciate all the input we get from our users. That will help us add additional features to the product as we do our development cycles. It is a fine line between adding specialist features vs general features that the masses can enjoy.

We currently have no of plans of turning Exselo Desktop from freeware to open source.

[webfork]

If anyone here on the forums saw a mandatory update notice (with multiple notices per session), this was due to a bug. I've been chatting with the DEVs who indicated, although it's something they had to do for network reasons, it's something they're hoping to avoid in the future.

[webfork]

I've been using this program for a few months now and -- even though I've had to jump through some hoops -- it's been making my life a lot easier. As such, I've been working with the DEVs to try and improve it. Still a few notes:

* Registerware
* May require an internet connection (working to clarify this)
* Uses 6 different processes and can sometimes be difficult to exit the application without running "End Task" on multiple processes
* Very RAM intensive ... in some cases using using 1 GIG (Java being the biggest offender)

Still, if you have a lot of data and want to track it down somewhere on your machine (including inside Outlook) this remains the best tool I've yet tested, commercial or otherwise.

[smaragdus]

* Very RAM intensive ... in some cases using using 1 GIG (Java being the biggest offender)

I don't think that Java is the offender but the programming skills of the developer(s).

[webfork]

* Very RAM intensive ... in some cases using using 1 GIG (Java being the biggest offender)

I don't think that Java is the offender but the programming skills of the developer(s).

That could certainly be said of folks who use the Electron framework where you can build a massive RAM-hogging application that runs a timer app, but I get the sense they're trying to build in a *lot* of functionality and borrow from multiple toolsets.

[smaragdus]

@webfork
There is a myth that all Java programs are resource-intensive but in my opinion this is always not true, for example RSSOwl, a complex and full-featured RSS reader uses less than 100 MB of RAM on my machine.

[webfork]

Update here:

• About once every two months, forgets the user, opens a prompt login screen prompt. The last time this ran, I entered a username and password and doesn't accept either. I tried resetting the password and got an "An error occurred try again later" message. Fast forward a few hours later and I'd uninstalled and reinstalled the entire program, which includes re-running a system scan (lost between reinstall) to re-check roughly 500k files. Needless to say, this wasted a lot of time and electricity.
• When there are updates, they are mandatory and prompted repeatedly in one session so "Update Later" doesn't really mean much
  
  
  
  ... and the update link didn't work -- I had to run to the home page and grab a full copy.

To be clear, this is still a freeware program with an enormous amount of functionality that I'm both very glad to have and is not available even in commercial options, but I just want to note some of the hoops I've had to jump through.

DocFetcher has been able to pick up some of the slack by expanding it's base memory (most users won't see this but I have an enormous local file collection), but Exselo still has an outstanding Outlook and image search component that's hard to live without once you've tried it.

[webfork]

Update here: so I finally removed this program from my machine about a month ago ...

Summary of issues

• Takes up a huge amount of resources in disk space, processor, RAM, etc. More than any freeware I've ever tested. Interactions with staff / support didn't seem to think this was a concern.
• You can't quit the program. I disabled it for a while by disabling services and destroying processes using Daphne, but still takes up a huge amount of disk space even when it's not taking up RAM and processor.
• Mandatory updates that dump your entire index and force you to re-index your machine. Carefully chosen settings and directory priorities are not restored.
• Concerning amount of network traffic when P2P wasn't enabled, which was problematic because I couldn't determine what it was doing or why
• Has to be logged in, often forgets login info

Ultimately I was able to get what I needed from the excellent DocFetcher, but will likely have to put down money on a commercial search tool.

[webfork]

I don't know if anyone on the site really cares about this program, but the thread is showing up on multiple search engines in the first 1-2 pages of search results for "exselo" so I thought I'd comment on the latest update:

New version came out (v.2.5) with some edits:

Outlook Add-in now supports both Outlook 32-bit and 64-bit.
Query with wildcards and operators such as AND, OR, NOT and NEAR.
Query with nested expressions and limit search to specific fields.
Configure table view columns and export search results to Excel.
Control zoom, index location and memory allocated to search engine.
Save queries and execute them later with one click.
Peer-to-peer search and chat.
Improved indexing speed, stability and reliability.

Certainly a lot of that sounds amazing (especially as it's still free) but, as there's no mention of the general program overhead, I probably won't be retesting this version unless I can run it on a separate machine. It's just too much for a machine that's already struggling with the current requirements. I'm still getting a lot from DocFetcher for my system research, despite mixed results when indexing Outlook.

I also fully expect a program with this feautreset to go commercial any minute now.

[webfork]

License update

Items discussed earlier in the thread around staying freeware and the "NEAR" operator appear to have changed direction, which is unfortunate but (if you've been following this) not surprising. As I said 2 years go:

"... my main concern is that you don't start out in a freeware route, realize that you don't have time or resources to effectively add to or support the program, and then take it in a commercial direction. That happens at least once every few months here on the site."

Anyway, advanced functions now appear to be limited to the pro vesion, along with AND/OR etc.: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/exselo/ ... r-t86.html That puts this program more in the space of being "registerware + liteware". While the $2 / month price tag that Softpedia mentions is extremely reasonable, it's still not freeware.


Links

This thread for whatever reason left off any program or associated links in this thread for some reason ... here the are:

Official: https://www.exselo.com/
Mirror: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/ ... ktop.shtml
Similar tools: https://alternativeto.net/software/exselo-desktop/


General status update

The company social media accounts have been quite for over a year, so this project might be on hold or discontinued. No news on the latest client -- I can't mitigate intensive resource usage, mandatory updates, network traffic, or many other issues mentioned earlier in this thread.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the creators were hoping a desktop search program with this kind of power and intelligence would take off, but they had to get it to up and running quickly to attract investors. They didn't notice how big and bulky and didn't do the necessary steps around internal issues like accounts and software updates. Likely now they've run out of money or are in discussions with research institutions to buy the software like when Elsevier bought Mendeley (and turned it into a program I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole).

Anyway, I hope to be wrong about this -- once again, this program is excellent, even without the advanced features. That the secure peer tools, wide format capability, and a solid interface remain very attractive, and I hope they can keep moving without outside investment.

As we're a freeware website, I obviously hope they continue to offer some free version.