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SwiftSearch v7.5.1

billon on 6 Jul 2019
  • 610KB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 6 Jul 2019
  • Suggested by infimum

SwiftSearch is a lightweight program whose purpose is to help you quickly find the files you need on your Windows machine without ever requiring you to index your drives. It completely bypasses the file system (only NTFS supported) and reads the file table directly every time, which speeds up search significantly. Program also supports path-based search, regular expressions and full directory sizes.

Command-line version is also available.

Category:
Runs on:WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: None
Dependencies: Administrator rights
Unicode support: Yes
License: CC BY-NC 2.0
How to extract: Download SwiftSearch32.exe or SwiftSearch64.exe to a folder of your choice and launch.
What's new?
  • Add experimental search to limit search to directory subtree.
  • Fixed:
    • Crash on 32-bit;
    • XP bug;
    • Menu checkboxes not toggling;
    • (Mostly) icons not getting loaded;
    • "Dump to table" forgetting to include columns other than Path.
Latest comments
Nh on 2018-11-02 02:43

Not dynamic, no settings, no customization.

TP109 on 2019-12-31 21:50

Lightning quick launch and very fast searching. Useful for searching within multiple subdirectories for files or folders with partial or similar filenames.

Midas on 2020-01-02 06:23

Beware that SwiftSearch doesn't seem to be able to follow hard/symbolic filesystem links.

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UltraFileSearch Lite v5.3.0

webfork on 12 Jun 2019
  • 2MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 30 Jan 2019
  • Suggested by joby_toss

UltraFileSearch Lite quickly finds files, folders and text on your local, network, or external media. The program allows you to specify several file masks and drives/folders at the same time; it is able to sort them according to their properties (e.g. modified date) and find files that contain one or more specific words or sentences.

This utility does not use background indexing.

NOTE: Beyond version 5.3.0, the program is shareware. Linking to the last freeware "Lite" version. The shareware version has additional features.

Category:
Runs on:WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: Application folder
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Yes
License: Free for personal use
How to extract: Download the "Portable" ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch UltraFileSearchLite.exe.
Similar/alternative apps: SearchMyFiles
What's new? See:
https://www.ultrafilesearch.com/history.html
Latest comments
hamasaki on 2013-10-26 07:04

Whilst I do have a commercial licence for this, my personal favourite search utility is File Locator Pro.

DarkShadow on 2016-02-16 18:55

v4.5.0.15327 released !

rbon on 2019-06-03 17:10

UltraFileSearch Standard V.5.4.0.19067 has been released at March 2019.
It's shareware (30 days) and it's name is UFS Standard.
On download page https://www.ultrafilesearch.com/download.html there are only Standard versions.
@Lyon11111 - AgentRansack on winPenPack:
- program (not portable): http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.435
- X-Launcher for AgentRansack: http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.1063

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CSearcher v1.5.5.1

webfork on 8 Jun 2020
  • 2MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 25 Oct 2018
  • Suggested by hugonabais

CSearcher is a lightweight, non-indexing search program with a variety of filters. The program can select by size, date, patterns, text content and maintains a search history. Files can be checked with MD5 and compared with other files, or shown in a HEX viewer.

Both search criteria and restrictions can be saved separately. Supports advanced Regular expression form with live testing, and search results can be exported to XML, HTML, or CSV file.

Category:
Runs on:Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: Application folder
Dependencies: .NET Framework v4.0
Stealth: ? No. Log file saved to AppData\Local\Microsoft\CLR_v4.0\UsageLogs
Unicode support: Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch CSearcher.exe.
Similar/alternative apps: SearchMyFiles, Ultra File Search Lite, SMF
What's new? Fixed:
  • File/folder date/time were not being displayed considering time zones.
  • When renaming files, the file icon was not update in case of a file type change.
  • Improved layout with "max number of results" textbox when windows text size is increased to 125 or 150%.
  • Small bug fixes and more error handling improvements.
Latest comments
two on 2017-03-17 14:17

nice standalone tool for a specific purpose, good to have and not messy

freakazoid on 2018-01-20 15:14

Website is promising based on its benchmarks, but I found it harder to use than SearchMyFiles. I primarily use SearchMyFiles to find files containing a certain string in a nested directory.

I tried the Content Restrictions tab with the "Files containing string" textbox filled in, but the search was never able to finish completely and I ended up having to manually abort the search, whereas the results in SearchMyFiles was pretty much instant in a second or two.

Even if CSearcher was working correctly, I still think SearchMyFiles is more intuitive and has a more straightforward options layout. The only thing I don't like about SearchMyFiles is its dual-window layout as search results are displayed in another window.

Also, the dependency on .NET makes this less appealing for me.

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LookDisk v6.9

Andrew Lee on 23 Nov 2022
  • 10MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 10 Aug 2018
  • Suggested by Crash

LookDisk is a fast and effective file, text, and duplicate search tool that supports searching with specific parameters. Includes support for searching archive files (e.g. .ZIP files). Displays a disk overview (size and free space).

Category:
Runs on:WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: Application Folder
Stealth: ? No. %WINDIR%\gridList
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the "Portable Version" ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch ldw.exe.
Latest comments
Checker on 2015-08-08 17:17

@ smaragdus : Thanks ... and updated ;)

AndTheWolf on 2018-04-22 12:40

LookDisk seems to be at version 6.8 now.

vinc64 on 2022-11-22 08:02

Please note that the download link for LookDisk is now http://lookdisk.simply.cool/portable_version.zip
The link listed above is no longer working.

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Search and Delete v2.6.1.0

Checker on 27 Feb 2016
  • 5MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 20 Feb 2016
  • Suggested by tactictoe

Search and Delete is a lightweight tool scanning one or more folders from various sources for files. The program can then rename the file extension, delete the file, or replace it with one you provide. Search results can be saved and loaded later.

Great for system administrators who need to update multiple specific files.

Category:
Runs on:Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: None. Preferences are saved inside the application folder on user demand: SearchAndDelete.ini.
Stealth: ? Yes
Path portability: Automatic relative path (eg. ..\..\personal\work.doc)
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch SearchAndDelete.exe.
Latest comments
smaragdus on 2016-02-26 22:01

The program name is stylized as "Search and delete"- "delete" is not capitalized.

I am Baas on 2016-02-27 09:51

@smaragdus

Yes but the .exe file is SearchAndDelete.exe and the file description details says "Search and Delete too.

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HDDB v4.4.0

Checker on 6 Dec 2015
  • 1MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 1 Mar 2015
  • Suggested by Userfriendly

HDDB (HardDisk DataBase) is a file search tool that provides as-you-type results to search terms. The program quickly assembles a database of the drive contents on initial program-run and keeps this until another check is run (or a regular check is set in options). Since the program doesn't auto scan for changes on start-up, searches can be conducted on the previously saved data.

Additional features include lightning fast sorting, folder search panel, folder sizes (enabled in Tools - Options), thumbnail view, folder tree view, named searches, multiple instances, file listing export, and command-line support. Although the program doesn't do live updates, it can be set to auto-update on a timer (e.g. 5 minutes, daily, at startup, etc.)

Only functional on NTFS drives, but does not require admin privileges or trigger UAC prompts like similar programs. Does not search file internals.

Note: Main site offline, linking to Archive.org and Softpedia. Accessory files are also available (thanks Userfriendly).

Category:
Runs on:WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8
Writes settings to: Application folder
Stealth: ? Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download hddb-[version number].x86.exe or hddb-[version number].x64.exe to a folder of your choice and launch.
Similar/alternative apps: Everything, Ultra File Search Lite, UltraSearch
What's new? New features:
  • /online and /offline filter.
  • /sort in query.
Improvements:
  • Polish and Swedish language support.
  • Toolbar overflow chevron.
  • Support showing the db location menu by keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+D).
  • HdView support lister plugins placed in sub folders of the lister folder.
Fixed issues:
  • File records on disconnected remote drives lost in db after build.
  • Hddb lose focus if showing preview while HdView was minimized.
  • HdView lister plugin window not focused on window activate.
  • Empty search determination should not be affected by global filter.
  • Avoid showing the build-in-progress prompt on auto build.
Latest comments
billon on 2015-05-21 07:28

seems like site is dead (temporary?)

webfork on 2015-05-21 21:26

joby: thanks, updated. Just going with Softpedia.

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Pretty Run v8.2.0.6

lwc on 7 Jul 2023
  • 7MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 14 Jan 2015
  • Suggested by lautrepay

Pretty Run is a powerful keystroke-based program launcher and search tool. It searches the start menu, desktop or any other folder for the shortcuts or files that meet your query. More than that, Pretty Run allows searching Internet Explorer favorites, Firefox and Chrome bookmarks, Control Panel items, Printers, mp3 files (by tags), jpg files (by exif data), databases, clipboard and on the internet (more search engines can be added to those already included).

Program also includes screen capture tool, Magic Words, a note manager, etc.

Note: To help compensate for drive letter changes that happens with removable drives, use the %PrettyRunDrive% environment variable.

Category:
Runs on:WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8
Writes settings to: Application folder
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Partial
Path portability: Requires manual entry of relative path (eg. ..\..\personal\work.doc)
License: Freeware
How to extract:
  1. Download the ZIP package and extract the file prettyrunsetup.exe
  2. Use Universal Extractor on this file, saving to a temporary folder
  3. Move the contents of {app} to a folder of your choice
  4. Open PrettyRun.ini in a text editor
  5. Under [Options], add the following line:

    Portable=1

  6. Launch PrettyRun.exe
Similar/alternative apps: Executor Launchy
What's new?
  • Added engine to search GDrive.
  • Added engine to search OneDrive.
Latest comments
oblivion on 2014-03-12 11:45

Interesting, effective, but slow.

An option to limit folder recursion might help (you can say %PrettyRunDrive%\portableapps -- for instance -- but the scan subfolders option is going to make PrettyRun go to a lot of unhelpful places, whereas if you could restrict it to just one subfolder down, it might be faster.

The MP3 tag search is also quite slow.

It's not the most intuitive to set up, either.

FindAndRunRobot (from www.donationcoder.com) has a similar philosophy to this but is much, much faster (despite also taking a similarly non-indexed approach) and has a lot more functionality, too.

Midas on 2014-06-02 11:13

Pretty Run changelog hasn't been updated since v6.1.0.17 (http://www.pretty-software.com/prettyrunhistory.txt)...

Ganamyde on 2014-06-04 04:15

Avoid-ware.
Installs adware and spyware in background.

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Locate32 v3.1.11.7100

webfork on 2 May 2016
  • 3MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 15 Aug 2012
  • Suggested by freakazoid

Locate32 is an indexing search tool that allows you to find files on local and Windows networking-compatible remote shares. After an initial search of shares, it uses database to provide instant for any number of files and folders. Searches can be set on a variety of criterion including date, size, extension, files/folders, etc.

Note that the databases must be updated to give accurate information. You can customize places to search and frequency of each update (e.g. your desktop hourly, your backup drive weekly). Some file types' contents can be searched including most MS Office file formats, but only some PDFs and image metadata.

Category:
Runs on:Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7
Writes settings to: Application folder
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Yes
License: FreeBSD
How to extract:
  1. Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice
  2. Follow these instructions to make Locate32 portable
  3. Launch Locate32.exe
Similar/alternative apps: DocFetcher
What's new? For Locate32 changes up to v3.1 RC3l build 10.8220 see http://sourceforge.net/projects/locate32/files/.
Latest comments
Midas on 2015-07-09 15:02

See http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=75621#p75621 for info on newer versions...

smaragdus on 2016-05-02 13:38

I think that:
"2. Follow these instructions to make Locate32 portable" point at non-existent thread. I suppose that the right thread which explains how to make Locate32 portable is this one:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22751#p22751

webfork on 2016-05-02 18:49

Smaragdus: confirmed, fixed. Thanks.

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BinText v3.00

billon on 3 Apr 2019
  • 37KB (uncompressed)
  • Released on 12 Dec 2000
  • Suggested by __philippe

BinText is a file text scanner / extractor that helps find character strings buried in binary files. The program can extract text from any kind of file and display plain ASCII text, Unicode (double byte ANSI) text, as well as Resource strings. Additional useful information for each item is included in the "Advanced" mode. Uniquely, the program will show both the file offset and the memory offset of each string found.

Although primarily targeted for programmers, it can be used by anyone interested in ferreting out character strings buried within binary files.

Note: Although updated versions of the program exist, the 3.00 version is listed for reasons described in forums.

Category:
Runs on:Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7 / Win8 / Win10
Writes settings to: None
Stealth: ? Yes
Unicode support: Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch bintext.exe.
Latest comments
__philippe on 2013-07-15 08:17

Here is an old (2006) but interesting narrative about using Bintext for viewing Unicode strings in executables.

http://blog.didierstevens.com/2006/07/07/viewing-strings-in-executables/

__philippe

__philippe on 2013-07-26 18:24

BinText at your finger_tip: (WinXP tested)

Place a shortcut to Bintext in your Windows SendTo folder so that you can quickly send files to BinText by right-clicking on their names and choosing Send To -> BinText from the drop-down menu.

You can set this up by right-clicking on bintext.exe, selecting Copy then open up your WindowsSendTo folder, right click the mouse and select Paste Shortcut

As an added bonus, files get automatically loaded in BinText "Advanced view" mode, no need even for clicking the GO button...;-)

__philippe

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LAN Search Pro v9.1.1

Midas on 11 Jun 2014
  • 5MB (uncompressed)
  • Released on
  • Suggested by guinness

SoftPerfect LAN Search Pro is an easy, non-indexing file search for your local network. You can search for specific file names or types (e.g. all MP3 files). The program lets you search hidden network resources, restricted access resources, IP subnets, LAN FTP servers and much more. It comes with a built-in password manager to store your network logins for resources with restricted access.

A 64-bit version is available (within the folder).

Category:
Runs on:Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7
Writes settings to: Application folder
Stealth: ? Yes
License: Freeware
How to extract: Download the 'Portable' ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch lansearch.exe.
What's new?
  • Fixed initial window alignment on multimonitor desktops.
  • Added maximum depth folder recursion parameter.
Latest comments
webfork on 2013-11-23 18:44

Great for small companies and intranets. If you are on a network with a lot of people sharing a lot of files without much control over that, it can be hard to track down the information you need. This lets you find what you need across multiple shares on multiple computers.

Wolfghost on 2013-11-23 20:46

For those who use AdBlock, pause AdBlock before you download, (if not) you will not receive the file!

Craunch on 2013-11-24 10:00

For information I've just downloaded the portable version from the website and did not need to pause my AdBlock+.

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