Files - Search (26)

UltraSearch Free is a fast and feature-rich search tool, building a searchable listing of drive content in seconds. File name searches narrow as they are typed and support wildcards such as "*.txt". Additional information like file size and last change date are present, along with access to Explorer's own context menu.

The program also includes a slower, non-indexing file content search that will look inside files, including a variety of Office (DOCX, PDF, PST, ODT) and compressed files (ZIP, 7Z, RAR). It is recommended that you provide a small set of files to check e.g. ext:DOCX content:portable to look for the word "portable" in MS Word files.

Other search options include AND / OR operations, regular expressions, a custom exclude filter for path, files, parent folders, etc., and results can be exported to text and CSV. Commercial version available with more features.

Version 3.1.2.678 is compatible with Win 7 and has not expired, but it is in installer form.

Agent Ransack (aka File Locator) Lite looks for files and file contents on your PC or network drives, with filters for dates and size. Includes themes, tabbed search entries, preview window, and search priority. Search types supported include wildcard, boolean, and regex on both filenames and file internals. You can import/export search criteria and export detailed search results.

Finds details inside standard text files, as well as PDF and Office formats. Note that Win7 users will need the Filter Pack (not portable) to search Office files, as described on the website.

A pro version is available with additional features. Note that "FileLocator Pro" is just a rename of this program.

MobileFileSearch allows you to search files inside a mobile device (Smartphone or Tablet) plugged to the USB port on your computer, with Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). You can search files by their size, their created time, their modified time, or their name (using wildcard).

After finding the files, you can optionally delete them, copy them to a folder on your computer, or export the files list to CSV/tab-delimited/HTML/XML/JSON file.

Listary is an enhancement that allows you to quickly search almost any listing in Windows by simply typing your search terms. The program will pop up a small, semi-transparent window in Explorer windows (including open/save dialogs), Task Manager, Registry Editor and even directly on your desktop. The program works with almost any application with a system-generated list.

Although some programs will automatically jump to the first letter you type (a find-as-you-type feature of Windows Explorer), you must type quickly for more than one letter and cannot see your output. Listary brings a long-time feature of Linux to Windows, letting you enter whole words and type slower with automatic changes. Additionally, it allows wildcards and has the ability to edit your input with immediate results.

Advanced features include hotkeys, autocomplete, blacklists, favorites, a customizable window. Note that the program contains many "pro"-only features, but the program is very functional in its basic version.

Note: The latest version is no longer portable. This entry has been updated to reflect the last known portable version of the program.

SMF is a powerful file search and duplicate finding tool that uses hashing (MD5, CRC32 or SHA1) to determine similarity. Includes a host of filter capabilities and a result-reporting tool, with which you can sub-filter the result set according to your needs.

The program lets you search by last modified date, keyword, or file attribute; pictures of a certain filesize, dimension, or metadata info; MP3s by length, author, or bitrate; and duplicate pictures that have a certain filesize or dimension.

AstroGrep is a search utility for quickly finding information within text files. Results are displayed with sidebar options for further filtering and preferences for text result styling. Searches using keywords and regular expressions are supported with options for printing, storing recently used paths, and opening files externally with a text editor (down to the exact line number and column, if supported by the editor).

The program is not an indexing search program, meaning it checks the contents of all files each time it searches. Based on the popular grep search used in *nix.

Everything is a powerful search tool that locates files and folders by file name instantly, and includes an FTP and Web server interface. It also can search files by their contents. Unlike Windows search, Everything initially displays all files and folders on your computer. You simply type in part of the desired file name to limit what files and folders are displayed instantly. The more you type, the more specific the list becomes.

Note that the instant-search capability only works on NTFS/ReFS-formatted drives and only uses file and folder names in a file index. The program can separately catalog non-NTFS/ReFS and network servers for searching on a schedule.

WizFile is a near-instant search utility for finding files and folders. Results can be sorted by name, size or date and file type (audio, video, image, compressed etc.). The program supports wildcards, AND/OR operations and much more.

The program rapidly searches NTFS-formatted drives using the Master File Table feature so it's ready for use very quickly after launch. The program also supports non-NTFS formatted drives and network shares (e.g. //servername/sharename), monitoring for file changes and making search results visible in real-time.

DocFetcher indexes your computer, making the contents of a wide variety of files instantly searchable. Selecting a search result shows a preview of the file with text highlighted and without formatting. You can filter results by location, file type, minimum and/or maximum filesize and more. The program can index Microsoft Office, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, PDF, RTF, EPUB, HTML and more formats from drives, external volumes, archive files and Outlook .PST files (some .OST files also work).

The program supports complex searches via wildcards, proximity, ranges, "fuzzy" terms, and more using Lucene search. You can also do standard file name search via "filename:searchterm." The program is cross-platform and functional on OS X and Linux, as well as 64-bit Windows.

Note:

• The program requires that you manually add folders/drives that you want to view before searching. See the "Basic Usage" section of the homepage for a few intro steps. When adding to the search scope, make sure to check "Store relative paths if possible"
• Some issues have appeared with the program on Windows 10. Users may wish to test the PortableApps beta version if you have issues.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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).

Index Your Files allows you to search through all your files or folders on local or networked drives. Searching can be done by name, date, size, location etc., and boolean operators are available to to perform multiple keyword searches. You can invoke Windows Explorer context menus on found files to perform operations such as drag/drop, copy, rename, delete etc. It also includes internal viewers for text, HTML and image files.

As the name implies, the program must index the area before searching, but afterward searches almost instantly.

Note: v5.0.2.6 is effectively the last freeware version of IYF. The current version is named "IYF Pro", and is an extreme nagware (as described by webfork here) that is effectively just a commercial demo, so we have decided not to update this entry, but link to the Internet Archive for download of the last freeware version.

MPFF is a fast file searching utility that can run a file search in up to three different paths including a UNC path, and also exclude a phrase from the search, for each path you can decide to search also sub folders.

SearchFilterView allows you to easily view the search filters installed on your system and the file extensions that are associated with them, as well as it allows you to easily add or remove file extensions for these filters.

Snowbird is a small and fast non-indexing search program. It displays results in real-time as the search progresses. A preview window is available that lets you peek at text files, pictures and webpages from the search results. Besides searching in file names, it can also be configured to look for text inside certain files, such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets.

Note: Links broken ... linking to Softpedia.

HABExam is a search tool that aims to combine the best of Windows own search tool and GREP, trying to make a more flexible and user-friendly search. The program includes normal text/unicode/hex search, different positions in word. The program can search by file mask, selected files, Hidden/System files, and can exclude/include by type or subfolder.

NOTE: Website is gone, linking to Archive.org.

File Seeker is a very fast searching utility. It includes the ability to search within many different kinds of files, including compressed archives. It also features different filters to narrow down possible results.