Back to: Software
| Name | Info | Platform | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Ransack | https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/ | ||
| AKIN (Advanced Knowledge & Information Nexus) | Strange; hideous UI, questionable performance. | http://www.grappledata.com/ | |
| Archivarius 3000 | http://www.likasoft.com/ | ||
| AnyTXT Searcher | https://anytxt.net/ | ||
| Copernic Desktop Search | Very good UI and pace of development, but sometimes chokes on larger files (PDFs!) in the search results pane. Otherwise, probably the best in terms of finding a good balance between features and a good UI. | https://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/ | |
| CSearcher | |||
| DeskRule | Previewing of e.g. PDFs/doc files very rudimentary. | https://www.zabkat.com/deskrule/ | |
| DocFetcher Pro | https://docfetcherpro.com/feature-comparison/ | ||
| dtSearch | Nothing really touches this. The only problem is the crappy UI. | Windows | https://dtsearch.com/ |
| Everything | Just file names, no content search. But if it's just file names you need, it is WAY better than crappy Windows search. | https://www.voidtools.com/ | |
| Exselo Desktop | meh | https://www.exselo.com/products/exselo_desktop.html | |
| FileLocator Pro | https://www.mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/ | ||
| FileSearchy | 2016 | https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/filesearchy.html | |
| Google Desktop | https://softfamous.com/google-desktop/ | ||
| GrepWin | https://tools.stefankueng.com/grepWin.html | ||
| Listary | |||
| Locate32 | |||
| Lookeen | Outlook search tool. Now also desktop search, but doesn't highlight hits. | http://www.lookeen.com/ | |
| Noggle | https://www.noggle.online/ | ||
| Puggle Desktop | http://puggle.sourceforge.net/ | ||
| Recoll | Open source, but need to donate small amount to download | https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/ | |
| SearchMyFiles | |||
| Seekfast | The PDF previewer is all but worthless. | https://seekfast.org/seekfast | |
| SSuite Desktop Search Engine | not indexed | https://www.ssuiteoffice.com/software/desktopsearchengine.htm | |
| TextFinding | Poor previewing of files | https://www.textfinding.com/ | |
| TextSeek | I did a quick test with PDFs, but the preview and hit highlighting is very bad. The original formatting of the PDF is totally lost, unlike in Copernic or dtSearch. | https://www.textseek.net/en/download.htm | |
| X1 | Only indexes the first 20 MB of text! Hence useless to me. |
See also various open source search technologies:
- Lucene
- Solr
- Elasticsearch
Note: Solr and Elasticsearch are both based on Lucene.