Have you always searched for a program, file, or folder only to discover that the system search takes longer to find results than it does just to find them manually yourself? I'd imagine near Windows users face this dilemma.

While there have always been roughly neat Windows Search tips and tricks, IT has never been happening par with the search features of Mackintosh or Linux. Although Windows 10 did fall the gap in umteen ways, it's relieve slow and imperfect. In fact, you whitethorn glucinium better off switching to one of these relinquish Windows third-party search tools instead.

1. Everything

Everything is systematically lauded as one of the quickest search tools for Windows. Using it is as simple as it gets: install it, open the program, and give it a bite to index your entire system (It can index a fresh Windows install in under a minute).

Once that's done, all you have to coiffure is type anything into the text field, and you will get instantaneous results Eastern Samoa you character. And as yearlong as you allow Everything to sit in the scop and monitor system changes, IT bequeath always be fast.

Best of each, information technology's jackanapes and takes finished to a lesser degree 5MB RAM and 1MB disk blank space. This is the absolute better tool to use for old and slow computers.

2. Listary

Of altogether the software along this listing, Listary is credibly the well-nig unique. Not only is information technology extremely minimal in design, just IT stays completely out of your way until you need it. When you want to search, just start typing. IT's every bit easy Eastern Samoa that.

And as you type, Listary testament show a name of all files on your system that match the interrogation in real-time. Listary can too action commands like Open Brochure and Copy Folder Course. You can even enjoyment Listary to quickly hop into a different folder just by typing that folder's name.

Some of its best features require Listary Pro, which is $20. But even with Listary Free, you get a heap of power and flexibility, which is one of the many reasons IT makes it on to this list of the best Windows File Internet Explorer extensions for file management.

3. grepWin

If you're someone WHO likes to have a more hands-on approach with your PC, then grepWin will be one of the most useful tools you'll have at your disposal. With it, you can search through any directory Tree, and it will find files past matching contents with your search enquiry (orderly expressions are supported).

If you've ever used Linux, it's basically the grep command (one of the essential Linux commands to know), but designed for Windows and comes with a nifty interface. Thusly the adjacent time you call for to search for a specific line of merchandise of encipher surgery a particularised line of documentation, this will cut your search time by orders of magnitude.

4. AstroGrep

AstroGrep is a great secondary to grepWin if the latter doesn't fit your fancy. It does the same thing—finds files that match your search query past content rather than lodge name—merely is slightly less advanced and easier to use.

You can designate which file types to search, view file contents inside AstroGrep itself, and make unnecessary or print results for later. Potential future features include searching through PDFs, MP3s, ZIPs, RARs, and more.

AstroGrep has been around since 2006 and continues to receive regular updates.

5. SearchMyFiles

SearchMyFiles may appear helplessly rude initially glance, but it's deceivingly compromising. Once you get ended the slight learning curve, you'll be able to set up complex search queries using filters and wildcards.

For example, explore all files created in the last 15 minutes, between 300 and 600 bytes in size up, and containing the word error. The coating is lightweight and portable (no installation required), so you can carry it around on a USB stick. NirSoft as wel maintains hundreds of different useful utilities that are all clean, portable, and purchasable unhampered charge.

6. Exselo Desktop

Exselo Screen background isn't as familiar as other free Windows 10 search tool options, which is a pity because it's in reality excellent. Information technology supports powerful search queries, has a simple interface, firmly shares information, and even integrates with Mindset.

Not only can it research localized drives, but Exselo terminate also comb through network and cloud stores. And best of totally, the Loose edition is feature complete. The only difference 'tween Free and Enterprisingness is confirm for triple users.

7. Parallel & Same Files Searcher

Duplicate & Same Files Quester is a tiny movable program—around 1MB in size—that finds all files that are identical by content (not away Indian file cite). As such, the scanning procedure can glucinium a trifle slow, merely you tin filter and set parameters to accelerate things up.

And not only seat the program delete said duplicates, but information technology can supercede them with hard links that are essentially shortcuts to one single register, thus saving you quad without breaking anything in the meanwhile.

Can you guess how much of your alcoholic drive space is squandered by same files? The respond might surprise you. Duplicate files are more common than we run to think, and if those duplicates are image, audio, or video files, they can take ahead a great deal of unnecessary space.

8. Registry Finder

Registry Finder is a autonomous puppet that makes registry navigation easy. It can also search keys reported to when they were last modified, meaning this tool comes in handy when you wish to see all Holocene changes that were successful (e.g., for troubleshooting).

Despite the better explore features in Windows 10, the registry is inactive a bit unprocessed and could use very much of have it away. Whether you want to fix errors in the register or make believe a couple of tweaks for usability, the process of determination keys can be slow and tedious—and that's why Register Finder really shines.

9. UltraSearch

UltraSearch is a introduction of Pile Software. They are also the creators of the popular conniving drive space recovery program, TreeSize. UltraSearch offers essential search features plus a a couple of extras, altogether piece keeping it simple and fast.

It works by direct searching the Main file Board (MFT). Inside the search window, all important file information is displayed. It also displays all of your computer's partitions and their number size and free quad. Extra options include showing folders and/or files in a search, exclude filters, and printing the search results.

10. FileSearchEX

If you prefer the style of search from Windows XP, FileSearchEX is the political platform for you. Not only is the search interface familiar and comfortable, the app itself is portable and uses minimal system resources.

However, there is extraordinary drawback: the free version is a trial—non in the sense that the program will expire and get along unusable, but the research window will respite. Open the windowpane, complete your search, then close information technology. If you come this readily, you should be fine.

General the search performance is OK. Information technology isn't intimately as fast as the former programs we tested, but we still detected it was quicker than the default option Windows Hunt and remains a good choice.

11. Launchy

Launchy is a swell app that's meant to replace the Start Carte, the Taskbar, the File Adventurer, and desktop shortcuts. If you've of all time used a Mackintosh, so it's a bit corresponding Spotlight. Launchy indexes your entire system, so lets you launch files, apps, folders, and bookmarks with fair a some keystrokes.

Nearly people think Launchy can only launch apps, but it can lookup files and folders if you enable the setting. Open Launchy with the Alt + Space shortcut, click the gear mechanism icon at the pass right, go to the Catalog tab, find File Types in the right panel, then click "+" to ADD file types and directories that you wish to let in in the search.

12. Wise JetSearch

Wise JetSearch is a free search tool for Windows 10. IT is capable of searching all types of important files such as videos, euphony, images, and texts from the local drives and the removable drives.

Wise JetSearch posterior seek all the hard drives and partitions, be they extractable disks or lower-ranking disk. It supports a salmagundi of force back formats such as NTFS, FAT, and exFAT. Features like Straightaway Search and Preview Dot make using a Wise JetSearch a suitable alternative to the default Windows Search tool.

13. FileSeek

If you are a Windows power user looking more than control of your searches, then FileSeek is your primo bet. Through its Gain groun Querying feature, you can use regular expressions to go particularized in your search commands.

Then there's the have of Tabbed User interface. You know how you have to wait for a search to get completed earlier you can look up something else happening Windows? With FileSeek, you won't have to wait like that any longer. Thanks to Tabbed Interface, you can appear up multiple files in a single go.

You can also filter the search results by date (creation date, modification date, etc.) and size. There's also a characteristic to simulate the search result to a clipboard, and the ability to exportation them in formats like CSV and HTML.

These and some more such features make FileSeek an cunning choice for those of you World Health Organization spend a muckle of prison term using Windows 10. Also, you receive a test translation of the Pro version after installation, which switches back to the unbound version later a short period.

14. Agent Ransack

Agent Strip is a free Windows search tool available for both personal and commercial use. We like this app because IT gives immediate results without you having to open the files and then look up the rightish data.

You bathroom also share the search results with others through with the printing, exporting, and reporting features that go with this tool. Agent Reave is too available A a free of commercial Windows search joyride. For commercial purpose, the creators have branded IT arsenic FileLocator Lite, although, it's fundamentally the Saame tool past the same company.

15. DocFetcher

Are you an assailable-source aficionado? Then you'll probably like DocFetcher. It's a free ajar-source desktop hunting application that can service you search through with heaps of files on your computer with blazing fast speed.

"You backside opine of it American Samoa Google for your local files. The application runs along Windows, Linux and OS X, and is successful available nether the Eclipse Public Permit," writes DocFetcher on their home page.

It supports the search of numerous types of files such as PST, HTML, RTF, ODT, MP3, JPEG, plain texts, .slide fastener, and much Thomas More. With support for both 32- and 64-number comes the pro-concealment policy of DocFetcher, which can be proved from their publicly accessible source code.

In times wish ours, where secrecy has become a joke, products like DocFetcher offer a breathing place of fresh air.

It's a non-slave Personal computer hunt utility to serve you discovery your files in a quick and efficient way. Packed with a minimalist interface, the tool offers a search filter, real-fourth dimension display panel, and a hunting box.

The software also offers a pro variant that comes with added features, just the free version will do the job for most use cases. Divided from giving you relevant results, it testament also notify you about junk files that you haven't used and plausibly don't equal need.

Apart from its clutter-free and smooth hunting abilities, SSuite Desktop Search puppet offers a different only newcomer approach to package and its ontogeny: green software.

To put it briefly, green software is a typewrite of software designed to be environmentally sustainable over a period of time.

The SSuite Desktop Seek is organized to run connected native Windows operating systems using the Win32 API structure, as opposed to other software products that keep going Coffee surgery .NET. As a result, the latter products have high retentiveness requirements, resulting in a comparatively higher electrical phthisis.

Likewise, note that when you install the free desktop look app, you'll get a .energy file. To run it, you'll first have to extract it locally along your PC. After that you'll be redemptive to use the app.

For better and faster research results, go ahead and pick one of the supra tools. The improved-in Windows 10 search is getting better, just in that location's still a long way to work before you can buoy rely alone on that.

In that location power be many things that annoy and frustrate you in Windows 10, but the drug user base is so large that you'll always embody able-bodied to find a third-company software that improves upon Microsoft's shortcomings. These nifty Windows search utilities are proof of that!

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Shaant Minhas (80 Articles Published)

Shaant is a Stave Writer at MUO. A graduate in Computer Applications, atomic number 2 uses his passionateness for writing to explain multiplex stuff in plain English. When not researching or writing, he can be establish enjoying a Word, gushing, or hanging exterior with friends.

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