Top Desktop Search Engines
1. Google Desktop
Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It’s a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you’ve viewed. Google Desktop can index several different types of data, including email, web browsing history from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, office documents in the OpenDocument and Microsoft Office formats, instant messenger transcripts from AOL, Google, MSN, Skype, Tencent QQ, and several multimedia file types. Sadly, Google Desktop only indexes 100,000 files per drive during the initial indexing period
2. ISYS® Search Software
ISYS® Search Software The company’s award-winning software suite offers a broad range of search, navigation and discovery solutions for desktop search, intranet search, SharePoint search and embedded search applications. ISYS maintains offices in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. The company’s customers include Boeing, the United Nations, the National Library of Wales, Carey Olsen, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Interfleet Technology, the World Trade Organization and nearly half of the UK’s police forces.
3. Copernic Desktop Search Professional 3.1
Copernic Desktop Search brings a search engine right to your PC and allows you to instantly search files, e-mails, and e-mail attachments stored anywhere on your PC hard drive. Once installed, Copernic will ask you which types of content you wish to index (files, emails, contacts, bookmarks, history etc). It will also allow you to specify particular folders to add to the index. Copernic will then index the contents of your hard drive(s), including network drives (if you choose). It can index email from Outlook/Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Eudora, numerous audio and video formats, as well as bookmarks from Netscape, Mozilla (all variations) and IE. It also handles all the standard file formats: .doc, .pdf, .txt, rtf, .ppt etc.
4. RerouteXPSearch utility
RerouteXPSearch utility allows you to change the search application that’s called when you use the search link in the Windows Start Menu. Using the tool is as simple as downloading it, running the stand-alone application, and plugging in the location of the executable for your preferred search tool. To undo the changes made by the utility, click the Restore defaults button once.
5. Agent Ransack
Agent Ransack is a very powerful and easy to use tool utility for Microsoft Windows to use tool for finding files and information on your hard drive fast and efficiently. You can search for file names or text in files with support for Regular expressions. When searching the contents of files Agent Ransack displays and highlights the actual text segments found in a separate window so you can quickly browse the results without having to open each file!
Download Agent Ransack v1.7.3
6. Everything Search
Everything Search is a superb freeware desktop search tool which combines a blindingly fast indexing engine with a super swift instant result search. Unlike Windows search “Everything” initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name “Everything”). You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed. It supports boolean and wildcards too, which makes it even more of a beauty
7. Locate32
Locate32 is software which can be used to find files from your hard drives and other locations. It works like updatedb and locate commands in Unix based systems. In other words, it uses databases to store information about directory structures and uses these databases in searches. The use of these databases provides very fast searching speed. The software includes a dialog based application as well as console programs which can be used to both update and access databases.
8. Pretty Run
Pretty Run is a small program that can search your start menu, desktop or any other folder for shortcuts. You can search as you type or when you press enter. Always on top option, minimize on run. Last used icons are displayed. Found items are grouped. Pretty Run supports searching the web as well.
Tell a Friend & Share
