Win 7 search sucks! Replacement?

Windows 7 search is a pain. Mr. Gates apparently thinks that the average user is too stupid to do an advanced search and narrow things down by filetype/location/whatever.

Anyway... Is there some kind of program that can search for me? I have thousands of files, and would like to sort them.

I need

• free
• spyware/malware free
• options to search by extension type/date/etc

Even a 'desktop gadget' would be OK, but I can't seem to find a good one.

 

Quite a few of us here have settled on Everything. It can't search for text inside files though.

 

But Agent Ransack can.

 

Thanks! I'll check them out. Searching text within files is a nice feature I hadn't thought about.

Thanks again!

 

I use FileSearchEX because it is probably the best Windows 7 search tool replacement I've seen yet. Personal opinion of course, everyone has their fav. Everything else about Windows 7 has been cool for me though. I love AeroPeek and AeroSnap ... use those all the time!

 

This is about the best free search engine you'll get http://www.voidtools.com/

 

For a quick search on the computer I use Everything but also like Locate32.
For an indepth search of the computer or external drive including search for text within files, I use the free Index Your Files which has installer and portable versions.
http://www.indexyourfiles.com/

 

Im looking for a search tool for windows 7 and I was told to get
FileSearchEX
but before I try it, or any of the suggestions on this thread, I liked XPs search tool for the basic reasoning I could choose catergories

such as

search only: documents, videos, sounds

and then only those type of files would appear
and it wasnt hard to do, meaning, it it was a matter of opening SEARCH and then clicking selection then hitting search

which of these search programs can do the same thing?
http://www.indexyourfiles.com/ maybe?
or
FileSearchEX
or something else

real life example of what i mean

I have a audio/document file called,...hmm I dont know what's called, I just know its somewhere on my HD
I know with XP search, i Can easily find it, I cannot find it using Win7s search, which doesnt seem to search unless I know where the file is/what its called. etc
thanks

 

Everything can be used to search for file names and partial file names. Search on par for example and all files starting with those characters will appear. part, party, parted, for example would show up.

You can search by file extension. To find all your .flv video clips, you could search for .flv for example, no wildcard designator required. Same for any file extension. .txt would yield all text files.

Once found, you can access them directly from inside Everything if you wish.

This may be something for you...

 

so how do I just get word documents to show up or just videos(unknown formatts) or just audio(unknown formats)'
I am likely not to remember all the file extensions. or any file extensions, I want a search function, like in XP, that does it all for me, then the search results show up up in a window and not on a "window" that will close as soon as I pick one of the results, so if I want to open 2 results, I must do the "search" twice

 

Get "Everything" here: http://www.voidtools.com/ it's the best search engine going:

 

They aren't talking about internet search engines, but local apps ewen.

 

It will do that.

If you have folders named video1, video2, videomisc, for example, and type video into the dialogue box, all three of those folders will show up. Along with any files or folders having video as part of the name...

And the window won't close as soon as you pick one of the results. Who said it would? You can run multiple instances of Everything. And double clicking a found item opens it in a new window, at least it does for me...

 

This IS a local app used for searching the entire system... check the link for yourself.

Regards

 

I think what Colemanguy meant was that the term "search engine" is not generally used to refer to software that indexes and searches the file system. It usually refers to web sites that crawl and index the WWW.

Using the term "search engine" in this context could be confusing for some...

 

Yes, under search options you can just click the type check box, and a drop down list appears.

Don't know if there is anything like that available, but should be. It's a useful / helpful option.

I used to use Everything search, mentioned above, but now I'm using UltraSearch

To help with file type, you could use Fileinfo.com - Common File Types

That's right, but just to make things confusing, "search engine" is what they call it on their home page.

 

but what if I dont know the name of the file nor the file formatt, I just know it is a video file..
audio
word document
how would I find it?

 

If it is in a folder named video, that folder will show up if you search for video. You can open it and see what is in it. .doc, .rtf, .txt or .docx will turn up most Word documents depending on how you saved them.

Other than that, maybe Everything isn't for you. If you don't don't know the folder, filename or file type I guess the native Windows search is as good as its gonna get for you...

 

thanks everyone for all the help. Im going to use EVerything to find what I need.
Now on, I will have to organize what I download better, but I was looking to find a non-thinking search, which I thought XP had, to find all word/audio/video files and I didnt need to type in a wild card or anything.... that would seem simple to me...but then again maybe I'm an outlier who prefers a knob to crank my AC to max while most people want the tablet "smart" car and press a ton of buttons/menus to get the same result
http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/2008-toyota-prius-5dr-hb-touring-natl-temperature-controls_100272354_m.jpg
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/technical-stuff/205758d1254988762-ac-vs-climate-control-carac.jpg
I dont really get how some people think