As we accumulate more digital files of documents, pictures, music, and video, we find ourselves occasionally challenged with sorting and categorizing files into numerous subfolders and directories. While it is practical to sort and classify data into folders, it is still not as fast - when time comes that we need to sift through our folders and files for past documents. It’s easier and faster to search with Desktop Search programs.
Windows comes with a built-in desktop search feature. Windows XP’s search feature is bad in terms of speed and results. The supposed indexing feature does not work well, the search keywords are not very flexible and sensitive. Windows Vista and Windows 7’s Desktop Search has been greatly improved that it rivals that of Google Desktop. The popular third party Google Desktop continue to improve despite the initial security concerns about its huge and possibly vulnerable index file.
If you observe your desktop search activities, you might notice that a good percentage of your search keywords are actually partial filenames that you can remember. For this scenario, an even faster desktop search program can be used, it is called “Everything”.
Everything is literally the fastest desktop search tool for Windows. It is fast because it indexes only the file and folder names. It works only on NTFS file systems. It does not work for old FAT32 formatted flash drives. Despite these limitations, it remains the fastest desktop search tool. Everything is also made to be a portable application!
Download Everything here:
]http://www.voidtools.com/Everything-1.2.1.371.zip 
Upon extracting the Everything application. It immediately scans the NTFS hard drives and creates an index file. While Google Desktop requires hours to sometimes even days to fully index your computer, Everything does all the indexing in a matter of minutes!
Again, this is made truly fast because Everything indexes only all file and folder names. It does not view and index within the document contents. Search results in Everything appear real time as you type!
Everything adds support for searching with filters such as those below
(taken from the Everythin FAQ at
http://www.voidtools.com/faq.php Everything Boolean Search Operators- AND is the default boolean operator.
- For example, here is how to search for foo and bar: foo bar
- To search for either of two search terms, add a | between the terms.
- For example, here is how to search for .jpg or .bmp: .jpg | .bmp
- To exclude something from the search include a ! at the front of the term.
- For example, here is how to search for abc and not 123: abc !123
Everything Wildcard Search Operators- Using a * in your search will match any number of any type of character.
- For example, here is how to search for files and folders that start with e and end with g: e*g
- Using a ? in your search will match one character.
- For example, here is how to search for files that have a 2 letter file extension: *.??
Everything is a good and a truly fast companion to your current desktop search tool. It does not eat gigabytes of your hard drive space, it is less likely susceptible to security breaches in case an index file has been copied or tampered with. Remember also that Everything is a portable application. You no longer need admin rights to use Everything on a friend’s computer to help look for documents.
