I've been looking for a program like this for years.
"EVERYTHING" is a free search utility that will locate a file or folder by name located on any of your hard drives in less than a second.
"Ho-hum" you say, "there are several programs that do that."
Quite so, but this one does it without creating massive indexes. That saves your disk space and more importantly, doesn't slow down your PC by needing to maintain such indexes.
"But how can this work?" you ponder, "instant search utilities needs indexes in order to work."
Yes they do and that's the trick. with this product; it uses the indexes that form part of the NTFS file system. It is using something that is already there rather than duplicating it.
It's a clever idea. Now why didn't somebody (including Microsoft) think of this before?
Of course to use EVERYTHING your hard drives need to be NTFS formatted but that includes 99.9% of all XP and Vista users, so it's hardly a limitation.
EVERTHING can scan multiple drives, find search terms embedded within file names and can be accessed from a desktop shortcut, the Start Menu or from the right click context menu. It weighs in at a massive 334 KB download. Yes folks, that's kilobytes not megabytes. And its free.
What more can you ask for?
(Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10)
This item was based on a suggestion by regular contributor rhiannon.
Update: I need to clarify my comment that EVERYTHING does not "create massive indexes." This means what it says and should not be read as implying it does not create any indexes. It does, but they are very small and created in seconds not hours. These tiny indexes are possible because EVERYTHING leverages itself off the information contained in the NTFS file system rather than recreating that information afresh.
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Comments
I used Everything for quite a while.
I then changed to UltraSearch -
https://www.jam-software.com/ultrasearch/
I hate indexing. I believe UltraSearch does not index.
You can search for words within the files.
You can easily exclude Folders (EG WINDOWS/) from the search.
Love it,
Rob
PS I too (like AJNorth) have windows indexing turned off.
Everything was updated to version 1.4.1.877 on 2017.06.07; the full changelog may be found at http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/Everything-Changelog-114264.html . (One of its advantages is that it does not require the Windows Search Service to be enabled -- especially pertinent with the current Windows exploit CVE-2017-8620.)
Have used Everything for years. Recently switched to WiseJetSearch. IMO it is demonstrably better, especially in terms of speed. Anyone else made the comparison?
WiseJetSearch looks nice and works quite good. For me, it does not respond faster compared to Everything. Everything searches instantly, this seems not be possible in WiseJetSearch. WiseJetSearch is anyway less configurable. Even the main window sizes cannot be changed. It is only possible to maximize it. Small bug: the column 'Date Modified' does not show the last modification date but the creation date.
WiseJetSearch looks promising, but for now I will keep on using Everything.
I use Windows XP
I have used Everything for the last 3 years, and it is indeed a very fast utility
Two problems:
It has to rebuild its database everytime the computer is restarted for the day, which can take some time
Secondly, for my Windows XP system at least, Everyday seems to sometimes interfere with Windows File Manager/explorer, making it unstable at times
I was informed of a new application, Hddb (version 1.03)
This software is very similar to Everything, but can remember its database, so doesnt rebuild it everytime you start the program
And similar very fast file searching
So finally, a rival to Everything has arrived !
One weakness with Hddb - it needs to be installed, no portable version. And when you install it, it doesnt immediately recognise external drives including USB drives. I had to restart my computer, and the external drives were recognised
You have asked a question in each post. That is considered by most people a request for information.
The contents of the system 32 directory do show up properly on my system in Everything as do searches for individual files in that directory. It also works in the Syswow 64 directory. You state you have a problem with it and want it to do something but have no interest in free assistance from the developer.
If it does not work on your system there is no need for it to be on your system.
Run as administrator.
Been using the 64 bit version of Everything on Win 7 Pro 64 bit for at least a year. Also checked your specific example on my own system before I posted the reply.
Yes.
Only other option I can think of at present to make it work properly is this:
1, Exit Everything.
2, Delete the file everything.db which should be in the same directory as Everything.exe. If you have Everything running full time this file will not be there until you close the program.
3, Restart Everything and see if it works.
4, If that does not work, you can get free assistance via the developer's website.
5, The product works for other people. The product cost you nothing. The help you want costs you nothing. Might want to keep that in mind when phrasing your requests.
You can always buy any one of the payware alternatives.
Everything is very fast, but it can't search by file date or size. That makes it of limited utility, as far as I'm concerned.
One item of note, do not mistake the View menu's "Enable Regex" option for the context menu option. If Regex is enabled, Everything will not search normally and won't search subfolders when a folder search is done.