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You need a file search program. Everything. Quickly search files on your computer

05/10/2016

FileSeek is a useful utility that allows many users to easily find the files they need on their hard drive. The multifunctional program is capable of finding data using various filters. Setting up the procedure is quick and does not require special attention. The user can customize the search parameters to suit their needs. FileSeek is very fast and scans hundreds of files. Along with the result, the file size, line number, date of last modification and document name are displayed. You can also create, manage and sync multiple profiles for different projects. It is possible to switch to another language...

30/03/2016

Copernic Desktop Search is a convenient application for searching for diverse information. Through the program, users of different levels will find email messages, attached files, and other documents. A simple interface helps the user find files with formats such as doc, docx, pdf, xlsx and others. You can find music files, graphics, images and videos. The advantages of the application include the small size of the application and its minimal load on the computer. The program uses processor resources, disk space and RAM. Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) contains a variety of filters.

21/10/2015

NeoSearch is one of the most convenient applications designed to search for the data the user needs on a computer. The program has a convenient, understandable, stylish user interface. It has a number of simple functionality that even a beginner can easily handle. After installing the program, file indexing starts. neoSearch checks the status of all files that are on the computer at that moment. This entire process takes a minimum of time. A specialized scale informs you about the progress of the application. Afterwards, the search results are displayed on the screen simultaneously in the form of four documents, which...

01/12/2014

Wise JetSearch is a program that provides a direct search for various files or folders located within various local drives of a personal computer or on removable portable storage media. This software advantageously replaces the standard file search model built into the operating system. It can work with NTFS and FAT drives; data is searched using a user-specified template, name or other individual specific parameters. The algorithm for working with the Wise JetSearch program is quite simple: enter keywords, select a drive, start search...

29/09/2014

FileSearchy - created to simplify the search for files on your computer. Unlike other search programs, this program searches by name in real time. The program also allows you to search the contents of files such as doc and pdf, and if it finds it, it highlights the found text. FileSearchy instantly finds the files you need by name. The program itself supports tabs, which will allow multiple searches in different tabs, which can be aligned at the end. Supports search by date, file size and registry entries. It is possible to search for multiple lines, as well as exclude lines that should not be...

05/09/2014

SoftPerfect Network Search Engine (NSE) is a program that is useful for quickly searching for shared files on a local network. It indexes and arranges files so that with the correct request, any user with access to a given local network will find the desired file in a few seconds. The network administrator has many opportunities, because the program has a wide selection of useful functions that will undoubtedly come in handy during work. For example, the function of selective indexing of files and folders. Installing and configuring the program will not take much time, since it is not complicated, it will be enough to copy a few files to the folder with...

Professional Internet search requires specialized software, as well as specialized search engines and search services.

PROGRAMS

http://dr-watson.wix.com/home – the program is designed to study arrays of text information in order to identify entities and connections between them. The result of the work is a report on the object under study.

http://www.fmsasg.com/ - one of the best programs in the world for visualizing connections and relationships Sentinel Vizualizer. The company has completely Russified its products and connected a hotline in Russian.

http://www.newprosoft.com/ – “Web Content Extractor” is the most powerful, easy-to-use software for extracting data from web sites. It also has an effective Visual Web spider.

SiteSputnik – a software package that has no analogues in the world, allowing you to search and process its results on the Visible and Invisible Internet, using all the search engines necessary for the user.

WebSite-Watcher – allows you to monitor web pages, including password-protected ones, monitoring forums, RSS feeds, news groups, local files. Has a powerful filter system. Monitoring is carried out automatically and is delivered in a user-friendly form. A program with advanced functions costs 50 euros. Constantly updated.

http://www.scribd.com/ is the most popular platform in the world and increasingly used in Russia for posting various kinds of documents, books, etc. for free access with a very convenient search engine for titles, topics, etc.

http://www.atlasti.com/ is the most powerful and effective tool for qualitative information analysis available to individual users, small and even medium-sized businesses. The program is multifunctional and therefore useful. It combines the ability to create a unified information environment for working with various text, tabular, audio and video files as a single whole, as well as tools for qualitative analysis and visualization.

Ashampoo ClipFinder HD – an ever-increasing share of the information flow comes from video. Accordingly, competitive intelligence officers need tools that allow them to work with this format. One such product is the free utility we present. It allows you to search for videos based on specified criteria on video file storage sites such as YouTube. The program is easy to use, displays all search results on one page with detailed information, titles, duration, time when the video was uploaded to the storage, etc. There is a Russian interface.

http://www.advego.ru/plagiatus/ – the program was made by SEO optimizers, but is quite suitable as an Internet intelligence tool. Plagiarism shows the degree of uniqueness of the text, the sources of the text, and the percentage of text match. The program also checks the uniqueness of the specified URL. The program is free.

http://neiron.ru/toolbar/ – includes an add-on for combining Google and Yandex search, and also allows for competitive analysis based on assessing the effectiveness of sites and contextual advertising. Implemented as a plugin for FF and GC.

http://web-data-extractor.net/ is a universal solution for obtaining any data available on the Internet. Setting up cutting data from any page is done in a few mouse clicks. You just need to select the data area that you want to save and Datacol will automatically select a formula for cutting out this block.

CaptureSaver is a professional Internet research tool. Simply an indispensable working program that allows you to capture, store and export any Internet information, including not only web pages, blogs, but also RSS news, email, images and much more. It has the widest functionality, an intuitive interface and a ridiculous price.

http://www.orbiscope.net/en/software.html – web monitoring system at more than affordable prices.

http://www.kbcrawl.co.uk/ – software for working, including on the “Invisible Internet”.

http://www.copernic.com/en/products/agent/index.html – the program allows you to search using more than 90 search engines, using more than 10 parameters. Allows you to combine results, eliminate duplicates, block broken links, and show the most relevant results. Comes in free, personal and professional versions. Used by more than 20 million users.

Maltego is a fundamentally new software that allows you to establish the relationship of subjects, events and objects in real life and on the Internet.

SERVICES

new https://hunter.io/ – an effective service for detecting and checking email.

https://www.whatruns.com/ is an easy to use yet effective scanner to discover what is working and not working on a website and what its security holes are. Also implemented as a plugin for Chrom.

https://www.crayon.co/ is an American budget platform for market and competitive intelligence on the Internet.

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bwong/octant/ – host identifier.

https://iplogger.ru/ – a simple and convenient service for determining someone else’s IP.

http://linkurio.us/ is a powerful new product for economic security workers and corruption investigators. Processes and visualizes huge amounts of unstructured information from financial sources.

http://www.intelsuite.com/en – English-language online platform for competitive intelligence and monitoring.

http://yewno.com/about/ is the first operating system for translating information into knowledge and visualizing unstructured information. Currently supports English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

https://start.avalancheonline.ru/landing/?next=%2F – forecasting and analytical services by Andrey Masalovich.

https://www.outwit.com/products/hub/ – a complete set of stand-alone programs for professional work in web 1.

https://github.com/search?q=user%3Acmlh+maltego – extensions for Maltego.

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/ – search engine for hosting, IP addresses, etc.

http://appfollow.ru/ – analysis of applications based on reviews, ASO optimization, positions in tops and search results for the App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone Store.

http://spiraldb.com/ is a service implemented as a plugin for Chrom, which allows you to get a lot of valuable information about any electronic resource.

https://millie.northernlight.com/dashboard.php?id=93 - a free service that collects and structures key information on industries and companies. It is possible to use information panels based on text analysis.

http://byratino.info/ – collection of factual data from publicly available sources on the Internet.

http://www.datafox.co/ – CI platform collects and analyzes information on companies of interest to clients. There is a demo.

https://unwiredlabs.com/home - a specialized application with an API for searching by geolocation of any device connected to the Internet.

http://visualping.io/ – a service for monitoring sites and, first of all, the photographs and images available on them. Even if the photo only appears for a second, it will be in the subscriber's email. Has a plugin for Google Chrome.

http://spyonweb.com/ is a research tool that allows for in-depth analysis of any Internet resource.

http://bigvisor.ru/ – the service allows you to track advertising campaigns for certain segments of goods and services, or specific organizations.

http://www.itsec.pro/2013/09/microsoft-word.html – instructions from Artem Ageev on using Windows programs for competitive intelligence needs.

http://granoproject.org/ is an open source tool for researchers who track networks of connections between individuals and organizations in politics, economics, crime, etc. Allows you to connect, analyze and visualize information obtained from various sources, as well as show significant connections.

http://imgops.com/ – a service for extracting metadata from graphic files and working with them.

http://sergeybelove.ru/tools/one-button-scan/ – a small online scanner for checking security holes in websites and other resources.

http://isce-library.net/epi.aspx – service for searching primary sources using a fragment of text in English

https://www.rivaliq.com/ is an effective tool for conducting competitive intelligence in Western, primarily European and American markets for goods and services.

http://watchthatpage.com/ is a service that allows you to automatically collect new information from monitored Internet resources. The service is free.

http://falcon.io/ is a kind of Rapportive for the Web. It is not a replacement for Rapportive, but provides additional tools. In contrast, Rapportive provides a general profile of a person, as if glued together from data from social networks and mentions on the web. http://watchthatpage.com/ - a service that allows you to automatically collect new information from monitored resources on the Internet. The service is free.

https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/addon/update-scanner/ – add-on for Firefox. Monitors web page updates. Useful for websites that do not have news feeds (Atom or RSS).

http://agregator.pro/ – aggregator of news and media portals. Used by marketers, analysts, etc. to analyze news flows on certain topics.

http://price.apishops.com/ – automated web service for monitoring prices for selected product groups, specific online stores and other parameters.

http://www.la0.ru/ is a convenient and relevant service for analyzing links and backlinks to an Internet resource.

www.recordedfuture.com is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization, implemented as an online service built on cloud computing.

http://advse.ru/ is a service with the slogan “Find out everything about your competitors.” Allows you to obtain competitors' websites in accordance with search queries and analyze competitors' advertising campaigns in Google and Yandex.

http://spyonweb.com/ – the service allows you to identify sites with the same characteristics, including those using the same Google Analytics statistics service identifiers, IP addresses, etc.

http://www.connotate.com/solutions – a line of products for competitive intelligence, managing information flows and converting information into information assets. It includes both complex platforms and simple, cheap services that allow for effective monitoring along with information compression and obtaining only the necessary results.

http://www.clearci.com/ - competitive intelligence platform for businesses of various sizes from start-ups and small companies to Fortune 500 companies. Solved as saas.

http://startingpage.com/ is a Google add-on that allows you to search on Google without recording your IP address. Fully supports all Google search capabilities, including in Russian.

http://newspapermap.com/ is a unique service that is very useful for a competitive intelligence officer. Connects geolocation with an online media search engine. Those. you select the region you are interested in, or even a city, or language, see the place on the map and a list of online versions of newspapers and magazines, click on the appropriate button and read. Supports Russian language, very user-friendly interface.

http://infostream.com.ua/ is a very convenient news monitoring system “Infostream”, distinguished by a first-class selection and quite accessible to any wallet, from one of the classics of Internet search, D.V. Lande.

http://www.instapaper.com/ is a very simple and effective tool for saving the necessary web pages. Can be used on computers, iPhones, iPads, etc.

http://screen-scraper.com/ – allows you to automatically extract all information from web pages, download the vast majority of file formats, and automatically enter data into various forms. It saves downloaded files and pages in databases and performs many other extremely useful functions. Works on all major platforms, has fully functional free and very powerful professional versions.

http://www.mozenda.com/ - has several tariff plans and is accessible even to small businesses, a web service for multifunctional web monitoring and delivery of information necessary for the user from selected sites.

http://www.recipdonor.com/ - the service allows you to automatically monitor everything that happens on competitors' websites.

http://www.spyfu.com/ – and this is if your competitors are foreign.

www.webground.su is a service for monitoring the Runet created by Internet search professionals, which includes all major providers of information, news, etc., and is capable of individual monitoring settings to suit the user’s needs.

SEARCH ENGINES

https://www.idmarch.org/ is the best search engine for the world archive of pdf documents in terms of quality. Currently, more than 18 million pdf documents have been indexed, ranging from books to secret reports.

http://www.marketvisual.com/ is a unique search engine that allows you to search for owners and top management by full name, company name, position, or a combination thereof. The search results contain not only the objects you are looking for, but also their connections. Designed primarily for English-speaking countries.

http://worldc.am/ is a search engine for freely accessible photographs linked to geolocation.

https://app.echosec.net/ is a public search engine that describes itself as the most advanced analytical tool for law enforcement and security and intelligence professionals. Allows you to search for photos posted on various sites, social platforms and social networks in relation to specific geolocation coordinates. There are currently seven data sources connected. By the end of the year their number will be more than 450. Thanks to Dementy for the tip.

http://www.quandl.com/ is a search engine for seven million financial, economic and social databases.

http://bitzakaz.ru/ – search engine for tenders and government orders with additional paid functions

Website-Finder - makes it possible to find sites that Google does not index well. The only limitation is that it only searches 30 websites for each keyword. The program is easy to use.

http://www.dtsearch.com/ is a powerful search engine that allows you to process terabytes of text. Works on desktop, web and intranet. Supports both static and dynamic data. Allows you to search in all MS Office programs. The search is carried out using phrases, words, tags, indexes and much more. The only federated search engine available. It has both paid and free versions.

http://www.strategator.com/ – searches, filters and aggregates information about the company from tens of thousands of web sources. Searches in the USA, Great Britain, major EEC countries. It is highly relevant, user-friendly, and has free and paid options ($14 per month).

http://www.shodanhq.com/ is an unusual search engine. Immediately after his appearance, he received the nickname “Google for hackers.” It does not search for pages, but determines IP addresses, types of routers, computers, servers and workstations located at a particular address, traces chains of DNS servers and allows you to implement many other interesting functions for competitive intelligence.

http://search.usa.gov/ is a search engine for websites and open databases of all US government agencies. The databases contain a lot of practical, useful information, including for use in our country.

http://visual.ly/ – today visualization is increasingly used to present data. This is the first infographic search engine on the Web. Along with the search engine, the portal has powerful data visualization tools that do not require programming skills.

http://go.mail.ru/realtime – search for discussions of topics, events, objects, subjects in real or customizable time. The previously highly criticized search in Mail.ru works very effectively and provides interesting, relevant results.

Zanran is just launched, but already working great, the first and only data search engine that extracts data from PDF files, EXCEL tables, data on HTML pages.

http://www.ciradar.com/Competitive-Analysis.aspx is one of the world's best information retrieval systems for competitive intelligence on the deep web. Retrieves almost all types of files in all formats on the topic of interest. Implemented as a web service. The prices are more than reasonable.

http://public.ru/ – Effective search and professional analysis of information, media archive since 1990. The online media library offers a wide range of information services: from access to electronic archives of Russian-language media publications and ready-made thematic press reviews to individual monitoring and exclusive analytical research based on press materials.

Cluuz is a young search engine with ample opportunities for competitive intelligence, especially on the English-language Internet. Allows you not only to find, but also to visualize and establish connections between people, companies, domains, e-mails, addresses, etc.

www.wolframalpha.com – the search engine of tomorrow. In response to a search request, it provides statistical and factual information available on the request object, including visualized information.

www.ist-budget.ru – universal search in databases of government procurement, tenders, auctions, etc.

Greetings guys. Tell me how much time it takes you to search for files on your computer. I think a lot, and even more so if you run your own blog on the Internet or are just a photographer. In this case, a very large number of files are collected. There are several ways to quickly find the file you need. For example, like this or like this

It's good if you know for sure that they are there. What if you are looking for the file you need and know for sure that it is on the computer, where and in what folder? Well, sclerosis just comes to visit. And then the FileSearchy program will help us. See its capabilities.

It’s a cool program, I use it often and recommend it to you.

She looks like this. On the left side there is a search line where you must enter the name of the lost file. After that, click on the button located at the very bottom of the program window.

In less than five seconds, the program will scan all hard drives and return all files that have the word you entered in the search engine in their names. You see how the FileSearchy program works quickly, but if they started searching manually, they would definitely not fit into the time it took for the program to complete it.

So we search for all files that have a match to our request. And there can be a lot of files that contain the same word, and therefore we will still have to lose some of our time. In this case, the program provides us with an advanced search. That is, simplified.

Search files on your computer by type

If we need to find only pictures, then we are looking for pictures. If only folders, then we ask the program to show only the folders found under the name that we entered in the search engine. In general, we sort. Find all files and then specify the file type , by checking the box.

This way you will save even more time. FileSearchy can recognize file types such as images, audio, video, documents, programs and folders.

FileSearchy has other features as well. For example, we only need files from drive “D”. Under the search line, check the box next to the “In directory” item. We will search in a specific place, and not in the entire computer memory. Look at the picture to see how this is done.

By the way, the program allows us to select several places to search at once. Allow it on drive “E” and in one of the folders on any other drive.

You can also exclude from search some directories (drives or folders). This means that if you search the entire computer, then those directories that are excluded from the search simply will not be scanned and will not appear in the search result.

Please note that those folders and drives that are not scanned have an exclamation point before the drive letter or folder name.

So by clicking on the arrow in the search, we will know what will be scanned and what the program will exclude from the search.

Well, and some other features of this program, which, in principle, I very rarely use. Although in some cases they will be very useful.

Find files in document content

In the search parameters there is an item “In Contents”. This search mode is more related to searching text documents. Let's say you forgot how the document was signed. For example, we downloaded a book from the Internet whose title was in English or in transliteration. You don’t know how to write it correctly, but remember what words were found in it.

And two more filters that can be applied are searching by date and size. Everything is clear here.

The version I'm using.

And for those who do not want to install the program on their computer, there is a portable version of a similar program. I’ll say right away that it is not so attractive in terms of interface, but it has its own interesting features.

You can find out about it and download it from the official website http://www.voidtools.com

This is useful to know:


Every day the volume of information from the network, and therefore on users’ computers, increases. On the average user’s hard drives, the number of files can reach several hundred, and finding the one you need in the total mass is not at all easy. The standard Windows search engine does not always work quickly and has very limited functionality, so it makes sense to use third-party programs.

In this review, we will look at several programs that will help you find the necessary data on your computer.

This program is perhaps the most powerful tool for searching PC disks. It has many fine settings, filters and functions. The distribution also includes additional utilities for interacting with the file system.

One of the distinctive features of Search My Files is the ability to completely delete files by overwriting them with zeros or random data.

SearchMyFiles

Search My Files is often confused with the previous software due to its similar name. This program differs in that it is easier to use, but at the same time, it lacks some functions, for example, searching on network drives.

Everything

A simple search program with its own features. Everything can search for data not only on the local computer, but also on ETP and FTP servers. It stands out from other representatives of similar software in that it allows you to track changes in the computer’s file system.

Effective File Search

Another very easy to set up and use software. With a very tiny size, it has a sufficient number of functions, is able to export results to text and table files, and can be installed on a flash drive.

UltraSearch

UltraSearch can find not only files and folders, but also search for information in the contents of documents by key phrase or word. The main distinguishing feature of the program is the automatic initialization of connected media.

R.E.M.

REM has a friendlier interface than previous participants. The principle of the program is to create zones in which files are automatically indexed, which can significantly speed up the search process. Zones can be created not only on the local computer, but also on disks on the network.

Google Desktop Search

Developed by a world famous company, Google Desktop Search is a small local search engine. With its help, you can search for information both on your home PC and on the Internet. In addition to the main function, the program provides for the use of information blocks - gadgets for the desktop.

All of the programs in this list are great replacements for native Windows search. Choose for yourself: install simpler software, but with a smaller set of functions, or a whole search engine with the ability to process files. If you work with folders and drives on a local network, then REM and Everything are suitable for you, and if you plan to “carry the program with you,” then pay attention to Effective File Search or Search My Files.

A program for quickly searching for files in specified folders both by file name and by its content. What distinguishes Windows from the standard search function is its high speed and efficiency, as well as the ability to find files even inside archives!

Screenshot gallery

Working at a computer, one way or another, involves handling a variety of text data. Whether we are looking for information on the Internet, writing an annual report, or just reading a book, we come across text everywhere we go!

We usually know where all our work files are located because we open them almost every day. But sometimes there are situations when we remember that somewhere we had a document with the necessary information, but we forgot where it was and what it was called.

We have two options: we can either manually try to find the file we need by opening and checking all our working folders, or we can use the Windows feature to search for a word or phrase.

However, if we have a lot of folders and files, then manually finding anything is almost impossible, and the built-in search tool can only search inside ordinary text files (Windows 7, however, can already search in DOC).

In this case, only third-party software that has advanced search capabilities can help us. All programs of this kind can be divided into two categories: those that use the indexing mechanism, and those that do not.

Those applications that do not use indexing when scanning, in fact, check all files each time for the presence of the search string, that is, they automatically implement a mechanism similar to manual search.

The speed increase compared to a standard search tool is mainly due to better parallelization of requests to the file system, but still, it can take quite a lot of time.

The principle of indexing files on a local PC is essentially the same as on the Internet. The program pre-scans the specified drive or folder and creates a database of files with the ability to quickly detect their contents. Due to this, the search occurs in a matter of seconds!

The disadvantage of this kind of programs is their advantage - the need to index files, which takes quite a long time :(. Otherwise, in my opinion, this class of programs is better and more functional than its counterparts that work without an index, so I suggest you familiarize yourself with one one of the best free programs of this kind - DocFetcher.

Today there are quite a few programs for local indexing and searching of files, but not all of them have the same capabilities. In terms of breadth of functionality, DocFetcher can be compared with the popular paid indexing system Archivarius 3000.

Comparison with a paid analogue

From the comparison it is clear that the programs differ little from each other (except, perhaps, the interface). Both programs work with almost all file types, and both allow you to use complex queries containing search masks.

The only advantage of Archivist is that it uses a persistent database for indexing, which allows you to view the contents of currently inaccessible remote folders and removable media.

Although the fact that DocFetcher uses a dynamic database is not such a minus, since it automatically indexes added and deleted files, which allows you to always have the most up-to-date version of the list of all working files at hand.

Preparing to work with the program

An additional advantage of DocFetcher is the presence of a portable version, which is recommended for use by the developers themselves (although it is also available). The developers recommend using the portable version for two reasons:

  1. The portable version can run on all popular systems, since it is written in the platform-independent JAVA language and contains executable files of all currently popular operating systems (Windows, UNIX and Mac OS).
  2. If you are used to carrying all your work files with you on a flash drive or external hard drive, then the portable version can index files even on a removable device, which will allow you to find the files you need just as quickly as on a PC. Again, the flash drive can be connected to any computer with any operating system, and everywhere we will be able to quickly search!

I’ll add that the portable version works a little faster (I don’t know why) than the installation version, so I also recommend using it!

In the archive downloaded from our website, you will find the portable version of the program. To make it work, just unzip the folder "DocFetcher 1.1.9" to any location on your PC (except for the Program Files folder).

You will also need a set of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) libraries installed on your computer, version 1.6.0 or higher (currently version 7.40). Usually JAVA is already installed on all modern systems, but just in case, check ;)

When everything is ready, you can launch DocFetcher.

Program interface

After running the executable DocFetcher.exe we will see the working window of the program:

If your system is in Russian, then the program interface language will automatically be Russian, so you don’t need to change anything!

The interface itself consists of four sections that can be hidden/displayed using buttons with black arrows:

  1. In the upper left corner there is a search options section. Here you can set the minimum and maximum size of the searched file, as well as specify its extension (all extensions are active by default);
  2. In the upper right corner of the window there is a search bar with a results output field. Here, to the right of the search bar, you can see additional buttons that call up help, settings and hide the program window in the tray.
  3. The search area is located in the lower left corner. It is in this section that all indexed folders with our working files will be displayed.
  4. In the lower right corner there is a preview window of the selected file. By default, this window displays the readme of the program, but as soon as we select a file, its contents will immediately be displayed here, and the searched phrase or word will be highlighted in color!

Folder indexing mechanism

If you try to find something using DocFetcher right now, you will fail, because in order to search, the program must first index the folders with the files we need!

To do this, we need to call up the context menu of the search area and hover over the only active item “Create index from”:

For example, I will index my working folder with articles by selecting the “Folder” item. However, in addition to folders, DocFetcher can index archives, Outlook email storage files and, for some reason, the clipboard.

After selecting the indexing mode, we will be asked to specify the folder to scan, and then we will see the following window:

Here we can set indexing parameters such as:

  • special instructions for processing certain types of files;
  • exclusion of certain files from the index by extension or MIME type (regular expressions are supported);
  • other additional settings.

If you are an ordinary user, then you do not need to change anything here. If you are a developer, then I advise you to specify the files containing your code as text files in the “File extensions” section.

This is necessary so that DocFetcher searches for the necessary expressions inside the code (by default, PHP files, for example, are processed like HTML, that is, the search is carried out only by text visible in the browser!).

If you are satisfied with all the settings, click the “Run” button and wait for indexing to complete:

The program only takes a few seconds to scan small folders with a small number of files. However, if the folders are large and have a complex structure of attachments with archives and pictures, then indexing may take a while.

As you can see from the screenshot, DocFetcher processed my working folder weighing 3.6 Gigabytes, which, as the scanner claims, contained almost 46 thousand files (including in archives) for almost half an hour! Quite a long time, but worth it!

Yes! I do not recommend indexing system folders (and Drive C, in general), because this, firstly, will slow down the program, and, secondly, it can generally lead to a “blue screen of death” due to frequent changes of content...

And one more thing... The more files in the indexed folder, the more RAM the program will consume to support the index. My 46 thousand files, for example, in idle mode “devour” up to 200 megabytes of RAM and up to 20% of the processor! And in search mode, it happens that all resources are used (fortunately, the search only takes a couple of seconds).

Well, now you seem to know everything - let's get to the fun part.

Easy file search in DocFetcher

After closing the scanning window, we will return to the main window again, but now we will have an indexed folder in the search area:

By clicking on the plus sign to the left of the folder name, we will expand its structure and be able to see the directory tree. Moreover, along with regular folders, the tree also includes archives, the attachment structure of which we can also view!

By default, all folders in the indexed directory are marked for search. However, we can always narrow the search field by checking only the necessary directories or archives.

Let's leave the entire folder selected and try to set the first word to search. Let, for example, be the word "installer". Enter the word into the search bar and click the “Search” button:

The program thought for 3 seconds, and then produced a list of 180 (see the lower left corner for “Results”) files in which the searched word occurs in the same form that we entered.

All files are sorted by default by the “Hit” indicator, which expresses in percentage form the degree of relevance of each file to the entered query. In our example, the maximum match percentage - 22% - was assigned to a file in which the search word appears twice (and in the same paragraph).

If you select this file in the search list, its contents will be displayed in the preview window, and the first match found will be highlighted in blue (like a normal selection). Subsequent matches will be highlighted in yellow and you can quickly navigate to them using the up and down arrow buttons on the viewport toolbar.

On the same panel for regular text files there are two more buttons that allow you to turn off the highlighting of search results and activate/deactivate HTML viewing mode (if available for this file type).

And one last thing. Any file in the list of found ones can be opened by a regular double-click or using the context menu. The latter also contains items that allow you to open the parent folder of a file or copy the file itself to the clipboard.

Using search masks

Advanced (and sometimes not so advanced) users know that you can search in Internet search engines not only using simple queries, but also using a variety of special features that allow you to include/exclude certain words in/from search results, search for inexact matches, etc. .P.

DocFetcher, being essentially the same search engine, but local, can do this too :). However, unlike conventional search robots, by default it only looks for strict matches to the query. To get around this limitation, you need to use special characters «?» And «*» . Let me explain with an example with the word already mentioned above "installer":

Special character "?" replaces any one letter. That is, if we put it at the end of the searched word, then we can find files in which there are various forms of this word, in which only the last letter changes (see the screenshot above: “installer”, “installer”, etc.) . However, you should remember that with such a search, files with the main form of the search word will not be found!

For a more flexible search, use the special character “*”:

This symbol allows you to find results that are completely equivalent to the query, or that have different endings, which may not consist of one letter, as in the previous case (for example, files with the words “installer”, “installers”, “installers” and even “ installer").

Always use an asterisk when you want to specify a non-exact match for a query!

By the way, in the screenshot above we can see the activation of the HTML code processing function. In this mode, the preview window turns into a mini-browser with navigation buttons, a search bar and all the required attributes. You can switch to code viewing mode using the outermost button on the right.

In addition to using the special characters mentioned above, DocFetcher supports some other search functions:

  • Boolean operators "AND", "OR" and "NOT" (similar to "&&", "||" and "-") for searching that contains two keywords at the same time, one of the keywords, or excludes one of the words. For example: “cat && dog” - all documents in which the words “cat” and “dog” appear will be found, “cat OR dog” - documents where at least one of the words is found, “cat - dog” - documents where there is only the word "cat", without mention of the word "dog". You can combine multiple operators, for example, the query "(cat OR dog) AND mouse" will return all documents that contain the word "cat" or "dog" as well as the word "mouse".
  • Phrasal special characters. This includes quotation marks and the “+” sign. For example, a phrase placed in quotation marks will be searched in its unchanged form (the one in which you wrote it). This function is similar to the exact search function in regular search engines. The “+” sign indicates that the word marked by it has priority, while the remaining words of the query may not be present. For example, the request “+cat dog” will first give us all files that contain both keywords, and then those that only contain the word “cat”. If you add “+” to all query words, the result will be equivalent to using the “AND” operator.
  • Search for similar words. With DocFetcher we can search for files containing words similar to the keyword. To do this, use the special character “~” at the end of the keyword. For example, the query “cat~” can return the words “code”, “that”, “sweat”, etc. Additionally, we can specify the degree of similarity in the range from “0” to “1”. By default (if we haven't specified a value), this degree is "0.5" (equivalent to the query "cat ~0.5").
  • Search by file attributes. In practice, it is often necessary to find files not only (and not so much) by content, but also by certain attributes. For example, we want to find all letters from Vasya Pupkin. To do this, you can use the following request: “sender:“Vasya Pupkin””. Unfortunately, attribute search is only available for text files (attributes: title, filename, and author) and email files (attributes: subject, sender, and recipients).

There are also some other specific search functions, but since they are not particularly in demand, we will not consider them (if you want, you can read about them in the English manual for the program in the “Query Syntax” section).

Search area context menu

I thought for a long time whether it was worth focusing on the context menu, but in the end, to complete the picture, so to speak, I decided to stop after all :). If you remember, at the very beginning, only the first item was active here - “Create index from”. Now, after indexing the folder, all other options become available to us:

If we do not take into account obvious functions such as “Update index” or “Delete “dead” indexes”, then we will only be interested in the last item of the context menu - “List of documents”. By activating it, we will receive in the search results field not the result of any query, but a list of all files in the folder for which the document list display function was called. Sometimes such an opportunity will be useful and even convenient!

DocFetcher settings

You can get into the program’s few settings by clicking the second button to the right of the search line:

Here all parameters should be clear and without additional explanations. The only thing you should pay attention to is the "Advanced Settings" link in the lower left corner. Clicking it opens a text configuration file in which you can make some fine adjustments.

Alas, the comments to the settings (and they themselves) are in English, so I advise you to change anything only if you clearly understand what the selected parameter will affect!

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

  • almost instant search by file names and contents;
  • the ability to create complex queries;
  • sorting search results by relevance;
  • search in archives;
  • preview of file contents with query highlighting.
  • the need for preliminary indexing of files;
  • by default, a strict match to the request is searched, which is not always convenient;
  • high resource consumption when indexing a large number of files.

conclusions

DocFetcher is not the only program of its kind, but one of the most functional, even in comparison with paid software.

The only serious drawback, in my opinion, is the fact that the application is written in JAVA, which, despite all the statements of the developers, heavily loads the system. Of course, for modern multi-core PCs this is not a problem, but on older machines, “brakes” can sometimes be observed.

Otherwise, DocFetcher is an excellent search engine that in a few moments can find any important file based on just one word that it contained. The program will also be indispensable for developers, as it allows you to search for any complex code structures.

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.