Through yesterday’s article comments, I see that many readers suggested “Everything“, a free tool to search for files or folders on a Windows computer. I was curious to know what is so good about it that makes so many people mentioning it, so I downloaded Everything and gave it a test. The official website of Everything Search Engine (www.voidtools.com) stated that Everything is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows. After playing around with Everything for nearly a day, I find that it can do so much more than just searching for files and folders by file name.
First of all, Everything Search Engine is free and that gives everyone a chance to use it for as long as they want without paying a single cent (donation accepted). As a tech person I always try to go for portable software so that I can bring it along with me wherever I go on my USB flash drive and also using it on my computer without installing it. Everything has both setup installer version and also the portable version with a single executable file.
The most impressive feature that Everything Search Engine has is the ability to list ALL files and folders on the program’s window instantly without any lag. Try exporting the list displayed on Everything from File > Export and then open the text file with Notepad. You will notice that Notepad takes even longer to open compared to Everything Search Engine. The export feature is useful for users that wants to keep track of new files being created or copied to the computer, but do note that ONLY file and folder names are in the exported text file without any other information such as file size, date modified, etc.
Searching for any files or folders using keywords is also very very fast. You will notice that the results are being filtered and displayed in realtime when you start typing in the search edit box. The only way Everything Search Engine is able to work in real time is because of indexing. When Everything is running, it monitors for any addition or deletion and updates the database instantly. There is no need to keep Everything running all the time because when you launch Everything, the first thing it does is to index your hard drive which typically takes only a few seconds. The easiest way to search is to simply type what you want to find but the best is to learn the syntax so you will find what you want more accurately.
With Everything, you can also search for files that are taking up spaces on your hard drive. Simply click on the Size to sort the list according to file size. Sorting according to size and date modified can take several minutes.
Everything also comes with 2 server options, the HTTP and ETP/FTP. Both server options allow users to browse and search for files over the Internet or Network. The difference between HTTP and ETP/FTP for Everything Search Engine is:
HTTP: The searcher can browse or search for files using web browser
ETP/FTP: The searcher will need to use either Everything to connect to the server (via Tools > Connect to ETP Server…) or any FTP client such as FileZilla, CuteFTP.
The CPU usage will only be high during sorting and takes about 10-20MB of physical memory depending on how it is being used. From the Windows 7 Resource Monitor, I hardly notice Everything taking any resources at all even when the real time indexing is active. Command line is also supported but if you need to run it silently/quietly, you will have to use the Everything Command-Line Interface (es.exe) which can be downloaded from the download page. There hasn’t been any updates on Everything for 2 years but it works perfect on the latest Windows 7. Would be perfect if Everything has shell integration to search more easily and conveniently using shortcut keys such as CTRL+F or F3.
Hello, here is (probably) the best and most usefull file search engine:
wiibeez.com/files.htm
It use a unique multi-search system with different and independant file upload/download networks..
I came across a great software a while ago that serves the same purpose(or may be even more). It’s called “Locate32″. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Don’t use this, it lack drive selection facility, if you attach USB connected external Hard disks with several hundred GB, it scan without mercy leaving your PC hang for a whole day!!!
Use UltraSearch instead, you can select which Hard disk to scan and save you a lot of time, it function similarly and is portable.
thankx,,, I have been using this software along time ago and it’s great…
It has shell integration too, you can configure it from the general tab when you go to options. You can also configure it to run from a hotkey. I use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F to make sure it will not conlict with any windows shortcut. It would be awesome if you could find a way to re-route windows search hotkey key to run Everything!
Hi Ray,
This is very useful tool, however it only support NTFS, i also need something similar for FAT32, let me know if you have knowledge about that.
Thanks
Naresh
@Gregg interesting what you say about Locate32. I don’t find it does any background scans at all. You need to update the database once before you use it, if you want the very very latest updates (which is not usually the case – as its an old file that you cannot find), and that takes about 3 minutes for me, over my 1.5TB of data. After that its done and i can search anything I want to.
Could you expand by what you mean when you say background resources being used up? I am guessing you are referring to the scheduled updating of databases, but I have that disabled other than when I manually initiate it.
To me those few minutes is well worth the search inside documents feature.
I guess a lot depends on how you use the search function and what you use it for.
I use it to find old files that I have forgotten about, but I know contains text like “the brown cow jumped over the moon” or some such…whereas if you only use search to find the very latest files…then I can see what you mean :)
Hi Raymond, I use Search Everything since several years.
Trips:
To install the service run Everything.exe with the -install_service command line option:
Everything.exe -install_service
To uninstall the service run Everything.exe with -uninstall_service
Everything.exe -uninstall_service
Now you can use S.Everything without a user logged :)
Have been using it for 2 years..pretty good..Never made me disappointed..I’d prefer this application too
Thank you Raymond – ueful advice.
hey Rey,its good to read ur arrticles i’ve learnet a lot frm u but jere i like to suggest u a “Ultra Search” a good software to use for searching the local computer plz do check and made us know about the software
the better is remember where you do let your things
@Joan43: I can find those without any issues fanboy. Your product is already mentioned here, so be satisfied with that.
@Conrad.TDI: I couldn’t have said it better myself.
hi ray….based on the comments in sounds good and some had their own application proposals almost the same as everything search engine. as of now, im using google desktop. i’ll try this application too.
I can’t bring up GahooYoogle on my IE8. All I get is a blank page.
The “Everything” search engine uses the NTFS disk system’s tables… its own method of keeping track of files. Once Everything initially reads those tables, and builds its database from them (which takes, literally, only seconds, even for very full multiple hard drives), then it’s ready to go.
As a file’s name, size, location, etc., changes, Everything’s database is also updated. Instantly.
There is, then, no background scanning. One of Everything’s most salient features — the reason why it’s so superior to ANY other file/folder search tool — is because it’s so resource economical. The “Everything” search tool completely eliminates the need for ALL other file/folder search tools. And I mean ALL of them.
Even Locate32, mentioned here and in the previous article by so many, does background searching/indexing, and so, therefore, uses infinitely more resources (and is slower) than the “Everything” search engine. And please bear in mind that I quite like Locate32, generally speaking.
However — and I mentioned this in comment to yesterday’s article — Everything does not search for text within files; and I’ve communicated with Everything’s author who said that if he added that feature to Everything, it would be no faster than something like Agent Ransack or File Locator Pro.
And the reason is because in order to find text within files, the search tool must actually find, open, scan/read, and then close every file it searches. There is a finite limit to how fast any software can do that.
Remember that when “Everything” builds its database, and keeps it up to date, it’s just mirroring the NTFS system’s own internal tables. So “Everything” is doing no whole-disk scanning. That’s why it’s so fast.
But if it also searched for text in files, then all bets would be off, and “Everything” would be no faster — at least during searches for text within files — than any other search tool which can search for text within files.
What makes both Agent Ransack (and its commercial big brother File Locator Pro) so remarkable is that its(their) author has made his search tools just about as fast at the task of searching for text strings within files as anything out there. However, he does not incorporate the “Everything” method for just plain file search; and both his text-within-a-file searches, and his just plain file searches, both scan the drive, file-by-file. Granted, his utilities do it about as fast as any — faster than most, in fact — but it’s still file-by-file.
That’s why, as I meant to convey (but probably should have been more direct about it) in my posting yesterday that in order to have the absolutely best combination of file tools on one’s machine, one needs to have BOTH the “Everything” search engine (strictly for file and folder searches), and also the “Agent Ransack” (if you want the freeware version), or the “File Locator Pro” (if you want the commercial version) utilities on one’s machine. One needs BOTH of them: One to search just for files/folders, and the other to search for text within files.
If one uses the “Everything” and “Agent Ransack” (or “File Locator Pro”) combination, one has all the file searching capability that one needs.
Locate32 is an absolutely EXCELLENT competitor. If all that were available out there were Locate32 and pretty much anything else (other than the killer “Everything” and “Agent Ransack” combination), then I’d choose Locate32 in a heartbeat. It’s better than Windows’s built-in search, or Google Desktop Search, or Copernic, etc. Locate32 is quite remarkable…
…but not better or faster than the killer “Everything” and “Agent Ransack” combination, wherein one uses “Everything” for file/folder searches, and “Agent Ransack” for searching for text within files. And one of the salient reasons why is because unlike as happens with Locate32, or Windows’s built-in search, or Copernic, or Google’s Desktop search, neither “Everything” nor “Agent Ransack” are sitting in the background, scanning and indexing whenever the system is either idle or experiencing low usage.
I’m telling you (who are reading this), trust me on this: The “Everything” and “Agent Ransack” combination has no rival… er… well… except for using the commercial “File Locator Pro” instead of “Agent Ransack.”
But there are other tools out there which are almost (but, seriously, not quite) as good as “Agent Ransack.”
NirSoft makes a thing called “SearchMyFiles” that’s actually quite credible. But it, too, scans the drive for files, folders, during the search, just like “Agent Ransack.” Still, it’s a nice little tool…
…and it especially appeals to people experienced with older versions of Windows because its interface is so much like the way Windows’s native search used to be back in NT (actually, Win2K) and older versions.
Locate32, along with “Agent Ransack,” also has that sort of older Windows native search interface, and so appeals to old-timers like me.
Other credible free ones include “File Seek” (and also “File Seeker”), XSearch, Ultra File Search, Insight Desktop Search, Find Any File, and others… SEVERAL others, in fact.
If one insists on using the kind of search tool that builds a database from its own scans, and more or less constantly scans and indexes (like Windows native search does, or like Google Desktop Search does, or like Copernic does), then I have to recommend Locate32. The average non-technical end-user might be a tiny bit confused by getting it installed and working properly, but it’s a fine, fine program of its type. Probably best-of-breed, all things considered.
But, trust me, all things considered, nothing — and I mean NOTHING — can ultimately beat the little, killer, freeware combination of “Everything” and “Agent Ransack” (or, if one’s willing to pay for a commercial product, then “File Locator Pro” instead of “Agent Ransack”).
And, no, by the way, I have NOTHING to do with any of these products (in other words, I’m not their author, and I don’t work for their authors). I’m just a tech consultant in his 50s who’s been doing this kind of work for pushing 35 years (and who bothers to keep-up with his craft as if he were a teenager, despite his age), and so who kinda’ knows what he’s talking about.
Hope that helps!
___________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
taskmgr + Everything + unlocker = trojan killer.
@playboy – You can get a copy of latest Everthing (alpha)
here:
voidtools.com/Everything-1.2.1.451a.zip
or here:
ftp://ftp.fileviewer.com/Everything-1.2.1.451a.zip
I’m looking for a freeware dup finder that doesn’t depend on file names or extensions.
I almost positive that I’ve seen one before, but I can’t recall what it was. Maybe someone here knows of it or of a similar/better program.
I’m new to your blog. I love the way you write articles and select topics to write. Even better thing is how you are monetizing this site ..
Hats Off and Keep Going..
@Mario: No unfortunately I do not know “Everything” :P I am still learning every day and there’s no end to it when the subject is about computers.
Actually, the reason it’s so fast is that it isn’t scanning whole disks, just reading the Master File Table of the NTFS volume. So, you get great speed but nothing inside a .zip, for example. Honestly, I’m surprised other search designers don’t use this method as a “fast but less accurate” mode. I use this program constantly!
Check this great wiki for customizations:
support.voidtools.com/everything/Main_Page
Try 7sDoc1.3.5
7s.backupforall.com/ for text inside of .txt .doc etc files.
locate32 is real good
also need Everything
those 3 I use often.
hi Raymond, I think it is hard to believe that you did not know about Everything. I think it is so fast because it uses the FAT and does not creates its own database. Actually, when idle it uses 0% of my computers resources, and I only saw it using any resources on start-up. For my needs it is the best, but will give a look at Agent R. too.
thanks, worth having in my keep :)
Hi Ray
You say “Would be perfect if Everything has shell integration to search more easily”. Am running Everything portable and it has right-click context menu integration giving you the option to “Search Everything…” if that’s what you mean. Not sure if this option is available in all versions of the program. The version I am using is “Everything-1.2.1.451a” which is a test build that was available from the Forum page of Everything’s site under a section entitled ‘New Builds’. Not sure why but the Forum is unavailable at present.
search is very fast, but try Locate32 (64 bit). You’ll be surprised about its possibilitys !
locate32.net/content/view/149/52/
private comment to raymond: would be great if you actually addressed my previous comment instead of just blindly approving the comment.
You can define shortcut keys for Everything this way:
Tools -> Options-> General ->New Window Hotkey Modifier + New Window Hotkey Key
Very nice, we use everything to find everything…
@Joan43: Agent Ransack is good and it has some features that Everything doesn’t and vice versa. Depending on the criteria of the search that you normally perform, either one should suit.
yeah, everything is a great prog.
but i have deactivated the continous background indexing, because i hate it, when my harddrive goes “zip zip zip” all the time (im confident with the opinion that this will sometime kill my hdd ^^). (its a option in the options menu, i think).
so when i start everything to search for a file, it takes around ~ 20 for indexing my both hdds and files and afterwards displays instantly the files which match my search pattern. thats ok for me because i rarely have to search for one of my files but when i have to, i got the time to wait for completing the indexing :D
why did you not include the fact that it does not have the ability to search inside files, where the program in your previous review could? do you think that this is not important?
Everything is good
avafind is better
‘Agent Ransack’ is, by far, better than ‘Everything’.
Try to locate a .zip and Hidden file…
that’s better raymond, tnx
Very interesting, I’m going to give it a try.
Thanks for sharing, Ray!
Currently using locate32. It’s free as well. Will try everything as well..
Sounds like a great app. I currently use Google desktop which works fine for me. They sound quite similar.