I need a better search tool for Windows

[Cyber Akuma]

I loved the search tools that Windows 95 and 98 came with, they did everything I needed.

Windows 2000 and XP were a bit of a hassle to use, I had to jump through hoops to make them do what I want because they attempted to over-simplify them, but I could still make them work.

Vista and Windows 7 however............ ARGH!

They seem to be heavily based on the idea of indexed locations and mostly being used to find a photo or document.

Typically, when I search im looking for a specific folder (half the time a program folder), archive, or executable. Pretty much never in an indexed location either. I disabled indexing because I did not want it wasting resources indexing folders I never used, and indexing the entire system would just slow my extremely outdated desktop down to a crawl.

In fact, I can't even find the file search for Windows Vista and 7 anymore, it seems like you type the name of what you want to find in the search field of the start menu and pray that it doesn't auto-start a program with a similar name.

I don't need anything fancy or overly complicated, I don't even need indexing capability, I just want a preferably freeware search tool that was similar to the Windows 95/98 search tool.

 

[criccio]

Just add the folders you want to the indexer and remove the ones you don't... That or get a faster drive?

I have my entire drive indexed (vanilla 7200RPM WD Blue) and I don't notice a thing. That and I can find absolutely anything on either of my 2 drives simply by just hitting the Windows key and typing the first 3 letters of its name/extension.

I never understood why people think indexing slows things down....

 

[bigdogchris]

You must not know how to use the search tool because it finds everything, usually very quickly. When you type in a term and you don't see it you need to click advanced in the search box, then go to advanced search and choose "non-indexed" locations. Then it takes the typical slow ass searching to find it (because indexing sucks right?)

Oh, and on my system, search indexer and indexing is using 0% of my CPU so I'm sorry it's using more than that on yours.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Just add the folders you want to the indexer and remove the ones you don't... That or get a faster drive?.

I have no specific folder I ever need to search in, my only option would be to index the root of all my harddrives and all subfolders.

And its not so much HDD speed as system speed, some of my systems are fairly recent but others are very old, my main desktop is a mere Pentium 3 and can barely handle youtube video.

 

[criccio]

If your main system is truly a P3 and your trying to run windows 7 on it as your main OS, indexing is the least of your problems....

 

[Cyber Akuma]

If your main system is truly a P3 and your trying to run windows 7 on it as your main OS, indexing is the least of your problems....

No no, im running Windows 2000 on that..........., well, WAS, im backing up my data right now to switch to XP, but I do have Windows 7 on some of my other newer systems.