Everything - Instant Windows File Search
Finding Files Quickly with Everything
Locating specific files and folders on your computer can often be a frustrating experience, particularly when time is of the essence. We will explore a remarkably efficient, free search utility developed by Voidtools, designed to locate…well, virtually anything on your system.
Introducing Everything: A Powerful Search Engine
Everything functions as a search engine specifically tailored for your Windows PC. It indexes both your local and external NTFS drives, enabling remarkably fast search capabilities and displaying every file and folder present on your system.
The application can be run directly from your hard drive or utilized as a portable version from a USB flash drive, making it ideal for use across multiple computers.
Upon initial startup, Everything rapidly indexes your files into a searchable database, achieving a rate of approximately one minute per million files.
During installation, carefully select the components you wish to install, such as adding the application to the context menu or configuring it to launch automatically at startup. Administrative privileges are also required to ensure low-level read access to all volumes.
Using the Search Functionality
Simply enter the name of the file you are seeking into the search box, and results will appear dynamically as you type.
Similar to other search tools, you can employ wildcards and easily sort results based on criteria such as Name, Size, or Date Modified. Clicking on a file in the results will open it with its default application, while folders will launch in Windows Explorer.
Advanced Search Features
Within the results list, you can quickly navigate to other matching files by clicking on the initial characters of the file name.
Furthermore, the application supports the use of boolean operators in your searches. The vertical bar or pipe symbol ("|") can represent "and", while the exclamation mark ("!") can be used to exclude terms from the search. For instance, you could search for both "document.doc" and "document.docx".
A Superior Search Solution
While the built-in search functionality in Windows 7 represents an improvement over earlier versions, it doesn't quite match the performance of Everything. This is, in my experience, the most effective Windows search utility available and is likely to remain so.
Although designed to work with NTFS drives, it was also capable of searching flash drives formatted with the FAT32 file system during testing.
Everything is compatible with Windows 2000 through Windows 7, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. This utility is a valuable asset and should be considered essential software for any computer user.
Download Everything and Language Packs. Read the Everything Wiki for additional tips and tricks.