Finally found a good network search replacement for Windows 7

[Kaido]

During the transition from XP to 7 at work, the biggest user complaint has been the lack of a good network search tool. XP had Windows Classic Search (with the animated puppy) that people were generally pretty happy with, but Windows 7 basically dumped that functionality for reasons unknown. I tried a variety of aftermarket products (FileSearchEx, Locate32, Launchy, Win7 Library Tool, Everything Search, etc.) without much success until I found Ultra File Search:

http://www.ultrafilesearch.com/

Quick features:

* Local & network search (i.e. mapped drives)
* Search by files, folders, or both
* Search within certain file types with add-in filters (Office docs, Adobe PDF's)

There is a free Lite version for home use, and a slightly more powerful Standard version for business use ($25 per license, with bulk discounts available). It's actually loaded with more features than we need, but it's simple enough that users can just open it up and "search" without having to select a zillion options. Anyway, just throwing this out there to anyone else looking for something basic to replace the built-in Windows search functionality for standard Server 2003/2008-type of networks.

 

[John Connor]

For a non mapped drive Everything is what I use. Damn fast too! http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

 

[Kaido]

For a non mapped drive Everything is what I use. Dang fast too! http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

Yeah, I use Everything too for local searches. Lightning-fast results! Also, if you don't have complex network search requirements, Everything can connect to another computer via ETP (basically FTP that sends the Everything database from the second computer over the network, hence ETP), so you can do remote searches on a single computer that is capable of running Everything under Windows. It's an amazing solution, as long as you don't have more than one server to connect to, and if you don't need to search within files contents (ex. Word or PDF). I think it would be the bomb if Everything could ETP-connect to multiple computers, but I also had issues with permissions since it searches files locally instead of via the mapped drives, so that's another hurdle.

At any rate, I have been searching for a replacement for XP's Classic Search for Windows 7 for like 2 years now with no luck. So far UltraFileSearch is fitting the bill pretty well, so it's great to have a tool that actually works how the users want it to work. I'd prefer a multi-ETP configuration in Everything for speed, but you use what you can get

 

[ringtail]

For local search I've been using the free Agent Ransack 64-bit

Link

Agent Ransack is a free 'lite' version of FileLocator Pro. It's free for both personal and commercial use.

 

[pcunite]

I tried a variety of aftermarket products (FileSearchEx, Locate32, Launchy, Win7 Library Tool, Everything Search, etc.) without much success until I found Ultra File Search:

I'm happy you've found something that works for you. But I just downloaded FileSearchEx and did a search for *.txt. FileSearchEX found 202 items and Ultra found 131. So many of these new search tools are just not very accurate, horrible with Unicode, and error prove with native integration with the shell context menu.

 

[snowdude]

For local search I've been using the free Agent Ransack 64-bit

Agent Ransack also works well on networked drives (mapped or UNC paths).

 

[Kaido]

I'm happy you've found something that works for you. But I just downloaded FileSearchEx and did a search for *.txt. FileSearchEX found 202 items and Ultra found 131. So many of these new search tools are just not very accurate, horrible with Unicode, and error prove with native integration with the shell context menu.

That's interesting - I wonder if Ultra excludes certain Windows file directories?

 

[Kaido]

Agent Ransack also works well on networked drives (mapped or UNC paths).

That's good to know, how's the speed?