Is there a search index-like feature for Windows?

Something that indexes your files so that you can search though them quickly later.

  • "Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web browser plugin that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback..." it has nothing to do with indexing/searching files – user3864 Aug 19 '09 at 10:22
  • This is a non-question, sorry to say it but I think this should be closed – Ivo Flipse Aug 19 '09 at 10:24

I like 'Everything'. http://www.voidtools.com/

Very quick, very low on resources!


You're referring to Windows Desktop Search. This is for XP and it's built into Windows Vista and 7

Another alternative is Google Desktop Search.


If you want something that is a lot faster and less resource heavy (though can't index file content[1]), then Locate32 is a great alternative, it is a GUI pseudo-port of the unix locate command (comes in 32 and 64bit versions, is actively developed and is very small and portable):


Windows Desktop Search, at least before version 4 in my testing was very poor performance-wise compared to Google Desktop Search. As I understand it, Microsoft have improved performance in the latest version.

[1] You can however in the advanced search options, find text within a set of files, but this doesn't use a pre-indexed database...


I really like regain for Windows. It's German, but it is really good. I like it, because it indices all files you want and you can develop own filters, etc.

One problem exist: The priority of the indexing process is setup to Normal so it disturbs you. I contacted the developer, but there's no reaction yet.


Cathy search utility.

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Searching cataloged local hard drive and/or offline filesystems (network shares, CD/DVDs) is almost instant. The memory footprint tiny and the exe itself is under 48K.

Main download: http://www.mtg.sk/rva/Cathy.zip . Because updating the indexes or "catalogs" is manual (which turns out to be a nice feature performance-/portability-/versioning-wise), there's a companion command-line version to script/schedule updating the index http://www.mtg.sk/rva/CathyCmd.zip




  • Indexes your computer in a matter of seconds
  • Presents you with dynamic results that keep changing as you type in your query.
  • Presents you with a full list of files that match your query (when the search button is clicked or 'Enter' is pressed) in as little as 0.01 seconds.
  • Lets you quickly navigate to any file or folder on your system using Super-Navigation.
  • Tiny hard-drive footprint and RAM usage (1.5MB).
  • Paths to be included and excluded can be explicitly specified.
  • Indexing can be scheduled and can also be run on demand.
  • Can be set to start with your system and can be launched from the tray icon later.

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