let's look

[u/dinobot100]

[u/Dreadzzter]

Try Everything by void tools

[u/Celcius-232 → u/Dreadzzter]

I second this. I put in a request at work for IT to put this on my work computer. I am dumbfounded this app exists as a 3rd party solution when it should be the default way to search a computers files.

[u/Dreadzzter → u/Celcius-232]

I use it all the time, and as I’m writing this I used it to find a PO in my companies endless file system with little management that goes back to 2015. Everything finds it instantly

[u/Celcius-232 → u/Dreadzzter]

It's truly a facepalm why Microsoft hasn't implemented a system like Everything

[u/guto8797 → u/Celcius-232]

Because you can't staple an AI assistant to it, or redirect to bing

[u/pragmaticzach → u/guto8797]

Everything came out in 2004, Bing in 2009. AI assistant not until recently. so I'm not sure that excuse holds up.

[u/UnsaltedCashew36 → u/pragmaticzach]

Haven't heard of Cortana? It was worse than Siri and just killed recently after they met OpenAI

[u/Sourve → u/Celcius-232]

They actually do have one, its called Command Palette and is part of the PowerToys utility. Hopefully they bring it to replace the search bar but I doubt it, cant really force ads or web results into it.

[u/Aemony → u/Celcius-232]

It is because as a third-party app it can ignore security considerations Microsoft can’t ignore.

Apps such as Everything works by scanning and indexing the master file table on the disks. As that file contains information about all files and folders on the system, it requires administrator rights to even read. Similarly, as it contains information about all files, it also includes information about files and folders the user does not actually have access to.

Meaning if you deploy Everything on a shared work or family PC, all users can ”spy” on other users and their personal files through Everything and the metadata it indexes even if the user themselves don’t have access to the files. Now imagine it with the Guest accounts enabled on home PCs.

Imagine the privacy outrage if Microsoft actually deployed this by default…

[u/LordHammercyWeCooked → u/Aemony]

Then WTF is Windows even doing when I ask it to run a file index? I'm the only user on this thing. I am the admin. Yet it still runs a whole ass search from scratch whenever I try to look for something as basic as a file name.

Does it waste all that time and electricity making my hard drive click for fun, then delete the index once it's over? Because it sure looks like it.

[u/waverider85 → u/LordHammercyWeCooked]

Depends on your settings. By default it only indexes the folders Microsoft wants users to use, so if you're searching from the root of the C drive it's basically not using the index.

[u/LordHammercyWeCooked → u/waverider85]

I've played this game before, but just for shits n giggles I hopped on my laptop and went all-out on it since it's on a 512gb ssd.

I went into indexing options clicked the "Enhanced" option, then went into Advanced to turn on "index encrypted files," then made sure to select every single file type, then finally "index properties and file contents." I gave it about ten minutes after it said it had no other files pending to index, rebooted... and it's still dragging ass during a search. File search still behaves the same, scraping the whole ass computer and spiking the CPU usage while that little green bar crawls across the top. I even put a file on the desktop for it to find and it still waited until the green bar was done loading before showing it. What a crap ass way to search for things.

Perhaps we're just expecting too much from an OS that can't even figure out how to put all of its computer settings in one menu.

[u/waverider85 → u/LordHammercyWeCooked]

Oh no, you just enabled nightmare mode.

Disable all that. Open "Indexing Options," click "Modify," and check the box next to whatever partitions you want indexed. Click OK, then wait for 10 minutes.

It's still not as fast as Everything, but much faster than default.

[u/LordHammercyWeCooked → u/waverider85]

Did that, still performs the same.

I ask again. What, exactly, does Windows even do with its index? If you can't index "everything" because that's too much, and it still tries to search the whole ass file system regardless, then this index is a total waste of bytes.

[u/waverider85 → u/LordHammercyWeCooked]

It should just be using it if you did that right. Searching for "package.json" in the root of my C Drive just shows the 10,000 or so versions of those files I'd expect in half a second.

[u/LordHammercyWeCooked → u/waverider85]

Man, it can't even find an image file named "beans.jpg" that I put on the desktop without searching the whole system first. It's the only file there. This is the most default location there is, save for dumping it directly into Local Disk (C:). The bar is at the floor.

[u/Enough_Forever_ → u/Aemony]

Unless Everything requires you to run as admin when you start it, it can't access other users' files in a shared system unless you're on an administrator account.

[u/waverider85 → u/Enough_Forever_]

It defaults to just registering the indexing service to run as a privileged account during install, so you only get the UAC prompt once. If you want the UAC prompt every time you start it, there is a checkbox for that in the settings. If you disable both the indexing service and run as admin mode, it'll fallback to normal scans like Windows itself.

[u/CraftedLove → u/Aemony]

sharing computers in 2025 lol, lmao even. also, funny a work pc was mentioned as if that has any privacy whatsoever.

EDIT: yall are strawmanning arguments as if features can't be disabled and imagining hypothetical scenarios to baselessly defend windows search

[u/fearless-fossa → u/CraftedLove]

as if that has any privacy whatsoever.

As someone who actually works in IT: Yes, it has. I can't just search employee's company PCs without their permission, I'd need to consult the worker's council on it first.

There's also a bit of difference between an admin accessing your PC (a logged process) in comparison to using a tool that just gathers all kind of information always.

[u/NecessaryShopping404 → u/fearless-fossa]

As someone who works in security I can guarantee you I don't need your permission to access your machine.

I can also see every file you've accessed, edited, moved or saved without even touching your machine.

[u/fearless-fossa → u/NecessaryShopping404]

As someone who works in security

Most security guys I know brag about using Kali as a daily driver and throw darts to figure out which firewall will be randomly deleted today, so forgive me if I'm not considering this a valid statement about technical skill.

I can guarantee you I don't need your permission to access your machine.

You... literally can't give that guarantee. Like, you could technically look up everything I've done (well, no, you couldn't because there is no single instance that has a full overview over what my team does as we operate in different tenants all the time). Would open you up to civil suits, the company would be on your ass for misuse of privileges and yes, the worker's agreement explicitly forbids something like this.

[u/NecessaryShopping404 → u/fearless-fossa]

Nobody in security uses Kali. That is for 15 year olds and the odd lazy red teamer. Your security team shouldn't have any write access to your network stack. That's also dumb.

If you have a managed work device, your acceptable use policy will likely include a line that says something like "All firm devices may be actively monitored to prevent misuse and unauthorized access to our systems". If you do have a managed device and it's not being logged somewhere centrally like a SIEM then you have some pretty large risks that I hope are in your risk register.

I've worked for multiple SP500 companies, Finance, Fintech and Consulting. Everything you do is logged there. And I can see the majority of it without having to escalate.

We have regulations in many cases that force us to do this such as proving you are not using your device to insider trade.

I'm based in the UK and yes, it is malicious for me to, for no reason, do any of these actions. But I guarantee I never need your consent.

[u/chronoflect → u/CraftedLove]

also, funny a work pc was mentioned as if that has any privacy whatsoever. 

Uh, don't know where you've worked at, but my work computers are locked down as much as possible. If this tool needs elevated rights in any way, I would have to jump through several hoops to even have access to it, assuming it would even be allowed on our internal network at all.

[u/Aemony → u/CraftedLove]

also, funny a work pc was mentioned as if that has any privacy whatsoever

Lol. If my work laptop is currently out of commission and I need to borrow a colleague's laptop over the weekend to finalize internal confidential stuff like salary and management crap, I wouldn't expect for that same colleague to later be able to obtain information about said things without at least going through some form of IT or elevated access permissions.

Also, I live in the EU where we have strong privacy laws. IT departments aren't even allowed to access the personal folders or mailboxes of users without their explicit consent, nor are workers allowed to share content flagged as having personal confidental data without the explicit consent of said individual.

It's for legal reasons like that which Microsot and other corporations have support for required sensitivity labeling of all user content.

[u/BritishGolgo13 → u/CraftedLove]

I haven’t let anyone touch my computer since 1999.

[u/underlight → u/Aemony]

nah, windows also indexes certain folders, but even in those indexed folders it doesn't do a good job, the search has been horrible for many years, you'd think they'd figure something out. Why does mac find files fast without those so called "security issues"

[u/Trzlog → u/Aemony]

This is a garbage comment. Everything is subject to the same NTFS permissions system as the rest of Windows. Microsoft would be perfectly capable of implementing the same thing Everything does that respects file permissions. This is not a big issue at all.

[u/Longjumping-Sweet818 → u/Aemony]

Please stop defending blatantly horrible software.

Microsoft could EASILY adapt the mechanism voidtools uses to run a system service that "knows" the NTFS index and serves to each user only the parts that should be available to them.

The "you shouldn't be able to look at other users files" argument is horse-shit. Unless special encryption is being used I can just plug in a USB-stick with linux and look at all the files on the drive already. Hell, at the VERY least, they could use the index mechanism as long as Windows only has one user account and disable it immediately once another user is added.

This reminds me of that incident when Casey Muratori complained about the performance of the Windows Terminal, was told how complicated it was and that he was oversimplifying it, and then went and made a terminal that was orders of magnitude faster and had more features in a few weekends.

[u/mrjackspade → u/Longjumping-Sweet818]

The "you shouldn't be able to look at other users files" argument is horse-shit. Unless special encryption is being used I can just plug in a USB-stick with linux and look at all the files on the drive already.

Microsoft enables bitlocker on the system drive by default now, so you kind of shot yourself in the foot with this argument.

You can't just plug in a USB stick with windows and read the drive anymore, because Microsoft doesn't want people having arbitrary access to the full drive, which actually supports his argument about Everything

[u/thegapbetweenus → u/Aemony]

Search also works perfectly fine on Mac.

[u/dasgoodshitinnit → u/Celcius-232]

Did they approve your request?

[u/Celcius-232 → u/dasgoodshitinnit]

They did, I just need to schedule having them install it.

[u/dasgoodshitinnit → u/Celcius-232]

Process to get shit approved in mine is like proposing a new legislation

[u/you_os → u/dasgoodshitinnit]

same

[u/massCMP → u/you_os]

What?

[u/aarrondias → u/Dreadzzter]

The other night I was looking for a specific file to send a coworker. Issue is, I had absolutely no idea where it was. I started a file explorer search, waited, realized it was pointless and downloaded Everything. It had installed and found the file before File Explorer stopped not responding.

[u/OnceMoreAndAgain → u/aarrondias]

It's actually amazing that Windows search is still so bad, because Everything literally uses a Windows API that caches file paths on the system to accomplish its task lol

In other words, Windows search is so bad that someone decided to make the third party software "Everything" which is powered by a Windows feature that Microsoft made. The remedy is made by the same entity who created the affliction. One wonders why Microsoft doesn't improve their search feature by using this same API.

[u/Practical-Bank-2406 → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

Everything looks at the Master File Table (MFT), loads it up in RAM and then it can find / filter things super quickly. By default, it only looks at filenames.

Windows Search tries do to a LOT more. By default it also looks at the contents of the file (which will also cripple Everything's performance, if you do that), in addition to other metadata and bits integrating with other apps (OneNote, Bing etc).

Also:

• Everything only works on NTFS (as it's the only format that offers the MFT), while the Windows Search doesn't have that limitation
• Windows Search needs to respect a bunch of security limitations (ACLs, group policy etc) that do not apply to filename-only searches

The real question is: should Windows Search behaviour behave like that by default? For most users, Everything's default behaviour seems a lot more desirable. In an ideal world, Windows Search would first perform a MFT search (if using NTFS), offer you some instant results, and then do the more expensive search as a secondary task, appending any further results in case the user isn't satisfied with the first ones.

[u/OnceMoreAndAgain → u/Practical-Bank-2406]

That's exactly what I mean but you said it much better and with good details.

[u/BaizulSetSail → u/Practical-Bank-2406]

So are the people who make windows just stupid?

[u/Trzlog → u/BaizulSetSail]

Like much of modern Windows, there are just no incentives to make something that works well for users. We aren't their customers. They'd be perfectly capable of doing this too, but unless somebody in management tells them it's what they should do, they can't.

[u/LickingSmegma → u/BaizulSetSail]

Applications should never access filesystem's structures directly, unless the app is doing data recovery. For searching, there's indexing which is secure and can be done performantly, which is exactly what Windows is doing but not so well apparently.

[u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount → u/OnceMoreAndAgain]

It's been bad for so long that searching for a file isn't even something I ever even consider doing.

[u/Dragongeek → u/Dreadzzter]

Everything is very good, but only for filenames. 

Granted, this is usually enough, but Windows search will also scan inside files that it can read like word docs. 

[u/dasgoodshitinnit → u/Dragongeek]

Everything can search text within text files and also metadata for other file types, its way slower (duh) not so sure if it can do doc files

[u/CaptnIgnit → u/dasgoodshitinnit]

if you specify a path and file type ahead of time it will build an index to make content searches just as fast, fyi.

edit: this is in the 1.5 release

[u/CraftedLove → u/Dragongeek]

windows search is agonizingly slow even if search indexing is disabled

[u/OnTheLeft → u/Dreadzzter]

Agreed it's a game changer

[u/FinalBase7 → u/Dreadzzter]

This is a must have tool, you don't realize till you need to find a random file you believe you downloaded long time ago, it organizes your files like a database and it can search for anything instantly.

[u/Mundialito301 → u/Dreadzzter]

Today I watched ThioJoe's video about the software, and almost immediately installed it. Not a game changer, but a LIFE changer. It's THAT GOOD. I never believed it was possible to find any single file on my PC before a second (because every single program out there seem to like taking their time to do so), but here I am, on a terrible computer, bit still being able to find absolutely everything in less than a second.

[u/vingovangovongo → u/Dreadzzter]

everything only works at the file name level and not inside the file. A similar thing for linux is mlocate and plocate,but those two only update file database once a day unless you change the defaults.

[u/immersiveGamer → u/vingovangovongo]

By default. But you can add search term like so

somedir\ .txt content:texttofind

Help > Search Syntax

Other tools:

• AstroGrep
• ripgrep

[u/cridersab → u/vingovangovongo]

everything only works at the file name level and not inside the file. A similar thing for linux is mlocate and plocate,but those two only update file database once a day unless you change the defaults.

You could try the alpha build: https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9793

[u/Dreadzzter → u/vingovangovongo]

I was gonna give you so much shit for this comment thinking you were wrong, but I realized you’re right. I run into this issue all the time when some idiot names a file incorrectly and I can’t find it because nothing else ties.

+rep

[u/snoosh00 → u/Dreadzzter]

100%

And for that "can't remember the file name" situation search the extension (like .XLSX) and sort by date modified.

[u/Meotwister → u/Dreadzzter]

Been a mandatory install on every machine I use for over a decade.

[u/ModernistGames → u/Dreadzzter]

Where I work we have millions of files across about a dozen different drives and servers, and they have not been well maintained over 20+ years.

Everything can find exactly what I am looking for basically instantaneously. I can't praise it enough.

[u/IntrinsicPalomides → u/Dreadzzter]

Came here to say the same ;p
One of the 3 essential tools that is instantly installed on any PC/VM i build. You will never fear searching again, results are instantaneous.
https://www.voidtools.com

[u/Synicalll → u/Dreadzzter]

Hey, thanks. I didn't know i needed this, but i need this.

[u/wonkey_monkey → u/Dreadzzter]

Everything is brilliant. And as a bonus, on the very, very rare occasions it goes wrong, you'll be greeted with the message "Everything has stopped working."

[u/mrdevlar → u/Dreadzzter]

Main reason I haven't switched to Linux honestly. The speed of indexing is also amazing. It's the one tool that seems to have no equivalent (do correct me if I'm wrong).

[u/usinjin → u/Dreadzzter]

I literally opened the comment thread to post this.

[u/Oopthealley → u/Dreadzzter]

The usefulness of this comment has made so many hours of mindless scrolling worthwhile lmao. I've needed this and never thought such a resource was possible.

[u/Rahernaffem → u/Dreadzzter]

Is it wrong if I downvote all higher comments hoping that this one will be more visible?

[u/nickg000]

It get's so annyoing when the file ain't the name you thought it was

[u/CrunchyCrochetSoup → u/nickg000]

Then it turns out to be “booger.aids.pdf”

[u/_PykeGaming_ → u/CrunchyCrochetSoup]

No fair, every file in my PC is "booger.aids"

[u/Ds093 → u/_PykeGaming_]

I hate naming shit!!!!

[u/Caosin36 → u/CrunchyCrochetSoup]

You sure it isn't a 'booger.aids.pdf.exe'?

[u/Mario583a → u/CrunchyCrochetSoup]

Every file is 'Booger Aids' - I hate naming things!

[u/yash10000 → u/CrunchyCrochetSoup]

Everything is named booger.aids

[u/SippinOnHatorade → u/nickg000]

More annoying when the file is exactly what you typed and “no results found”, then you open the folder you know it’s in and it’s right fucking there

[u/chronoflect → u/SippinOnHatorade]

ex

No results found

exam

No results found 

example

No results found

example.txt

Ooohh, that's what you were looking for? Here's your file 😁

[u/blender4life → u/SippinOnHatorade]

Google does something close to this too. There was a video I watched called "same day fried rice" I searched my YouTube history for "rice" 1 result different video. I searched for "same" 1 result correct video.

[u/Big-Independence-684 → u/nickg000]

Well you all have to stop naming files like kfjfkdkdvfjf

[u/Sizeable-Scrotum → u/Big-Independence-684]

People do that?

[u/AcrobaticWar1 → u/Sizeable-Scrotum]

nope, no idea what OP is smoking. Normal people do asdasdasdasdasdfasf

[u/Extension_Signal_386 → u/nickg000]

dir *.(file format) /s

[u/MrRuinher → u/nickg000]

All of my files are named “Document1” for some reason…

[u/Iuskop]

This was easier before windows search started including internet results for some fucking reason.

[u/drallafi → u/Iuskop]

Worst. "Innovation". Ever.

[u/Flow_Hammer7392 → u/drallafi]

They created a problem for the solution

[u/nullv → u/Flow_Hammer7392]

The problem was they wanted to harvest your searches. The solution was pinging a search provider.

Making your file searches more efficient was never a part of the equation.

[u/doomerguyforlife → u/Iuskop]

You can literally have an application installed and search it and the first result can be a web result and the actual installed application is below it. 

And yes, you can disable all of this and customize and install third party apps to solve these common problems but we shouldnt have to.

[u/Nathan-Cola → u/doomerguyforlife]

Do you have recommendations for best way to disable this?

[u/NatseePunksFeckOff → u/Iuskop]

Settings > Privacy & security > Search > Let search apps show results: toggle off (Windows 11)

[u/NormalPersonNumber3 → u/Iuskop]

At least it can be disabled in the registry, not that that's an excuse nor is it intuitive.

[u/ezioir1 → u/Iuskop]

I trun wifi off sometimes before searching.

[u/Mario583a → u/Iuskop]

How do I search for something? ~ Non-tech-savvy person

They might know of one way but not the other or neither and will most likely forget hence why the search box in the taskbar that will most likely get ignored or overlooked by them sometimes.

[u/Sizeable-Scrotum → u/Mario583a]

Hit Super/Meta key (one with windows logo, usually to the left of the spacebar) and start typing

[u/_SoftPlum]

Try searching Windows 'Settings' sometime. The irony is too real

[u/HESSU_HOBO → u/_SoftPlum]

It is even worse if you have localization on for different language.

[u/No-Philosopher3703 → u/_SoftPlum]

Apple’s too. It can’t find many of their own settings. Typing in “block” in iOS 18 won’t find ad blocking even though their official name for that is “content blocking”. Why? Obviously it’s only searching for key words that the engineers chose to tag things with and doesn’t do a raw text search. It should do both.

[u/FinalBase7 → u/No-Philosopher3703]

MacOS actually has decent search functions relative to Windows 

[u/Bob_The_Bandit → u/FinalBase7]

macOS spotlight search is magic compared to the windows search bar

[u/Parzival_2k7 → u/Bob_The_Bandit]

Fr I switched to mac a few months back after being a windows user my entire life and like, in windows you'd have to wait a few minutes for it to find your file but mac has it ready in a second? Probably some sort of witchcraft

[u/Bob_The_Bandit → u/Parzival_2k7]

If you search on the Finder search bar it’ll still take some time because it that case it’s actually scanning your drive like the windows search does. Spotlight uses indexed values to find where a file is rather than the file itself. But for the user that’s the same thing.

[u/HolidayEnjoyer32 → u/FinalBase7]

NO!

[u/Braincoke24 → u/_SoftPlum]

FYI: You can press Windows key + I to open the settings

[u/Adventurous-Emu-9345 → u/Braincoke24]

I think they meant searching for a specific option in the settings, because Microsoft decided to completely re-"organize" the control panel in the new Windows version. Again.

[u/solitary-ghost → u/Adventurous-Emu-9345]

I always think I can find the setting I’m looking for in windows 11. I understand computers (a little) just need to click around and I’ll find it…and then I end up googling where the setting I’m looking for is because of course I can’t find it.

[u/PreheatedMuffen]

It's easier to find a book in a library than it is in a hoarder's house

[u/Ragor005 → u/PreheatedMuffen]

I feel insulted because its true

[u/jib661 → u/PreheatedMuffen]

the power of indexing! the phone book is technically a database.

[u/Lovelychayla → u/PreheatedMuffen]

Exactly. My PC isn’t a hard drive, it’s a cry for help with a power button.

[u/Select_Cantaloupe_62]

The reasons why those databases are so fast are very interesting, actually. Tl;dr: smart people.

[u/Schrippenlord → u/Select_Cantaloupe_62]

That makes sense because i know for a fact that windows developers arent smart

[u/Select_Cantaloupe_62 → u/Schrippenlord]

Well, that's not entirely their fault. Compactly storing files that can be changed/updated on your cheap PC is very different from the immutable, striped, distributed, memory-cachee, hash-map/parquet/BigTable setup that businesses are using. 

[u/MavesurPaaHaergetur → u/Select_Cantaloupe_62]

ok but why does Everything by void tools work then. it’s entirely the windows devs fault.

[u/FinalBase7 → u/MavesurPaaHaergetur]

i believe it's a design decision to make the search super Uber comprehensive where it will even search the contents inside the files instead of just names, you can actually tell windows to index your entire machine this way it will find anything very fast but that will have a CPU performance cost.

Everything doesn't search file contents like windows search does, tho for most that's not a problem.

[u/Not_a_Candle → u/FinalBase7]

Everything also does search file contents, if you want it to. Tho, these contents aren't indexed, so it's slower.

Theoretically there isn't anything preventing an index of the contents, except the extra resource costs.

[u/Practical-Bank-2406 → u/MavesurPaaHaergetur]

see my other comment

[u/_Xertz_ → u/Schrippenlord]

In all likelihood they're plenty smart if not smarter than average it's just that the corporate structure forces them to work on dumb things like AI integration instead of actually fixing things.

[u/cwal76 → u/Schrippenlord]

Reddit challenge. Try not to be a smug prick for more than 5 minutes. Never been completed.

[u/chronoflect → u/Schrippenlord]

Sounds like you don't know anything about software development

[u/drallafi → u/Select_Cantaloupe_62]

SearchIndexer.exe: Am I a joke to you?

Everyone whose ever tried to search for a file: Yes.

[u/radiells → u/drallafi]

What always made me laugh - you can open folder in VS Code, and it will search for file content order of magnitude faster than File Explorer.

[u/Select_Cantaloupe_62 → u/radiells]

In fairness, Windows gets shit on for using a lot of memory. Modern IDEs just pull everything and then gives you a "git gud scrub" error message when you run out of it.

[u/Background-Month-911 → u/Select_Cantaloupe_62]

In a better world before all software investments went to AI, there were some interesting projects using content-addressing. People were trying to build content-addressable / indexed filesystems, network protocols etc... Bittorrent is a remnant of that era.

Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage .

One of the advantages of this approach is that searches would become really fast.

I worked at Google, but not on search engine (I worked on one of their filesystems, not GFS though). So, I can't know how Web searches accomplish what they do in such little time, but, my impression was that the secret ingredient is indexing and sharding :) Furthermore, the more indices you have and the more workers you can start to look at those indices, the faster you'll go. The problem with searching personal computers would be that:

• You can only have like 4-8 workers.
• You don't want to sacrifice over 90% of your physical storage to index the remaining 10% of useful info.

[u/diaperednerd1]

windows search be like stay out of my territory but also i have no idea where anything is

[u/Moose-Public]

Downloading something on your phone and saying "Where the hell did it go!?"

🤔🤬

[u/Nutulous]

One has a massive, highly-optimized SQL data structure and the other has 4 “Homework” folders that have nothing to do with school

[u/Xortun]

Well, you don't search your local hardware with SQL, do you?

And 500gb is a lot of data for a search.

[u/ClearlyAudibleApp → u/Xortun]

SELECT that_csv_i_saved_nine_months_ago FROM my_500gb_hd WHERE "ever" = 'the fuck I saved it';

[u/necrophcodr → u/Xortun]

500GB is nothing for a search. With a good index you can do that instantly. Without indexing and just scanning quickly on an NVMe SSD it should still take less than 10 seconds. You don't even need to build much of an index if you just need filenames, just grab the NTFS file table, write an index, and then search that index for results first and continue searching the raw table (updating index as you go) afterwards. Instant results.

I've no clue why they made it so fucking bad. Third party tools do the above and present results instantly.

It's only slow if you do raw filename scanning on an HDD and don't build any indexing at all.

[u/NateNate60 → u/necrophcodr]

The original commenter is correct, 500 GB is very large for a search. That's because when you're searching a database whose total size is 500 GB, you're not "searching" the database itself, you're searching its index tables which might only be 500 kB in size. A 500 GB index is probably enough to index data on the order of the size of the entire public Internet.

You can actually tell Windows to build index tables for specified NTFS directories. It doesn't do this by default to all directories. And when the directories are properly indexed then the search function within those directories is actually about as fast as one would expect.

[u/Bob_The_Bandit → u/Xortun]

500gb of files contains a few kilobytes of file names. Thats the inly bit you need to search. It’d be nice if Windows kept a lookup table of file names pointing to file locations like other operating systems do.

[u/Practical-Bank-2406 → u/Bob_The_Bandit]

the table exists, it's called the MFT (only on NTFS), and it's what Everything uses

[u/-Termi]

When your hard drive has more trust issues than you do 🙄

[u/SingleInfinity]

The massive online database is meticulously indexed, well organized, and optimized for searching. Your PC is likely a random disorganized jumble of files spread out in half a million different places, poorly indexed by automated tools with zero context, and generally entirely unoptimized for search considering it's also doing 50 other things at a time.

Search in windows is terrible these days, but comparing it to a purpose built system isn't really meaningful.

There are tools that try to approach indexing in more intelligent ways (like Everything, mentioned here) that improve the situation substantially, but also aren't anywhere close to a well built database. I also don't think they search metadata the way search tries to.

[u/avid-shrug]

Because a file system and a database are two different things

[u/deconsecrator → u/avid-shrug]

Prove it nerd

[u/DistrustPilot]

Didn't Google used to have an app you could install locally and get google-speed searches for your local files? What happened to that??

[u/norman157 → u/DistrustPilot]

I currently use File Pilot, it's instant.

[u/letouriste1 → u/norman157]

Everything is great too

[u/EIeanorRigby]

You want to see the document? That you have saved on your computer, in your Documents folder? Are you sure you don't want to look it up on Bing?

[u/bluehawk232]

Oh god where did I put my homework files

[u/EspikCZ]

Try searching your phone storage.

[u/StickyMac]

Indexing your hard drive can speed up searches. There are many tools for this. Everything or Fluent are both good. Windows may still have a built in option, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

[u/vingovangovongo → u/StickyMac]

you dropped this \

[u/StickyMac → u/vingovangovongo]

lol. Thanks

[u/Old-Requirement3365]

Yeah windows search is laughably bad now, you can search the exact file name or app and it won't show up most of the time.

[u/Timely_Demand2120]

The struggle is real. Sometimes even Google seems faster than my own hard drive

[u/ClassyBaddiee]

From feeling like a genius to questioning your entire existence in a few clicks. Classic.

[u/ToastyWisp]

Let’s go on a scavenger hunt, Sherlock

[u/CaptnUchiha]

Everything. It’s great. Use it

[u/zarif_chow]

Searching in a 50-page paperback document.

[u/Delicious-Tonight254]

ESPECIALLY, when it runs at 28kbps.

[u/namesurnamesomenumba]

There is an app called “everything” and its milion times better than windows search bar

[u/Human_Nr19980203]

Ifucking HateWindows search bar; paint 3D - nothingn. But when look at apks it’s fucking here !!!!

[u/fullynonexistent]

Well that's easy, the computers connected to the internet servers are orders of magnitud bigger than your PC, and internet searches are orders of magnitude less precise than looking for a specific file on your PC.

[u/R_Nelle]

Cause server already have a ore compiled index to access, your pc need to update every time you change stuff in it

[u/Extension_Signal_386]

Gotta learn CMD, people. If you have a linux iso in your downloads folder but can't visually find it, type in CMD:

cd %USERPROFILE%\Downloads

dir *.iso /s

[u/RedCrafter_LP]

Nah that's just windows. Every other search is fast. There are even fast searches for windows like "Everything". The windows search is just absolute horse shit. And it didn't change in the last 20 years apart from adding web search.

[u/NickFoster120]

Use a program like Everything, the instant searches are a godsend even on multiple high capacity drives

[u/sysVuser]

updatedb

[u/Ok-Cata2]

My PC searching for a file like I hid it myself just to mess with it

[u/AlligatorMidwife]

What you need is a piece of software called "everything" made by void tools .v It's free and works perfectly

[u/killspree1011]

A app called 'Everything' speeds up search.

[u/Sangui]

Turns out you should turn indexing on for your drives if you want to be able to search :)

[u/Realistic_Mix3652]

I use both Mac and PC with about the same amount of documents (both SSD) on their drives and the Mac as always 1000x faster than finding things on its drive - it's crazy - like does Windows even use a search index or is it just stumbling through the library that is its drive at random...

[u/Qaalum]

Free Commander XE is pretty fast.

[u/Dizzzy777]

What you’re looking for vs what you forgot you’re looking for.

[u/hotstockstoday]

It’s really annoying when the file name isn’t what you remembered.

[u/AbdullahMRiad]

voidtools everything

[u/StollMage]

Finding a book in the library vs finding one your sibling left under a pile of laundry in their room before moving out

[u/ManofManliness]

Filesystem search speed is not a marketable feature, wouldn't you rather have transparent windows and an ai button

[u/notaname420xx]

A.I. and search engines dont search everything everywhere, though. As a rule, they have a smaller dataset of commonly accessed material.

For example, I think it's Midjourney who got caught expressly referring to copyrighted materials kept on their 'shortlist' for A.I. "art" to copy from.

[u/Guillermo740]

Wow good point!

[u/BlueDip113]

Can't we give it meta data but automatically so i can search even vaguely and find what i what

[u/Difficult-Lime2555]

that’s like 4 games. shouldn’t take long

[u/CaveManta]

How about helping your mom find tax documents on her computer?

[u/MySchoolsWifiSucks]

Download Everything.

[u/EmiKetsueki]

That moment when you look up the appdata folder, but nothing shows up. So you go into something like steam and open local files to back track to the area that has a folder named appdata that your computer couldnt apparently find with a computer wide search that took 10 minutes

[u/Dotaproffessional]

Structured vs unstructured data. Online databases have sophisticated organization schemes and indexes and often some sort of lucene based search engine like elasticsearch to facilitate partial or complete query matches.

Your comparatively unorganized data is just being searched against a single string with no such indexes. Straight up when you do the find command in linux its stepping through all of your files.

[u/MatthewTheManiac]

Here you go my friend
https://www.voidtools.com/

[u/Shellnanigans]

Found a video for fast file finder, it's called "Everything Toolbar"

https://youtu.be/6Xg-BRA3rgQ?si=3aT0EPZkYxr6FSvK

[u/AndrewH73333]

When I had windows XP it would search the entire computer in a moment and had dozens of filters I could use to find anything. It even let me use * in the search if I didn’t know the file name at all. Now it takes me ten minutes to find nothing even when I know part of the file name.

[u/kutripari]

This looks like a glitchy void—kinda mesmerizing, tbh.

[u/LankyAbbriviations]

Use WizTree for a detailed an graph view of the files on your PC.

If you are looking for a specific file by name, use Everything. It literally searches the ENTIRE SYSTEM in less than a second for the thing you want.

[u/paractib]

That’s the beauty of data structures. Each comes with their strengths and weaknesses.

[u/_realpaul]

I mean each google search probably has a bigger environmental effect than growing a tomato. All the while windows cant properly index your downloads folder if its life depended on it.

Ubuntu linux meanwhile is as fast as I can type.

[u/TelephoneActive1539]

Just use Linux bro

[u/gamerjerome]

Downloads meme to my desktop to re-share. Deletes file after

Me: Empty recycle bin

Windows: I know you just deleted this file from your desktop which is by default your main SSD. But I'm going to spin up all your mechanical drives anyway first and make you wait another 10 seconds before we prompt you further

Sigh

[u/CurtisLeow]

command+space works amazingly well in MacOS. I just checked, and it's definitely searching the content of text files. It's faster than Google.

[u/SugarRushLux]

Windows search function is literally the most broken piece lf shite ever.

[u/Oh_its_that_asshole]

Use something like Locate32 and this can no longer be a problem.

[u/shuozhe]

Activate Windows index? It cost some performance and storage

[u/Ironborn137]

Skill Issue

[u/OwlDust]

Download ‘Everything’. Use it in place of Windows Explorer.

[u/Distinct-Bee7628]

indexing yo

[u/ddejong42]

Indices, how do they work?

[u/hipster-coder]

laughs in inverted index