Desktop Search Applications

[DaCurryman]

So I'm constantly finding myself searching for e-mails or files on my desktop. I'm organized, so I will eventually find what I'm looking for, but sometimes I misplace things or I want results quicker, so I'm looking at some desktop search applications.

I'm currently looking at the following three:
Google Desktop 2
Copernic Desktop Search 2.0
Microsoft Windows Desktop Search

I've utilized the original Google Desktop and the previous version of Copernic, but that was quite some time ago, so I don't really remember what I liked/hated of each.

I'm wondering what people generally like/hate about these applications and which one you would recommend to me. Thanks in advance for any help.

~ Ketan aka DaCurryman

 

[LouPoir]

These are all resource hogs - IMHO

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: LouPoir
These are all resource hogs - IMHO

Google Desktop is not resource hog cuz I don't see any slow down

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman
So I'm constantly finding myself searching for e-mails or files on my desktop. I'm organized, so I will eventually find what I'm looking for, but sometimes I misplace things or I want results quicker, so I'm looking at some desktop search applications.

I'm currently looking at the following three:
Google Desktop 2
Copernic Desktop Search 2.0
Microsoft Windows Desktop Search

I've utilized the original Google Desktop and the previous version of Copernic, but that was quite some time ago, so I don't really remember what I liked/hated of each.

I'm wondering what people generally like/hate about these applications and which one you would recommend to me. Thanks in advance for any help.

~ Ketan aka DaCurryman

I use google Desktop cuz it is easy to use but I was not sure it will search for emails from outlook express.

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: LouPoir
These are all resource hogs - IMHO

Is there a different one you would recommend that is not a resource hog?

 

[drag]

Desktop searches are generally 'hogs'. They snort around your file system all day and harddrive I/O is the slowest part of your computer.

But when it comes down to it.. I'd much rather waste my computer's time then my own. With that in mind desktop search is pretty nice. Don't have a recommendation for Windows though.

 

[DaCurryman]

bump for more opinions...

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman
bump for more opinions...

bump it up... nobody uses seach applications?

 

[Trevelyan]

Doesnt' Vista have something like this built in?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Doesnt' Vista have something like this built in?

yes.

 

[50cent1228]

try yahoo desktop search

 

[MrChad]

I've tried both Google Desktop Search and Windows Desktop Search.

Google worked well, but I didn't like that the results were displayed in a web browser. The nice thing about standard Windows search is that all your regular Explorer context menu options are available.

Windows Desktop Search has its own result display UI that offers some (but not all) Explorer context options. The search had some quirks to it: it would hang on system shutdown, and the indexing seem to kick off when I didn't want it to. It would also not index my Firefox history/cache (apparently the data structures used for Firefox history are quite cryptic).

Either one is worth a shot, but I'm going to wait until Vista before exploring the desktop search world again.

 

[coolred]

I was wondering this myself. One of the last issues of maximum pc recommended windows desktop search, but didn't compare it to the others

 

[SViper]

I don't use desktop search applications. As a matter of fact, I don't have anything on my desktop since I switched to the Litestep shell.

 

[coolred]

And that is helpful in what way?

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: SViper
I don't use desktop search applications. As a matter of fact, I don't have anything on my desktop since I switched to the Litestep shell.

I use Litestep too, but I have tons of files on my HD. Litestep has no magic power to find files for you when you need them.

Google is cool, but the web thing sucks. I like being able to sort by size, date, name etc. If Google Desktop was an actual stand alone EXE that allowed me to search just like in Explorer, but mega fast I'd eat it up.

If you don't want to have your resources killed, and don't need instant search results. I run Powerdesk Pro, it's an Explorer replacement. And the search is a good 3x faster then Explorer. It might still take a minute to locate a file off my drives, but in Explorer the same search would take aq good 4 minutes. Also, as a far as everything else it does, Powerdesk is really nice.

 

[13Gigatons]

Yahoo desktop search which is X1: http://desktop.yahoo.com/

Also might want to look at AvaFind if you want something light weight and only search for file names and not content: http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/

 

[uhohs]

i use copernic. haven't run into any major issues with it.