Smart PC Searches

Steve Bass

Steve Bass writes the "Hassle-Free PC" column in PC World's print edition and is the author of PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer, available from O'Reilly. Sign up to have Steve Bass's Tips & Tweaks newsletter e-mailed to you each week. Comments or questions? Send Steve e-mail.

At last count, I have a little over 40 million files on my drive. This week--how I find the file that contains exactly what I'm looking for.

Search Me

You know me well enough to realize I'm exaggerating about the 40 million files. (Writing this newsletter's like talking to my wife. After 33 years--astonishing, ain't it--she anticipates my punch lines and knows when I'm about to lay one on her.)

The deal is, I do have tons of files going back to the late 80s, each filled with enough text to frighten Stephen King. You may not believe this, but I remember much of what I've written; finding it (the focus this week and the subject you thought I'd never get to) is the problem.

Search Tools

There are a handful of programs that search your hard drive by the contents of files. These programs first examine the files on your drive. They then use algorithms to store the key portions of each file's content as well as its location on your drive. That way when you ask for a file that contains, say, "python," the program doesn't dig through the drive. Instead, it pinpoints the file's location by looking at its index. And that makes for instant results. BTW, this type of program gives you a way to ignore specific files or folders, so you can ignore the temp and Internet cache folders.

There are also search tools that don't use an index. For instance, Agent Ransack is a good program I occasionally use to find a specific file. But I don't bother with it when I want to search for specific words within files. Get a copy of Agent Ransack from us.

Dig This: Toyota's commercials are a pleasure to watch, and "Toyota Bait" is quick and amusing. [2.5MB MPEG file]

Editorial Squawks

I'm not going to review desktop search tools here. Instead I'll direct you to Dennis O'Reilly's article, "Find Files Fast." The article's almost a year old; I'm not suggesting you rely on the reviews, because they're not current. Instead, use the links to get to the products and evaluate them on your own. But I know my editor's going to squawk and probably make squeaking noises if I don't mention a couple of products from Dennis's story.

I used DtSearch for a while. It's fast and its searches are thorough. But with my miniscule attention span, I wasn't wild about spending time figuring out the interface. (Oh, and you know damn well I'm going to get flack from the DtSearch flaks for that.)

I've also used X1 for the last few years. I got a beta copy when X1 reps appeared at my users group. I used it because I was hoping it'd act like its 1989 predecessor, the DOS-based Magellan (IMHO, it didn't), and because it was continually in beta and a freebie. But overall, I didn't like the interface, which I found sometimes confusing and ungainly. (Oh, dear, I see another e-mail coming my way.)

And the Winner is...

Copernic Desktop Search, a PC World Best Product of 2005. I've been using Copernic for a few weeks--and so far, I'm very impressed. Like DtSearch, X1, and others, Copernic finds files by content. The results pop on screen almost instantly because of the indexing I mentioned earlier.

Copernic's interface is intuitive and just plain easy to use. It looks into e-mail messages (including Eudora), Microsoft Word docs, PDFs, and other files. I can search on specific file types, say PDFs, or specific words or word combinations within files.

It's smart, too, because if I search for "poker" using the "Files" button, an unobtrusive window appears advising me of the word's occurrence in e-mail, pictures, and videos, three of several Copernic search categories. Grab the free version and I think you'll be in for a surprise.

One feature I didn't like is that Copernic adds itself to the taskbar at the bottom of my desktop and becomes a new toolbar--but it's easy to remove. Right-click any empty portion of the taskbar, highlight Toolbars, and click Copernic Desktop Search.

Dig This: With all the talk about Apple's IPod, it appears the company's come out with something significantly smaller. The IFlea is tiny and has loads of add-ons. [4.6MB WMV]