I want to *search* my desktop, not Google it
August 21, 2011 1:21 PM Subscribe
Are there any desktop search applications which do not have limitations on the file contents indexed (because Google Desktop "[only] searches about the first 10,000 words" - otherwise I'd be all over it).
I'm aware of some other programs, like Copernic or X1, but it's difficult to tell from the documentation whether they have similar limitations. I have a lot of large files - mostly text/html/ebooks, ranging anywhere from 1000 to 250,000 words. And I want them fully indexed if it's at all possible. Is there an app that can do this?
I'm aware of some other programs, like Copernic or X1, but it's difficult to tell from the documentation whether they have similar limitations. I have a lot of large files - mostly text/html/ebooks, ranging anywhere from 1000 to 250,000 words. And I want them fully indexed if it's at all possible. Is there an app that can do this?
dtSearch? Might be overkill for your needs, but check it out.
posted by trip and a half at 6:20 PM on August 21, 2011
posted by trip and a half at 6:20 PM on August 21, 2011
Response by poster: Sorry I forgot to mention the OS. I'm on Windows 7.
There's got to be a better way than the inbuilt search on Windows 7. Plus, I just did a search for a term I knew to be in the last 10% of one of my longer files, and it was not in the search results. Granted, it was an ebook format - so I've just obtained the same thing in HTML and txt, and we'll see if Win7 can find any of them. So it might have limitations similar to Google.
While I might be willing to pay for an app, the best price I saw for DTsearch was over $150. That's definitely more than I'm willing to pay - I think I might top out at $40 or so. Though it certainly looked perfect - the documentation said a single file segment couldn't be more than 16Mb. None of mine are even close to that.
posted by timepiece at 6:47 PM on August 21, 2011
There's got to be a better way than the inbuilt search on Windows 7. Plus, I just did a search for a term I knew to be in the last 10% of one of my longer files, and it was not in the search results. Granted, it was an ebook format - so I've just obtained the same thing in HTML and txt, and we'll see if Win7 can find any of them. So it might have limitations similar to Google.
While I might be willing to pay for an app, the best price I saw for DTsearch was over $150. That's definitely more than I'm willing to pay - I think I might top out at $40 or so. Though it certainly looked perfect - the documentation said a single file segment couldn't be more than 16Mb. None of mine are even close to that.
posted by timepiece at 6:47 PM on August 21, 2011
I'd also like to find a way to increase the maximum file size / word count limit for indexed items in Windows Desktop Search. I've found it works well enough but for the Reader X .pdf iFilter issue, and this word count limit. Trawled the Googles and this WDS forum without success.
Surely it wouldn't be a hardcoded value...
posted by Tzarius at 4:25 AM on August 24, 2011
Surely it wouldn't be a hardcoded value...
posted by Tzarius at 4:25 AM on August 24, 2011
Response by poster: I tried out the free version of Copernic Desktop, and it found a term near the end of a 2.5 Mb plain text file. But despite me trying to add the filetypes I wanted searched, it isn't finding those files.
posted by timepiece at 6:36 PM on August 25, 2011
posted by timepiece at 6:36 PM on August 25, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sophist at 3:38 PM on August 21, 2011