5 ms·

Voidtools Everything is my go-to for this, if anyone was thinking "I want to know what naikrovek is using to find files by name..."

majkinetor 5y ago
For cli use es.exe If you install via chocolatey, it installs both tools and makes es available on the PATH (I maintain this package): cinst everything Then you can use it in CLI such as: es foo
eigenvalue 5y ago
Agreed, I use Everything at least 10 times a day. Not only are searches instantaneous, but it doesn't even need to use a lot of time/compute to build the index because its using the built-in NTFS index. Why Microsoft doesn't expose a similar search tool is beyond confusing to me.
- rasz 5y ago
  >I believe what you’re doing is describing something that might be considered an entire doctoral research project in _insert whatever_ as “extremely simple” somewhat combatively. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362 also https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1487228574608211969 https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1487228574608211969 "Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale" aka Nobody at Microsoft is able to do more than one thing at a time anymore.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  It's totally absurd to develop the foundation for such a massively fast and useful tool yet have horrendous search features in your graphical user shell. Searching is a human right (only half joking)
- listenallyall 5y ago
  I've made the same comment before -- Everything might be the best piece of Windows software ever written. And it still blows my mind that MS hasn't purchased it for $10 million and made it an official part of Windows.
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  I don't know, but Everything uses the NTFS index and there isn't always one (e.g. REFS). To do its work, Everything needs admin rights and scrapes every file, where Windows Explorer has to respect file and folder permissions to determine what you can and can't see. Windows' search will also try and show you files in offline files caches, OneDrive caches, etc. without showing the real path, Everything is happy to show you "copies" of things in the real paths even if they're not human readable. Windows' search integrates with Windows Server and is able to query a fileserver to use the server's index and show the results locally. Windows' search has plugins for filetype handlers such as Office and PDF to search file contents. Windows' search all to often seems to try and track most recently used things, Everything doesn't. Windows has hooks for displaying files which have been moved to archive storage in an enterprise (like it does for OneDrive cloud files) and showing them as if they were present, pulled from archive storage when accessed. The right people and incentives could surely make the search a lot better than it is now. 'Everything' is amazing.
J_cst 5y ago
Everything is just great.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  +1 for an optimistic vibe of your comment.
knight17 5y ago
I am also a frequent user of Everything. If you are on Windows definitely give it a go. It is similar to the tool in this post but much more feature-rich. https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ You can load it with the following bookmarks to explore and filter (e.g., see all 4K files in your system, or in a directory) your files in a nice way: https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4239 https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4239
- Sebguer 5y ago
  I've been using Everything for like a decade at this point and I'd never really experimented with anything beyond the laziest search, but these bookmarks are awesome! Thanks for sharing.
sixothree 5y ago
Everything mixed with AstroGrep is pretty much all you ever need for windows search.
- majkinetor 5y ago
  DnGrep is MUCH better.
  - sixothree 5y ago
    Thanks much!
  - ivanche 5y ago
    Wow! Thanks a million! This comment alone is worth all the time I've spent on HN this year :)
Barrin92 5y ago
+1 for Everything. Fsearch is a good alternative on Linux https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch
jokoon 5y ago
it doesn't work without NTFS indexing or a voidtool service
- artificialLimbs 5y ago
  How is it supposed to work without one or the other? On program load? Wouldn't that put us back to waiting for search?
  - jokoon 5y ago
    I think searching from scratch is even better than waiting for windows to search.
NicoJuicy 5y ago
I also use it in combination with everything toolbar https://github.com/stnkl/EverythingToolbar https://github.com/stnkl/EverythingToolbar
- adamscybot 5y ago
  Amazing! I always wanted Everything + deeper OS integration and this fits the bill.
artificialLimbs 5y ago
I put Everything on someone's computer any time they're hunting for a file in Windows and can't find it, which turns out to be quite a bit. Another killer feature is that it also indexes mapped drives.
animal531 5y ago
It's ridiculous how good it is compared to normal search, it's on my must install immediately list (along with other handy tools like 7zip etc).

majkinetor 5y ago

For cli use es.exe If you install via chocolatey, it installs both tools and makes es available on the PATH (I maintain this package): cinst everything Then you can use it in CLI such as: es foo

eigenvalue 5y ago

Agreed, I use Everything at least 10 times a day. Not only are searches instantaneous, but it doesn't even need to use a lot of time/compute to build the index because its using the built-in NTFS index. Why Microsoft doesn't expose a similar search tool is beyond confusing to me.

rasz 5y ago
>I believe what you’re doing is describing something that might be considered an entire doctoral research project in _insert whatever_ as “extremely simple” somewhat combatively. https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362 also https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1487228574608211969 https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1487228574608211969 "Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale" aka Nobody at Microsoft is able to do more than one thing at a time anymore.
agumonkey 5y ago
It's totally absurd to develop the foundation for such a massively fast and useful tool yet have horrendous search features in your graphical user shell. Searching is a human right (only half joking)
listenallyall 5y ago
I've made the same comment before -- Everything might be the best piece of Windows software ever written. And it still blows my mind that MS hasn't purchased it for $10 million and made it an official part of Windows.
jodrellblank 5y ago
I don't know, but Everything uses the NTFS index and there isn't always one (e.g. REFS). To do its work, Everything needs admin rights and scrapes every file, where Windows Explorer has to respect file and folder permissions to determine what you can and can't see. Windows' search will also try and show you files in offline files caches, OneDrive caches, etc. without showing the real path, Everything is happy to show you "copies" of things in the real paths even if they're not human readable. Windows' search integrates with Windows Server and is able to query a fileserver to use the server's index and show the results locally. Windows' search has plugins for filetype handlers such as Office and PDF to search file contents. Windows' search all to often seems to try and track most recently used things, Everything doesn't. Windows has hooks for displaying files which have been moved to archive storage in an enterprise (like it does for OneDrive cloud files) and showing them as if they were present, pulled from archive storage when accessed. The right people and incentives could surely make the search a lot better than it is now. 'Everything' is amazing.

J_cst 5y ago

Everything is just great.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
+1 for an optimistic vibe of your comment.

knight17 5y ago

I am also a frequent user of Everything. If you are on Windows definitely give it a go. It is similar to the tool in this post but much more feature-rich. https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ You can load it with the following bookmarks to explore and filter (e.g., see all 4K files in your system, or in a directory) your files in a nice way: https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4239 https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4239

Sebguer 5y ago
I've been using Everything for like a decade at this point and I'd never really experimented with anything beyond the laziest search, but these bookmarks are awesome! Thanks for sharing.

sixothree 5y ago

Everything mixed with AstroGrep is pretty much all you ever need for windows search.

majkinetor 5y ago
DnGrep is MUCH better.
- sixothree 5y ago
  Thanks much!
- ivanche 5y ago
  Wow! Thanks a million! This comment alone is worth all the time I've spent on HN this year :)

Barrin92 5y ago

+1 for Everything. Fsearch is a good alternative on Linux https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch

jokoon 5y ago

it doesn't work without NTFS indexing or a voidtool service

artificialLimbs 5y ago
How is it supposed to work without one or the other? On program load? Wouldn't that put us back to waiting for search?
- jokoon 5y ago
  I think searching from scratch is even better than waiting for windows to search.

NicoJuicy 5y ago

I also use it in combination with everything toolbar https://github.com/stnkl/EverythingToolbar https://github.com/stnkl/EverythingToolbar

adamscybot 5y ago
Amazing! I always wanted Everything + deeper OS integration and this fits the bill.

artificialLimbs 5y ago

I put Everything on someone's computer any time they're hunting for a file in Windows and can't find it, which turns out to be quite a bit. Another killer feature is that it also indexes mapped drives.

animal531 5y ago

It's ridiculous how good it is compared to normal search, it's on my must install immediately list (along with other handy tools like 7zip etc).