XP search function slow at best

PineRidge · Oct 29, 2004

Is there any software (reasonably priced) that will give me the ability to do a search with quicker results than XP yields? I do a lot of graphics and if I search for a particular file name like star.jpg, I might as well go get a cup of "joe" as XP is gonna take that long to find it. Windows 98 second edition was 4 times quicker in search mode, I know, I know XP doesn't "blue screen" like Windows 98 SE either.

Some trade off! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

dliston · Oct 29, 2004

I use a program called x-file from radsoft.net. It is actually a whole bunch of different programs and x-file is just one of them. The really great thing is that once you buy their stuff, you get updates for life - never have to buy again.

I hate it when a company pulls that "You need to buy an upgrade." thing.../forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Doug

Gatorboy · Oct 29, 2004

If you save your graphics files under a certain directory tree structure (i.e. c:\Graphics), you can start the search from there rather than searching the entire hard drive.

mwechtal · Oct 29, 2004

Pineridge,
Try this:
Right click on your hard drive in windows explorer.
Click on properties.
Look near the bottom of the window to be sure that
Allow Indexing Service..........
is selected.

I believe that it will take a while for your computer to index the drive, but then searches will be faster.

If you have Allow Indexing Service.... already selected, then you will have to find another searching program.

Mike

Inspector507 · Oct 29, 2004

Google now has a search funtion for your hard drive that I think is on their toolbar. Beware, it is also tracking at the same time.......

riptides · Oct 29, 2004

Try this one instead....
blinkx searcher

Sweet....

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

PineRidge · Oct 29, 2004

Interesting suggestions.... Mike I think I'm going to give your Blinkx a try as it looks interesting from what I have read about it so far.

Inspector I did read a story in our local paper about a week ago about Google's local hard drive search offering. The story praised the software for swift local hard drive searches over the slower XP option but also touched on the tracking issue.

Mwechtal thanks for the tip, but my hard drive is already indexed for XP search use and the performance is lousy at best.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif