Saw this mentioned in a comment recently, I just downloaded, installed and used it to find a file while Windows Search was still saying 'Working on it...'. So I thought others might like to know.

Previously on HN a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41337268 and probably other times

Thank you, whoever you were!

Everything is amazing. Even better if you set a shortcut key (I use ctrl+shift+/) and it's just so fast. You can even query (I just recently learned this) like:

*.txt size:>1024kb

Best thing about windows and biggest thing I miss. Have never been able to find equivalent for Mac — stuff that comes close but really not quite the magic of Everything. Same w Total Commander. Sad!

Amazing utility that just works. Windows version of ‘locate’

IIRC it loads the FS index into memory and queries directly off of it. If a simple metadata search is enough for you I don’t think you can do better

WizTree uses a similar idea - load the file system indices and works almost instantly.

HOLY SHIT that is fast. Thank you!

I love this I use it all the time.

This is the first thing i install on windows for like 10 years. Then i set up Ctrl+alt+s to toggle the everything window.

I'm running the 1.5 Alpha for many of the reasons listed on its page: https://www.voidtools.com/everything-1.5a/ (especially Dark Mode and support for Properties/Tags/xattr/ADS/XMP)

e: also available in WinGet as `voidtools.Everything.Alpha` https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/tree/master/manifes...

This tool is legitimately one of the best utilities I've ever used. I've got my entire corporate branch using it.

It's a shame Microsoft can't figure their shit out and get a high quality native search figured out.

Literally the only good piece of software left on windows. Masterpiece

This tool has completely changed the way I work with files - I no longer need to remember where they are, just a part of the name. Coincidentally, this means my files are better organized, since I know I can always just jump straight there instead of having to think about the folder structure.

I use it so often that I put it in the search bar, so that I can open it with Win + 1.

* The tool is truly amazing. Both for simple usage, and the advanced queries that it accepts. Very powerful, like a command line tool.

* As another comment says, v1.5 alpha has many advantages. Despite the alpha label, I find it to be very stable.

* Several software integrations exist: https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6326, I mostly like being able to see folder sizes instantly in explorer. I used xplorer2 in the past, which has a plugin, but I went back to native explorer, which has a Windhawk mod, feels like what Microsoft should have done: https://windhawk.net/mods/explorer-details-better-file-sizes

This is one of the first things I install on a new Win OS install. Combined with good tagging in file names it makes finding things so fast. It is absurd Windows doesn't have this built in since it is a simple index that leverages NTFS file table.

I've been using this tool for a while. It is incredibly useful. Kudos to the developer(s).

The real question is: why is the default Windows search so terrible? Did Microsoft make it useless on purpose?

Love this program. .this plus filepilot makes windows almost usable

How does it handle files with long paths? Windows had limitations on that…

I used this for years

It is a HUGE memory hog so buyer beware

Do you think future devs on this tool can use a new fast method to find content within files?

I used this for a while. What I don't like is that it updates its database by creating an entirely new copy and then deleting/renaming. For me that meant a several-hundred-MB file was being unnecessarily rewritten on a regular basis. It's a rather excessive waste of resources and not a polite thing to do when a lot of people have SSDs now.

I uninstalled it for that reason.

This is most often used tool in my daily work.

I work on win11. I don't use native search because it sucks and is slow as tar drip experiment.

Onedrive/sharepoint files content search at least works at all but only in web version. Still slow as hell, unreliable, ui/ux is crap.

With Everything I search >500k real files/folders + >300k fake files in milliseconds.

Compliments to the chef