Instant File Find Pro

Your computer easily gets overwhelmed with files and folders of various types and size specifications. A simple solution to find the ones of need is to perform a search operations, for which Windows puts a basic tool at your disposal. There are also more advanced alternatives, such as Instant File Find Pro, which helps you out with better time and more criteria.

As soon as you run the application it automatically starts building up the cache, which is a great advantage because it only takes a little time, making it possible to have results fetched almost instantly. What's more, you can save the cache to file so that it can easily be imported any other time and the same applies to search results.

In terms of visuals, everything is pretty well-organized, with polished menus and several categories that quickly display music, videos, documents or pictures. Sadly, there's no method to configure what formats to look up for each category, with results that might not completely live up to expectations.

This isn't the only way to perform a search operation, with several other methods that let you look up according to size specifications and date settings, as well as a handful of advanced criteria. These are accessed through tabs, with the list remaining intact even when switching to new methods.

You can arrange items by various attributes such as name, location, size, type and date. All of these are displayed next to each item, with additional options put at your disposal by the context menu. If you're disappointed by the lack of a favorites manager, remember that you can always save criteria with results to be directly displayed.

When not used, the application quietly sits in the system tray so it doesn't take up precious desktop space. The corresponding menu is a little shallow though, with the only options being to have the cache rebuilt and to bring up the main window, with no search field for quick lookup.

Bottom line is that Instant File Find Pro lives up to expectations and does as the name suggests. It quickly builds up the cache to retrieve results as soon as possible when you're ready to perform a search operation, while the clever category implementation gives you the possibility to save even more time if you're looking for a specific file type.

NOTE: There's also a Free Edition you can take for a spin.