Detective GrepX

The most convenient way to find a file on your PC is probably using the default search tool in Windows. Nevertheless, dedicated search tools, such as Detective GrepX, provide a set of features that are undoubtably useful, as you will see below.

Detective GrepX is a Store app, meaning there is no standard package to download and install. Instead, Microsoft Store allows you to deploy it on your PC and, in seconds, the main window will greet you.

The interface is organized so that you can easily locate all the application’s options and the search filters. The design is simple, perhaps a bit crowded here and there. One of the things that would probably enhance it is color-coded tabs and areas.

It is not wrong to say that Detective GrepX tries to bundle as many search criteria as possible into a single app. For instance, you can include and exclude certain paths, folders (and subfolders) and files from the search, filter the results by file extension, name, content type or file size.

The file stamp information is another available criterion. You can choose a particular time interval for the creation date, the modification date and the file’s age. You can even search for files that were created or modified on a particular day of the week. It is a bit of a mystery why such a criterion might be useful, but the fact is this application has it.

Detective GrepX can filter its results based on the content of a file. To be more specific, you can enter phrases that will be searched for within a file to find a match. The number of lines or columns in a file is also a criterion you can use.

The application can look for documents, images, music and videos separately and, for each of these categories, there are additional search criteria that are more particular. For instance, images can be filtered by the camera model and manufacturer, while music can be filtered by genre, artist or subtitle.

The variety of criteria that Detective GrepX provides turn it, strangely enough, both into a powerful and a weak application. On one hand, the more criteria you use, the likely it is to find what you are looking for with much precision. On the other hand, the plethora of options might be overwhelming, not to mention that some seem a bit pointless to have. As a plus, Detective GrepX can save your settings as a search profile to use at a later time and provides support for regular expressions.