QuickFind

The file search engine in Windows might not be really what you’re looking for, with tons of specialized alternatives based on different algorithms to index locations and retrieve results. For instance, QuickFind quietly sits in the tray area, and only comes up to help you quickly identify any file or folder of interest.

You need to make sure that Java Runtime Environment is installed on your computer before you’re able to benefit from all the application has to offer. With the main window up, you need to spend a little time to cache locations, otherwise the application doesn’t really know where to look for your files.

This is done in a dedicated tab, and creating a new cache location merely requires you to specify a name, and add one or more directories. It can take time to have all location scanned and indexed, but it doesn’t really last that long thanks to the built-in mechanism. New locations can also be cached from the list of results.

Initiating a search requires little effort. Needless to say that the mandatory requirement is the input string, which can be file name, or extension of interest. You have the possibility to only look in a specific cache, with results instantly displayed at the press of a button. The list only shows items by their name, path, and size.

Hitting the “escape” button on your keyboard makes the application minimize to the tray area, but there’s sadly no assigned hotkey to quickly bring it back up again. What’s more, you might need to rescan cached locations in case they undergo heavy changes. The result panel offers the context menu options to open the selected item, or jump to the source path.

All things considered, we can state that QuickFind is a suitable alternative to the default Windows search engine, but isn’t fitted with enough features to handle professional tasks. Locations need to be indexed before any results can be retrieved, and there’s no built-in filter option to help narrow down results.