In another episode of "Windows indexes everything but never finds anything", searching for files and folders in Microsoft environments remains a huge challenge for most users. Waiting for an official solution is a waste of time, and with that in mind we come to Voidtools Everything.
When Yusuf Mehdi himself, executive vice president and CCMO (Consumer Chief Marketing Officer) at Microsoft, admits during the presentation of the new "Copilot PCs" that content search is "one of the most frustrating problems we face daily", I think he is saying everything we need to know about their main product. The real madness is that Microsoft plans to solve that detail by deepening the indexing of our computers, but we are lucky to have other tools, much more useful and less intrusive. For the specific case of files and folders, there is Voidtools Everything, a free and portable program.
How to search files in Windows with Voidtools Everything
All we have to do is load its executable with administrator privileges. In a matter of seconds, Everything will present a list with every item that exists on the computer, across all its drives. The Search menu lets us filter content by type (audio, video, images, folders, compressed files, documents and executables), and also enables an advanced search with much more specific parameters. Even a partial name is enough to locate something in Everything.
Obviously, the program has basic organization options. Personally, I think sorting the list by modification date is a very powerful action in Everything, and the most impressive thing is that it updates in real time. Every new file created will automatically appear at the top of the interface, without needing to refresh or press F5. Organization by size is not far behind, and helps us immediately identify which are the files that take up the most space on the drives.
Everything is free and portable, with editions in 32 and 64 bits. Its only request was the execution with elevated privileges I mentioned above, and if necessary, the site keeps copies of all previous versions. Link below!
Official site and downloads: Click here
