First, the good news. Most of the file types users will want to search inside of can be done very quickly and or natively with this new release. File types like .DOC, .DOCX, .ODT, and .ZIP. Naturally, all plain text types were already supported. On x64 systems, some of these binary files are searched via a new proxy executable named IFilter_Proxy.exe. So, for those of you manually installing, make sure you copy that to the same directory as FileSearchEX.exe. It is only used when needed and closes automatically when you shutdown FileSearchEX. When we migrate to the 64bit version of FileSearchEX, it won’t be needed anymore.

Now for the unpleasant news. We still don’t have support for looking inside PDF files. I know … a water dunking tank needs to be built so you can take out your frustrations on me. The PDF file is a beast of a specification, so it’s going to take us more time to search it fast and furious like you want. Also, for some users they will need to install the free Filter Pack 2.0 kit from Microsoft if they have some uncommon binary files they want to look in.

Lastly, a friendly reminder that if you’re downloading FileSearchEX from any other link than: mother approved; you’re asking for trouble. We are getting reports of nasty versions floating around the web. So, click safe okay? And one more lastly, if possible please leave us good feedback on various sites and forums as appropriate. The more popular FileSearchEX is the faster we can add the features you want.

It feels so good to get this version out to the public. The original vision for FileSearchEX is getting close to being realized. Even now, we have a search tool that is fun to use, does not break security, and allows the user to quickly use the product when they are in a hurry. The last thing you want is a confusing and verbose GUI when you desperately need to find a file … even over network shares.

As with last month’s release, there are hidden registry options advanced users may want to play with. The registry key Option_ThumbSize will allow you to set the size of the Thumbnail pretty much to your heart’s desire on Vista/7 systems. Standard sizes are 96, 128, and 160 with 96 (60 hex) being the default. If there is demand we’ll make this an option in the GUI. Until then, always check the AdvancedManualInstall.reg file (manual install) as we generally include hidden registry options there.

Note:
For you techies and those giving us bug feedback, we are aware that there is a slight visual anomaly if a hidden item is shown before an image thumbnail. If you experience this issue and find it bothersome, turn off viewing hidden items under the “Advanced Options” menu. Another area to improve on later is the slight slowdown with showing the thumbnail after several hundred thousand items have been loaded. Of course, both of these issues are rare.

This version brings the GUI in line with what the product is going to look like for awhile. It also prepares us for adding image previews (thumbnails) sometime later. Remember, FileSearchEX is a ground up native application and because off the shelf junk is not good enough, it takes time to add even the most basic of features.

The cool stuff this month is the iconic toolbar, view styles option, AutoSuggest on “Look in”, and persistence of “Advanced Options”. There is also a hidden registry option, Option_FullRowSelect that allows you to set highlighting the first column or the whole row. We’ll add a checkbox toggle to the GUI if there is demand.

I struggled with the idea of a toolbar, but I must say it is really growing on me. I like having “Browse …” up top instead of finding it buried in “Look in” for example. However, if you can’t handle it, you can permanently turn the toolbar feature off. But before you do, see if your mouse likes clicking on “search from selected” … mine sure did.

Thank-you to everyone who is trying out the product, buying it, and recommending it to others. Special thanks to those who leave good feedback around the web, it really helps get the word out.

Change log:
Changelog

Download 1.0.8:
FileSearchEX-Installer.exe

Since I’ve brought up the subject of speed, I’d like to mentioned our design goals regarding this hot topic. It is actually dependent upon something else. FileSearchEX’s first goal is to work inside very restrictive and locked down computing environments. This means non-administrative privileges at the very least. We want customers to know that they can be in control of their environment. FileSearchEX is not here to compromise proper security.

Thus we will probably never have access to the raw hard drive. Knowing this we put extra effort into the methods we use to query the disk. This is why FileSearchEX feels very fast after the disk has been cached by the operating system. Depending on your search terms and folder selection, it can feel as fast as native access. Everything in the software world is about tradeoffs and the ones we’ve made with FileSearchEX give you many additional benefits.

One cool new benefit is being able to specify only a UNC server path. Let’s say you want to query a remote computer and look at all its visible shares. You could do this share by share, or even specify multiple shares. Now, with version 1.0.7.2 you only need specify the server itself like so \\Server and FileSearchEX will automatically search every visible share. Currently, we don’t update the Look In box to show this but might add that as an option if desired.

For everyone holding out for content searching inside CAB, DOC, DOCX, ODT, ODS, PDF, RAR, XLS, XLSX, and ZIP you’ll need to wait a little bit more … perhaps into February of next year. The good news is that this release does access some content for these types depending on how the file was created. This might be good enough for some of you. But proper accessing of the plain text will take us more time. This is mostly because we want to give you raw access to these file types. This means you won’t need the original application that created the files to be installed, plus it is the fastest and most reliable way to do content searching.

Change log:
Changelog

Download 1.0.7:
FileSearchEX-Installer.exe

There is still a lot to do, so the 1.0.7 release is mostly about getting ready and setup for the next 12 months. That is about the amount of time it is going to take us to meet our internal TODO list. We’ll try to release once a month to celebrate each improvement. I know some of you were really hoping for a bigger release this time around, me too. But with thousands of downloads in the last few months and emails with all types of questions and suggestions, we felt like we needed to stop and listen to what was being said. This way we can properly build the product so many of you are wanting.

So, what does 1.0.7 offer? If you’ve been using the 1.6.6 BETA (or some of you with the private 1.6.8 build) you’ll not see huge changes. You can view the complete change list linked below (as compared to 1.0.6). But for those on BETA the things that might standout to you are:

Changes from BETA:
* FileSearchEX installer.
* Instruction manual that describes program behavior.
* Support for semi-colon (“;”) as a delimiter.
* A new “Look in” combo box that is consistent with the “Search for” box’s behavior.
* The search history order has changed direction and can also be deleted.
* Auto complete on combo boxes removed (but may come back as an option).
* The end of the Public free beta program and introduction of FileSearchEX’s standard business pricing.
* New program icon.
* A few minor fixes and GUI changes in a few places.

What the future holds:
Firstly, let me apologize for posting a TODO list last time. It was off the cuff and not official. Officially the next feature to be implemented for the 1.0.8 release (outside of any emergency bugs somebody finds) will be file content search for various file types such as: .doc, .docx, .pdf, etc. We would like to do this with speed and stability in mind and therefore not use IFilters if possible. Even this statement is not 100% official as we are driven by what people ask for the most.

In the meantime, enjoy the easiest to use file search tool for Windows 7 on the planet and let us know how we’re doing.

Change log:
Changelog

Download 1.0.7:
FileSearchEX-Installer.exe

This BETA offers the following changes from 1.0.6

* Added drop down support to the “Search for named” box which now shows previous search history.
* Added pipe (|) and (“) support to “Search for named” box.
* Added pipe (|) and (“) support to “Containing text” box.
* Added a new browse folder dialog that greatly improves ease of use.
* Added option to allow for opening all file types when doing a “Containing text” search.
* Changed sort behavior to always group “Folders” together.
* Changed sort behavior to always clear the ListView if any items are selected.
* Fix error when right clicking on a folder that was using Unicode characters.
* Fixed date columns to show dates according to regional settings.

TODO:
* Create a FileSearchEX installer.
* For each search box, provide a “Build Search Query” button. This will show a wizard that will build a search string using proper syntax.
* Improve file context search on large files.
* Honor delete when the key combination SHIFT + DELETE is used.
* Allow for renaming selected items.

Download BETA:
filesearchex.zip

Personally, I’m looking forward to “Send To” support as I have a shortcut to Notepad2 there and use this feature all the time. Also viewing Properties on more than one item was something I was really struggling to do without.

Another cool thing that should wind up in the final is the Browse dialog will be based on the Window XP/7 “File Open Dialog”. This means that you can type part of the folder you want to look in and have Explorer resolve the path, then you can browse from there … very helpful for UNC paths.

The sad news is that Windows 2000 won’t be supported in this release. Is that a problem with anyone? I have not used it in years but hate to see an OS die from the cold shoulder. XP SP3 is as far back as we are targeting at this time.

Download BETA:
filesearchex.zip

Thanks to all the emails and comments requesting features. Before we start to beatify the product with images and colors we want the functionality sound. We welcome all feedback, however, as it lets us know what to shoot for. Our goal is to keep the look pretty much to what it is now, but hideaway all the advanced settings so that new users (and users with simple needs who don’t care) don’t have this monstrosity to navigate through. Simple … clean … unobtrusive, that is what FileSearchEX is striving for.

During the v1.0.5 suggestion period at least one request came in for a font change to the “Search Results” ListView. Is this truly desirable? You can change the font size in Windows 7 per user login. In fact, mine is personally set to 120 DPI and the font is pretty big I think. Are people wanting fonts customizable for everything, like all text boxes and labels? We need several more requests before that gets considered.

Take care and happy searching.

Version 1.0.6
August 11, 2011
. Added support for pipe “|” delimited entries in the “Look In” box.
. Added option to search using keyword types “Desktop, My Computer, etc”.
. Added option to sort search results automatically.
. Added option to customize file extensions when file content searching.
. Fixed tab order on main form.