Searching Does Not Get Faster Than This
The Windows search engine has always been a resource-hungry app. It continually runs in the background using system resources
Everything
Everything is a fast and near-perfect search engine. It finds everything on your computer instantly. No waiting for searches or placing a drag on the system. The program is started once and gathers the data from every storage device. When you search it does not have to search the computer it only searches the list it created when it started. The following example was conducted on my computer to show you the difference.
I opened File Explorer and searched for Google in the search area. It took seven seconds for the search to finish and presented 52 files. Then I opened “Everything” and entered Google in the search area. In less than a second it presented the 842 files it found. File Explorer only searches for files on the drive you opened. Everything searches every drive.
After you search for a name or extension you can instantly sort the results by thirteen different criteria which makes searching much more powerful.
Real Power
Searching fast and efficiently is not the only power of Everything. Because of its speed, it is much easier to find files when you are not sure of the name, the type of file, or when it was created or saved. With Everything, you can use those criteria to help you locate lost files.
Assume you saved a Word document but forgot where you saved it and what you named it. You think it might be March of last year. To find it just enter docx, which is the file extension for Word files, in the search area. Use the column headers to sort the data by Date Modified or Date Created clicking on the header once will list them from the newest to the oldest, and twice will reverse the dates. Scroll down to the files listed for March 2021. Note: by default the files are listed alphabetically by name. but you may sort them by clicking on any column header.
Using Everything
First, you need to download Everything using this link. Select the download file that will work for your computer. Follow the steps by clicking on I Agree, Next, and finally Install.
Once Everthing is started it will take a while to build the list of files on your system. The time it takes depends on the number of storage devices and the number of files you have on your system. That is why it is best to have it open at system startup.
Everything’s Interface
Toolbar
Most of the toolbar settings can be left alone but a quick explanation for some might be helpful.
View – to determine how you want to view the files Thumbnails or details. You may use the “sort by” function to refine your search.
Search allows you to refine your search. The defaults are to search all files regardless of case, search for any instance of the word being used, and to search for everything. However, if you know you are a picture, selecting “picture” to filter out all other types will reduce the number of results making it much easier to find your file.
Tools are where you can define the drive you want to be included in your search. Just click on any drive listed and make sure “included in the database” is selected. Do this for each drive you want to be searched.
Help, pressing F1 while using this program will open the Help file listing everything in detail.
Column Headers
Each column has a Header Name.
Clicking on a column’s name will sort all the results in ascending or descending order based on the data in that column. This is a very quick process with the results usually changing instantly but if the number of objects listed exceeds 50,000 it will lengthen the time.
Summary
The true effectiveness of this program will be felt by users that have hundreds or thousands of photos, documents, or music files. Users that have hobbies that use the computer to store files can also accumulate a huge number of files.