Software for search files in windows like old windows XP / 2000

Question

New Windows search file interface since Windows Vista to actual 10 is horrible in my opinion.

Is there any software that is open source and free available for windows x64 that could allow you to find files in all drives just based on their names or other options?

Old Windows XP search files interface was pretty straightforward but in MS probably the feel the need of making things ridiculously complex for no reasons at all.

Bonus: Even if is better a program with a GUI also a command line tool like the find / -name "something" of Linux could work.

PS: Totally not interested in the index function because most of the time I search in conditions where I could not take advantage of the indexing.

PPS: Totally not interested into file content, I would like to search based on minor basic things "file name" - preg support could be nice also, file date.

Answer 1

I'd suggest Search Everything. IMHO it is the best windows search utility around, and it's free. It's a 'big things come in small package' program. I haven't tried Windows 10 yet but this site said its compatible. I haven't tried the other programs though.

I've also recently stumbled upon SwiftSearch. I might give it a go later on...

Answer 2

For a command line tool I would suggest installing Python 2.7, (3 might work but I am not 100% sure as I have not tried it), using the default settings but ensuring "Add to path" is ticked and then opening a command prompt and typing:

pip install grin grind

This will download & install the python grin & grind tools.

Grin is a search tool similar to grep for searching inside files while grind is a file find tool with the following options:

positional arguments:
  glob                  the glob pattern to match; you may need to quote this
                        to prevent the shell from trying to expand it
                        [default='*']

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         show program's version number and exit
  -s, --no-skip-hidden-files
                        do not skip .hidden files
  --skip-hidden-files   do skip .hidden files
  -b, --no-skip-backup-files
                        do not skip backup~ files [deprecated; edit --skip-
                        exts]
  --skip-backup-files   do skip backup~ files [default] [deprecated; edit
                        --skip-exts]
  -S, --no-skip-hidden-dirs
                        do not skip .hidden directories
  --skip-hidden-dirs    do skip .hidden directories
  -d SKIP_DIRS, --skip-dirs SKIP_DIRS
                        comma-separated list of directory names to skip
                        [default='CVS,RCS,.svn,.hg,.bzr,build,dist']
  -D, --no-skip-dirs    do not skip any directories
  -e SKIP_EXTS, --skip-exts SKIP_EXTS
                        comma-separated list of file extensions to skip [defau
                        lt='.pyc,.pyo,.so,.o,.a,.tgz,.tar.gz,.rar,.zip,~,#,.ba
                        k,.png,.jpg,.gif,.bmp,.tif,.tiff,.pyd,.dll,.exe,.obj,.
                        lib']
  -E, --no-skip-exts    do not skip any file extensions
  --no-follow           do not follow symlinks to directories and files
                        [default]
  --follow              follow symlinks to directories and files
  -0, --null-separated  print the filenames separated by NULs
  --dirs DIRS [DIRS ...]
                        the directories to start from
  --sys-path            search the directories on sys.path

I use both all of the time and find them very useful.

• Cross Platform
• Free, Gratis and Open Source.

Answer 3

For command line, first you would have to index your drive, then use fzf command, it's a very nice commandline tool, not as fast as Everything though.

Github link