Are you also not a fan of the built-in search function in Windows? Many users stumble over the operation of that function in more advanced search operations. Desktop search engines from third parties eagerly anticipate this. VX Search is exactly such a tool: quite fast, but above all impressive powerful.
VX Search
price
Free
Language
English
OS
Windows XP and higher (32 and 64 bit versions)
Website
www.vxsearch.com
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Very powerful search criteria
- Nice results reports
- Negatives
- Limitations in free version
One of the most popular alternative desktop search engines is undoubtedly Everything. Admittedly, few alternatives can match that in terms of speed, not even VX Search. On the other hand, VX Search has very powerful search functions and therefore especially the more advanced search-seeking user.
Criteria
To be clear: we are talking about the “normal” VX Search and not about commercial variants such as Pro or Ultimate. And yes, the free version has some limitations, including a maximum of 50,0000 files per search or a limit on the number of search profiles.
With the push of a button you start a search wizard where you set the search criteria via drop-down menus. You can choose from almost thirty standard criteria, including Last Accessed, File Permissions, Meta Search, Text String and HEX Pattern. Depending on your choice, you provide more specific information. Bee Last Accessed for example, set a number of days or choose Today, This week and so on. Of course you also have to indicate exactly where you want to search and that can be in multiple locations simultaneously, both folders, disks and network shares.
Incidentally, it is perfectly possible to combine multiple search criteria. Png files with a maximum of 2 MB and with the tag “computer! Total”? VX Search will find them for you in no time.
If you think you will use the same search criteria again later, you can easily save them in a search profile.
Results
The results appear in a separate window and with a double click you call up all kinds of detailed information about such a file. From the context menu you can perform all kinds of operations on your selection, including deleting, copying and compressing. Moreover, this results list can easily be categorized in various ways. For example, you can divide it according to file size, or time of making or adjusting. You can also put all this filtered information into all kinds of (graphical or non-graphical) reports, in various formats.
Conclusion
VX Search is especially suitable for advanced users who often want to perform complex or combined searches. All kinds of filtering and categorization functions make very specific searches possible, with nice search reports. The free version is limited to “only” half a million files per search operation. If you want more, you should consider a paid version, starting from fifty dollars.
