Picks: Reviews of Find Desktop Standard, Copernic Desktop Search, Google Desktop Search, and more.

Over the last several weeks I've had a number of people ask me about programs for searching their desktop. So, for all of you here's a roundup of search software. Enjoy! -- Doc

Find Desktop Standard, by IdeaSolutions is a powerful product that does full-text indexing on your computer. What does that mean? It means that you can search your computer and find the exact document you're looking for. Look for one word or a phrase and Find Desktop Standard goes out and finds it. In testing it out I found the program to be easy-to-use and intuitive, perfect for users with all levels of experience. And it's very fast. Find Desktop Standard also utilizes O.C.R. which stands for optical character recognition. That means that it can really get into your documents and find what you need. In testing it out I had it index my Reviews folder and my Editorial folder. In the screen shot you can see the listing it provided when I did a search on a specific word. The program will also highlight the search term you use. I also indexed my email which was very cool. It allowed me to search through all my email (I have email going back 10 years) and find the communications I wanted. Slick!

Find Desktop Standard is a powerful tool for finding text anywhere on your computer. So, if you have lots of documents and you'd like to be able to pull up the complete text when you do a search, this is the product you need to try. I recommend it!

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista

Download Find Desktop Standard NOW!

Copernic Desktop Search, by Copernic, Inc. is a program I used when it first came out. Over time it's gotten progressively better and better. It's intuitive, easy-to-use, and perfect for users with all levels of experience. You can use Copernic Desktop Search to quickly search your PC for documents, emails, spreadsheets, and so much more. In testing it out this time around I was impressed with how fast it is. Like many other search programs Copernic Desktop Search creates an index which allows to find things very quickly. What's really cool is that when you add files or update existing files the index is updated as well. Copernic Desktop Search also has categories which automatically narrows down many searches. For example, say you're looking for an email. Instead of searching through everything you can just select the email category and search through that. With categories for pictures, videos, music, and more, you get really fast searches that provide you with exactly the information you're looking for. Copernic Desktop Search also has a deskbar that can reside in the Taskbar. This lets you perform a search quickly and easily. The program has quite a few configurable options so you can make it work the way you want it too. So, if you need a desktop search solution, this may be just what you need. Give it a try, I recommend it.

System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista

Download Copernic Desktop Search NOW!

Google Desktop Search, by Google, Inc. is a desktop search program and a whole lot more. For this review I'm going to focus on the search aspects. Google Desktop Search installs easily and quickly indexes files on your computer. Indexing is done when your computer is idle and even though I have a lot of files on my main computer, the indexing was very fast. The program lets you search your computer for text files, documents, spreadsheets, email, and even recently viewed Web pages. Slick. It will even index and let you search through your AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) chat sessions. Google Desktop Search will put an icon in your system "tray" so it's very easy to access. You can alter the preferences, view the current status, and pause indexing. The "status" shows you how many files are indexed, at what time the last one was added, and does the same for emails, chats, and Web history. One click on a search item and it will appear in the program that supports it -- like an HTML page will come up in Internet Explorer, a Word document will open in Word, and so on. They've taken the power of Google and put it on your computer. So, if you're looking for a way to search for things on your computer, and you love Google, this is the program for you! Give it a try.

System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista

Download Google Desktop Search NOW!

Agent Ransack, by Mythicsoft, Ltd. is a free search utility that is really quite powerful. It doesn't have the polished interface that Copernic has, but when it comes to searching it delivers the goods, as they say. The interface is both intuitive and easy-to-use making Agent Ransack perfect for both new and experienced users. In fact, for the more advanced the program even has an "Expert User" option you can use. In testing it out I was quite pleased with the cool "wizards" that gently walk you through the process of searching. You can do regular expression searches and get instant results. I have to say that Agent Ransack actually performed much better than I had guessed it would. It does a beautiful job of finding all kinds of things on your computer. Now, if you're looking for even more power you can try its sister product, FIleLocator Pro. If you need a really good tool for searching the files on your hard drive this may be the solution you've been looking for. Check it out.

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP

Download Agent Ransack NOW!

Here are a few other search-related programs you can look at as well.

• Effective File Search
• Instant Document Search
• Beyond Search

If you have a question on how to do something on the computer you can ask me and I'll review some software that will give you a solution to your problem. You can email me by clicking HERE You may not receive a reply, but all requests will be considered.