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BetterRed · 03-25-2013, 10:02 AM

Windows Search can be configured to only index certain directories and certain files

Control Panel->Indexing Options->Modify to set the locations you want indexed
Control Panel->Indexing Options->Advanced to set the file types you want indexed and how they are to be indexed

These are tick the box dialogues, just untick the things you don't want - simple.

I index everything on 3x2TB drives (about 3.9TB) I suffer a negligible performance hit, don't even know its running, and retrieval is damn quick. On XP, WDS was not fit for purpose (on the wrong side of useless), but its a totally different experience on W7/8.

If I only want to search my Calibre Libraries directory I just navigate there in Windows Explorer, enter the search term, press enter and bingo the list of matching files in my Calibre Libraries pops up more or less instantly.

Google have dropped their GDS product, as did Yahoo (which was the best 10 years ago). Copernic is still available. Another one you might like to try is DocFetcher

But I suggest you configure WDS and try it first.

One downside of WDS is that there's no iFilter (the gadgets that pull the 'text' out of files for the indexer to process) for ePubs, Mobis etc - I currently work around it by creating an RTF if I don't have a PDF or other suitable format (doc, odt etc). But I don't think Copernic and Docfetcher index e-book formats either - last time I looked at Copernic it used the same iFilter technology as WDS, that may have changed because that was quite a while back, Google's desktop search also used iFilters.

Spotlight on OS/X and Recoll on Linux will index everything, including e-book formats via add-ons, which may even be iFilters under another name :lol:

BR

03-25-2013, 10:02 AM	#8
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,567 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Windows Search can be configured to only index certain directories and certain files Control Panel->Indexing Options->Modify to set the locations you want indexed Control Panel->Indexing Options->Advanced to set the file types you want indexed and how they are to be indexed These are tick the box dialogues, just untick the things you don't want - simple. I index everything on 3x2TB drives (about 3.9TB) I suffer a negligible performance hit, don't even know its running, and retrieval is damn quick. On XP, WDS was not fit for purpose (on the wrong side of useless), but its a totally different experience on W7/8. If I only want to search my Calibre Libraries directory I just navigate there in Windows Explorer, enter the search term, press enter and bingo the list of matching files in my Calibre Libraries pops up more or less instantly. Google have dropped their GDS product, as did Yahoo (which was the best 10 years ago). Copernic is still available. Another one you might like to try is DocFetcher But I suggest you configure WDS and try it first. One downside of WDS is that there's no iFilter (the gadgets that pull the 'text' out of files for the indexer to process) for ePubs, Mobis etc - I currently work around it by creating an RTF if I don't have a PDF or other suitable format (doc, odt etc). But I don't think Copernic and Docfetcher index e-book formats either - last time I looked at Copernic it used the same iFilter technology as WDS, that may have changed because that was quite a while back, Google's desktop search also used iFilters. Spotlight on OS/X and Recoll on Linux will index everything, including e-book formats via add-ons, which may even be iFilters under another name :lol: BR Last edited by BetterRed; 03-25-2013 at 10:04 AM.