InSight Is a Super Fast, Preview-Oriented Search Application for Windows [Download Of The Day]
There are some great search applications out there for Windows (including the new built-in version of Windows Search), but InSight takes a slightly different approach to desktop search. On the surface, it has most of what you'd expect from a more advanced search program: It can search multiple drives on your computer, which is great if you're dual or triple-booting your computer. It also indexes them really quickly, usually in only one or two minutes, and can search through them super fast. You can search files' metadata, use simple filters like a minus sign ("-") to exclude words, and keywords like AND or OR to further refine your search.
What's really cool about InSight, though, is that it provides quick previews for files like images and music. If you're unsure of a file's contents by just its filename, you can hover your mouse over the search results to get a small thumbnail of an image or to have it start playing a song (without opening a separate application). It also has built-in Outlook search, Wikipedia search, and a "Quick Launch" tab that lets you add notes, weblinks, or links to files on your PC for quick access.
It isn't perfect, of course—it doesn't search the contents of your documents, which is a pretty standard feature in modern desktop search (it is, however, in the roadmap). It's still definitely worth a look, though, if only for those in-search previews. Hit the link below to check it out, and if you don't end up liking it, be sure to check out our Hive Five on desktop search applications for alternatives.
InSight Desktop Search is a free download for Windows only.
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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