Index Your Files Portable for Windows

Windows indexes your computer's files, folders, and drives to speed up searches, but to really exploit the power of indexing, you need a dedicated indexing and search tool, preferably one that's fast, powerful, and easy to use. Free would be nice, too. Index Your Files fits the job description. It searches by date, size, Boolean operators, file extension, and more. It finds stuff fast not only by filtering searches but also by searching only those indexed databases you specify. You can create and search as many databases as you need.

Index Your Files is easy to use, but we recommend spending a few minutes watching the Flash tutorial on the program's Web site, which you can access from the About menu as well as the program's Start menu folder. You'll also find documentation and assistance online, since the Help button only calls up a tabbed list of search instructions, which was certainly helpful but no substitute for a real Help file. We clicked the Index Menu tab and then the Add button. A pop-up let us create a database of indexed files by selecting folders to include or exclude, which can be whole drives or more; naming the database; scheduling updates; and clicking OK. We created several such databases, selected the checkbox for each, and clicked Index. The program quickly indexed the contents, displaying its progress. When it was finished, we returned to the Search tab. There we were able to both enter terms in the search field as well as select a wide range of file types and combinations from a drop-down menu. We selected JPG, checkmarked our databases, and clicked Search. Index Your Files very quickly displayed results in the main view by name, folder, extension, and more. We were able to select, open, copy, move, and delete files from the program's interface, and even export them to Excel. We really like the Preview window, which has a slider adjustment and can show specific preview types, such as images, thumbnails, or hex files.

Index Your Files does a lot for a free file searching tool. We'd like to see a proper Help file and more configuration options, but the program has an up-to-date look and feel and works well, and we recommend it without hesitation.