Spotlight equivalent for Windows 7?

Question

Can anyone make recommendations? I used to use Launchy back in the XP days, but I don't know if there are better alternatives now.

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 01 '11 at 03:56

21

Why not Windows Search?

start menu search

It has been there since Vista and has been refined even more in Windows 7. By just pressing the "Windows" key on your keyboard, you can instantly start searching your Start Menu and your entire computer. The best thing about it is that it is built in, and is available in every Explorer window.

edited Sep 01 '11 at 03:56

Gaff

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answered Oct 31 '09 at 04:13

Josh Hunt

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+1'd. I was a huge launchy fan until Vista and Win 7. Win Search works just fine for me. – Chris_K Oct 31 '09 at 05:39
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While I think the windows search bar is pretty good for most things, the windows vista version is lacking compared to spotlight. Maybe the 7 version has improved. – James McMahon Oct 31 '09 at 15:31
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The windows 7 version is much improved. For example, type arp, and it brings up arp.exe AND Add and Remove Programs. – Jim Deville Oct 31 '09 at 15:40
marked this as the answer, I pretty much just use it instead of launchy or whatever – Roy Tang Apr 11 '10 at 14:48
One UX issue I have with the start menu (tested in win 10) is the search results. Type "ca" and hit enter. This brings up calculator. Type "ca" and wait...you are never actually shown a result, which should be calculator because that is what you get if you hit enter. – P.Brian.Mackey Nov 15 '16 at 21:05

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '09 at 04:09

10

Here are a few: http://alternativeto.net/desktop/launchy/

I would like to recommend "Everything". It is more like spotlight in the sense that it searches everything on the harddrive, and is very light weight. Works well with Win7

answered Oct 31 '09 at 04:09

thegreyspot

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not to mention EXTREMELY FAST. – Josh Hunt Oct 31 '09 at 04:20
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**EXTREMELY** fast. To the point of being able to use it to organise files, as moving something from one folder to another updates as it happens. Without a pause. – Phoshi Feb 06 '10 at 01:02
Except there is no way to launch an application (almost all the results are files/folders). EDIT: you can type 'progname lnk' for this. – Sridhar Ratnakumar Nov 05 '10 at 04:22
Everything is different from Spotlight because Everything does not search inside files, while Spotlight does. – Rasmus Larsen Nov 02 '16 at 07:25

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 03:55

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Try Executor. The only Windows 7 issue I've found so far is that it doesn't index control panel items properly, other than that it's perfect. The developer is working on Windows 7 compatibility apparently so expect it fixed soon as well.

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edited Sep 01 '11 at 03:55

Gaff

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answered Oct 31 '09 at 04:07

John T

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 06 '10 at 04:54

I was a Launchy fan until I ran across FARR (Find And Run Robot). On the upside, it is extremely powerful, has lots of features and lots of plug-ins (including an "Everything" plug-in), a great support forum and community, and a friendly and responsive developer. The only downside is that it sacrifices some simplicity for its feature-set, but (personally) the trade off is WELL worth it if you don't mind spending a few minutes tweaking it. Been running it on Win 7 for a few months now and it's working well.

Spotlight equivalent for Windows 7?

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