Please try File Locator Pro on Windows and let me know how you think it compares.
On dev teams I’ve been a member of, the whole team has gotten a license for File Locator Pro.
After seeing your post, I did install File Locator Pro. By default, file searching is slow - but of course there is an option to create indexes to make it fast. I had a quick look at the indexing options - there are quite a few. I assume it could take some time depending on the options so I thought I would come back to this later.
With Everything, you don’t choose file types to index - every single file is indexed, and it takes a few seconds. (Of course it could take longer if you index multiple network disks and ftp locations etc., but I usually just index two local drives.)
What I like about the Mac is that there are utilities that are not on Windows. Really powerful utilities like Devonthink Office. Spotlight is a 95% solution unless I’m coding.
I don’t know if you remember Norton Magellan way back in the day, but it indexed the DOS OS sort of the way Spotlight does now (but with not as many features as SL).
The whole file search thing – the missing search tools on the mac, that is – is a mystery to me, but with a W10 VM I can have the best of both worlds. I just wish Apple or some developer made a tool that was close to File Locator Pro. I gave up hoping though…
I spent a little more time playing with File Locator Pro. If your aim is just to find files, then FLP doesn’t really compare with Everything. I tried several searches with FLP and typically there was a delay of 30-60 seconds.This was searching in a folder + subfolders of about 90k files, which I had indexed. Everything will search over a million files with each keystroke - in a fraction of a second.
As I expected, indexing was slow with FLP. I waited several minutes for the above folder + subfolders to be indexed. As far as I can see, indexes are not rebuilt automatically - they are with Everything, so the results are always up to date. So I can search for all modifed in the last 2 minutes and it’s always correct. There is an option to rebuild indexes. I have never found a need to use it, but I just tried. It took just under 10 seconds.
I expect I’m missing the point with FLP and the main purpose it to search within file contents which is bound to be a little slow. But if you often or usually need to locate files, do try Everything - it’s freeware and is quick to set up, and it uses a fraction of the disk space for indexes compared to FLP. I think it’s an amazing piece of software.
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Right, if you only want to find files by file names, a tool like Everything sounds good. That’s never what I want to do. I’m always trying to find some obscure text based on a regex that could be buried in nested zips or other files. FLP’s reports are also fantastic to send to clients. FLP isn’t the fastest tool without an index, but it finds EVERYTHING no matter where or how deep. It’s amazing.
There used to be a tool like Everything on the mac. It was discontinued. I liked the instant-ness of it. But, Spotlight is MUCH better as it does search inside documents of all kinds and is also instant. But SL isn’t great in that it doesn’t find anything that isn’t “indexed” by SL.
Inside the IDE, I have every kind of search imaginable. I can even search by program structure elements.
IAC, I don’t see Everything being a replacement at all, but it’s neat to know about.
Thanks,
I thought perhaps we were slightly at cross purposes. I’m sure you must sometimes want to find files by filenames. I probably wasn’t very clear. I don’t use Everything to search for files I can’t find. I use it to open files - eg if I want to open a file I’ve just saved or exported to the desktop, I’ll usually use Everything as it’s quicker than moving windows out of the way.
I hope a tool like the one you mention returns one day. I don’t like Spotlight at all.
Anyway, I’m afraid I’ve caused this thread to go off at a bit of a tangent…
Search is not really a tangent. BBEdit’s search is one of the things that make it such a good replacement (even by the same company) for TW. 
Enjoyed the back and forth.
Thanks.
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I want to throw in Sublime Text 3. That’s my favourite text tool.
Comparison Sublime vs. BBEdit
There are versions for macOS, Windows and Linux.
I often use it doing RegEx things.
I know, my post is a bit late – one year later.
But I think for somebody who trips about it, it could be worth a mention.
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I'm glad that you have an editor that you like but please, give us your own list of reasons for liking it because the link you provided is not a balanced comparision between the two apps.
The list of PROs for Sublime is very long - BBEdit has virtually all of those functions too and they are not listed.
The list of CONs for Sublime is also very long. Many of the CONs for Sublime are things that BBEdit has always been famous for, such as not crashing, and, opening very large files quickly.
On the BBEdit side they only have two CONs. They list "featureless" which is false and they say it is expensive. At $49.99 BBEdit is cheaper than Sublime by $20.
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You are right! I should not have posted the first hit of my search for a comparison. I shouldn't have compared here at all, but simply linked to Sublime Text.
The thing is: Sublime Text fits perfectly my needs. I had a very short look on BBEdit a couple of years ago, but I didn’t get the feeling of "Yes—this is my tool".
I like Sublime’s syntax coloring for many programming languages. And the way RegEx is implemented is what I appreciate most. And I often use it for changing the Encoding of text files.
BBEdit also syntax-colors for the dozens of languages it supports.
BBedit also now has a "RegeX Playground" (called Pattern Playground) and even supports regular and RegEx multi-file searches and replaces!
One of the things I LOVE about BBEdit is that you can create "Text factories". A text factory is a list of one or more modifications you'd like to make to a file or a group of files (those files can be named, open, or whatever). What I do most is multiple reg-ex REPLACE in text files that need cleaning up, but I don't need to write code to do it.
The image below shows what you can pick (and then refine) for one or more items in your text factory. Add as many text factory items as you need to do the file modifications you need to a single files, a group of files, all open files, a directory, or whatever. Just amazing!
BBEDIT also has built-in FTPS capabilities so you can use it with remote files as well.
I'm not saying Sublime isn't a good editor also, but if you spend some time with BBEdit, you'd see how utterly advanced it is.
The more I use BBEdit, the more I realize there's still more to learn and that I often feel even after using BBEdit for 5 or more years I'm still just scratching the surface!
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Thank you for your explanations. Maybe I’ll have to try it again.
But one thing that is also important for me: Sublime Text lives in all three worlds—macOS, Windows and Linux.
I am mostly using my Mac but sometimes I have to work with a Windows machine. With Sublime I can use on both platforms the same tool.
But again: Your comments are very interesting for me. And I am curious enough to try BBEdit again. Thank you!
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You’re most certainly welcome!
Have a good one. 