clean, super fast
search for windows

download

demo of the app

30mb app with
powerful features

better search vs
windows search

Opening searchwindows searchWin+S or the Start menubetter searchAlt+S from anywhere, and you can change it to any shortcut. The window shows in about 30 ms.
What it coverswindows searchIndexes user folders by default; "Enhanced" mode crawls the whole PC slowlybetter searchReads every NTFS drive's file table directly. A full drive (2M records) is indexed in about 10 s.
Matching file nameswindows searchMatches mostly from the start of wordsbetter searchAny part of a name (FTS5 trigram index); several words narrow the search (invoice 2024)
Speed while typingwindows searchResults can lag or change as web results loadbetter searchResults in 120–170 ms, and searching never touches the disk
Keeping the index currentwindows searchBackground crawlerbetter searchA file watcher applies changes instantly (ReadDirectoryChangesW, no CPU use while idle), and changes made while the app was closed are caught at start-up
Searching inside fileswindows searchIndexes document contentsbetter searchUses that same index with a \ prefix: no second index, and nothing leaves the PC
Text in imageswindows search—better searchOptional OCR of screenshots and photos with Windows' own text recognition. You pick the folders and can delete the data any time.
Rankingwindows searchMixes in web and Bing suggestionsbetter searchExact names first, then apps, shortcuts and folders. Files you open often rise to the top.
Filtering by typewindows searchCategory tabs (Apps, Documents, Web…)better searchPress Tab to cycle folders, documents, images, videos, audio, code, archives and apps
Previewswindows searchExplorer preview pane, side panel in Startbetter searchShown right above the search bar: photos, video frames, PDF and Office pages, code and text, and .docx without Office installed
Opening a resultwindows searchClick or Enterbetter searchEnter opens it, Ctrl+Enter shows it in Explorer, and you can swap the two
Calculatorwindows searchBasic math, often through Bingbetter search= prefix, works offline, with exact decimals, units and percentages. Enter copies the answer.
Web searchwindows searchBing in Edge onlybetter searchGoogle, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave or a custom URL, or straight to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google AI Mode. You pick the browser and Tab switches it.
Web results inside the windowwindows searchBing resultsbetter searchBring your own key for Exa, Firecrawl, TinyFish or Context.dev, with usage shown in settings
AI answerswindows searchCopilot is a separate appbetter searchAnswers stream right into the search window from 10 providers (Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, GitHub, OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Perplexity) or local models (Ollama, LM Studio)
Typing a website addresswindows searchSends it to Bingbetter searchType github.com to open it directly in your browser
Snapping windowswindows searchSnap layouts by hovering or Win+Z, one window at a timebetter searchAlt+W fills a whole layout from the keyboard. It can launch apps or open files into each spot, and it respects the taskbar.
Exclusionswindows searchExcluded folders listbetter searchExclude drives, full paths, or folder names wherever they appear. Caches and build folders (node_modules, .git, WinSxS) are skipped by default.
Where the index liveswindows searchFixed on the system drivebetter searchCan move to another drive and still cover all of them
Memory usewindows searchRuns as a permanent system servicebetter search9–17 MB in the background, and the search helper frees its memory when the window hides
Privacywindows searchSends queries to Bing by defaultbetter searchEverything stays local unless you add your own web or AI key. Keys are stored in Windows Credential Manager.
Recent searcheswindows searchRecent and top appsbetter searchLists your last searches, and turning it off also clears the stored history
Interface sizewindows searchFollows display scalingbetter searchIts own size setting on top of Windows' display scaling
Troubleshootingwindows searchIndexer troubleshooterbetter searchLogs in the settings window, and you can rebuild the index with one click

changelog of every
release

v0.3.1

3 branches4 merges
mainv0.3.1Merge #4 · release-pleaseOct 251391ff3
release-pleasechore(main): release 0.3.1Oct 25c856a3b
fix: implement handling for non-resident attribute lists and add testsOct 25b0f454b
v0.3.0Merge #2 · release-pleaseOct 25e300aee
Merge #3 · dependabotOct 2567123d0
dependabotchore(deps): bump the actions group with 5 updatesOct 25aca6b1e
chore(main): release 0.3.0Oct 252275011
feat(diagrams): update architecture diagrams and flowchartOct 251e61233
Remove obsolete binary files for better search helper, indexer, and watcherOct 25aad88f1
v0.2.0Merge #1 · release-pleaseOct 25d68cea2
chore(main): release 0.2.0Oct 25c950bca
Add CI and release workflows, configure updater plugins, and set versioningOct 25383d118
Enhance privacy policy and settings for web search functionalityOct 255ed2b43
Add diagrams for indexing and search processesOct 240ea6bb6
readme changeOct 248e412c2
1–3 of 4 versions · latest 6 commits each

Better Search

Clean, super fast file search for Windows. A 30mb app that indexes 2 million files in about 10s and searches in 10 - 100ms, entirely private and local, with open source code on GitHub.