For about $100, you can index your e-mail and files with the superfast X1 Search -- or you could try one of the free competitors. Free trial download available here.Desktop search tools don't get any faster than X1 Search, a scorchingly swift file finder from X1 Technologies. Unlike Lookout, which resides inside Outlook, or HotBot Desktop, which attaches to an Internet Explorer toolbar, X1 Search runs as a standalone utility that loads at Windows start-up. To use it, you click the icon in the taskbar, or you can dock X1 to the desktop (our preferred method), in which case X1 appears as a toolbar at the top of the screen. But in our opinion, you can find comparable results with free apps, such as Copernic Desktop Search.
X1 installs in a few minutes. It proceeds to index every file and e-mail on your PC, a system-slowing process that could take several hours on gargantuan hard drives but worked quickly for us, indexing 7GB of data on our test system in less than 5 minutes. It also indexes the contents of e-mail attachments, an important feature that Lookout doesn't offer.
File searches are instantaneous -- almost too fast. X1 is like a hyperactive Labrador retriever trying to snap the ball from your hand before you throw it. Enter the letter c in X1's search window, for instance, and the program immediately lists every file on your hard drive that contains the letter c. As you add letters, X1 lists potential matches on the fly. A file viewer displays contains of each match.
We were impressed with X1's caffeinated performance, but the program has a few shortcomings. Its interface is sometimes difficult to navigate. For instance, some search fields are hidden by the file viewer, which must be resized to search by file size, date, path, and so on. And at US$74.95, X1 is too expensive for a search utility, particularly when worthy competitors, including HotBot, Desktop, and Lookout, are free.
Support for X1 Search on the X1 site includes technical-support e-mail, an extensive FAQ, and user forums -- the most of any of the desktop search tools we evaluated.
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