Spotlight Alternatives for Windows
Spotlight is not available for Windows but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on Windows with similar functionality. The best Windows alternative is Everything, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Spotlight and many of them are available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Windows alternatives to Spotlight are Keypirinha, Flow Launcher, DocFetcher and ueli.
filter to find the best alternatives
Spotlight alternatives are mainly Application Launchers but may also be File Search Utilities or Web Search Engines. Other popular filters includes Linux + File Search. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Spotlight.- Application Launcher
- Free • Proprietary
107 Everything alternatives"Everything" is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows. Unlike Windows search "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on local or removable NTFS volumes on your computer (hence the name...
Top Everything Features
- File Search
- Instant results
- Fast file and folder search
- Clean design
- Support for regular expressions
- Lightweight
- Quick search
- Monitor File Changes
- Portable
- Ad-free
- Exclude files and folders
- Works Offline
Everything VS Spotlight
Is Everything a good alternative to Spotlight?
155 Keypirinha alternativesA lightning fast and flexible keystroke launcher for Windows. No installation required (portable). Extensible with Python3 plugins.
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
Top Keypirinha Features
- Lightweight
- Customizable
- Portable
- Launcher
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Application Launchers
- File Search
- Support for Themes
- Ad-free
- Dark Mode
- Works Offline
- Support for scripting
Keypirinha VS Spotlight
Is Keypirinha a good alternative to Spotlight?
32 Flow Launcher alternativesDedicated to make your workflow flow more seamlessly. Aimed at being more than an app launcher, it searches, integrates and expands on functionalities. Flow will continue to evolve, designed to be open and built with the community at heart.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
Top Flow Launcher Features
- Application Launchers
- Customizable
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- File Search
- Portable
- Indexed search
- Dark Mode
- Ad-free
- Lightweight
- No registration required
- Support for Themes
- Works Offline
Flow Launcher VS Spotlight
Is Flow Launcher a good alternative to Spotlight?
120 DocFetcher alternativesDocFetcher is a portable German/English open source desktop search application. It allows you search the contents of documents on your computer. - You can think of it as Google for your local document repository.
Top DocFetcher Features
- Search-in-files
- File content indexing
- Indexed search
- Full-Text Search
- Content Searching
- Portable
- Built-in viewer
- Shared Folders
- Reads odt files
- Network Scanner
- Search in Archives
DocFetcher VS Spotlight
Is DocFetcher a good alternative to Spotlight?
78 ueli alternativesDeveloped with the Electron framework, ueli is the type of tool that adopts simplicity, leaving out any unnecessary options and configuration settings. It creates an icon in the system tray at startup, where it sits silently throughout its runtime, without disturbing you with...
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
ueli Features
- Application Launchers
- File Search
- Custom commands
- Portable
- Fast file and folder search
- Launcher
- Support for Themes
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
ueli VS Spotlight
Is ueli a good alternative to Spotlight?
98 Fluent Search alternativesFluent Search (beta) is a fast and easy-to-use search application that lets you search for running applications, browser tabs, bookmarks, files, and more. Unlike Windows Start Menu, Fluent Search focuses on continuing existing work, it let you jump easily between running...
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
Top Fluent Search Features
- File Search
- Application Launchers
- Custom search
- Custom commands
- Indexed search
- Consistent UI
- Dark Mode
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Ad-free
- Lightweight
- Works Offline
- No registration required
Fluent Search VS Spotlight
Is Fluent Search a good alternative to Spotlight?
52 Cerebro alternativesCerebro is an open source and free electron-based productivity software alternative to Alfred and Spotlight. It is focused on speed and good UI and UX. In most cases you don't even need to open another application, because you can see results right in Cerebro, like google...
Cerebro Features
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Theme changing
- Multiplatform Export
- Launcher
- Calculus solving
- Electron based
Cerebro VS Spotlight
Is Cerebro a good alternative to Spotlight?
66 Anytxt Desktop Search alternativesAnyTXT Searcher is a powerful local data full-text search engine, just like a local disk Google search engine. It is your ideal desktop search tool.
Anytxt Desktop Search Features
- Full-Text Search
- Indexed search
- Real-Time Search
- Dark Mode
- Ad-free
- Works Offline
- Lightweight
- Outlook search
Anytxt Desktop Search VS Spotlight
Is this a good alternative to Spotlight?
78 Copernic Desktop Search alternativesInstantly find documents, e-mails(full text), attachments, videos, pictures, music(metadata), and other types of files(file names). The size limit of the index of the free version is 75,000.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Application type
Platforms
- Windows
Copernic Desktop Search Features
- OCR
- Outlook search
- PDF OCR
- Indexed search
Copernic Desktop Search VS Spotlight
Is this a good alternative to Spotlight?
285 RecentX alternativesRecentX is an innovative launcher that gives you instant access to your files, folders, programs, websites & clipboard history. It automatically remembers your favorite & recent items so that you can launch them even faster.
License model
- Paid • Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
Top RecentX Features
- File Tagging
- Windows Explorer Extension
- Portable
- Tagging
- Indexed search
- Folder-Search
- Tabbed interface
- Clipboard monitoring
- Image Preview
- Tag based
- Folder Tagging
- Bookmark History
RecentX VS Spotlight
Is RecentX a good alternative to Spotlight?
22 LaunchyQt alternatives:rocket: Launchy project reactivated. Get the familiar feeling now! - samsonwang/LaunchyQt
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
LaunchyQt Features
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Launcher
- Customizable
- Indexed search
LaunchyQt VS Spotlight
Is LaunchyQt a good alternative to Spotlight?
11 EverythingToolbar alternativesEverythingToolbar is integration for the Windows taskbar to use "Everything" which is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.
It's Lightweight & Simple
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
EverythingToolbar Features
- Works Offline
- Ad-free
- No registration required
- Dark Mode
- Lightweight
- Fast file and folder search
- Customizable
- Indexed search
- Integrated Search
- Launcher
EverythingToolbar VS Spotlight
Is EverythingToolbar a good alternative to Spotlight?
Comments about ueli as an Alternative to Spotlight
As the words "Electron framework" would imply, it's a surprisingly large download at 100-150MB (install size may be larger still) and since it's essentially a web browser running in the background; it may not be a good choice for those short on disk space or trying to squeeze all the performance out of their system.