

UltraSearch
Your Ultimate Tool For Company-Wide File Search.
Features
Properties
- Lightweight
Features
- File Search
- Full-Text Search
- Portable
- Non-Indexing search
- Dark Mode
- Built-in viewer
- Works Offline
- Ad-free
- No Tracking
- No registration required
- GDPR Compliant
Tags
- pattern
- on-the-fly-search
- realtime-search
UltraSearch News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- TBayAreaPat replied to a comment / review on UltraSearch
- TBayAreaPat reviewed UltraSearch
My #1 choice for searching/launching. UltraSearch performs real-time searches vs indexing as most search launchers do. You get Pro trial vs free to start, but the free version seems comparable. Dashboard displays "search for file", "search for file content", & a boxclick preview panel which makes the dashboard wider than many launchers. Clicking off preview doesn't change it from being a little wider, but Search for (word) file content saves a lot of tagging, and the panel has good moving...
- TBayAreaPat replied to a comment / review on UltraSearch
POX added UltraSearch as alternative to DeepPeek
POX added UltraSearch as alternative to Cardinal File Search
Dalieba added UltraSearch as alternative to FileSeek- TBayAreaPat liked UltraSearch
TBayAreaPat added UltraSearch as alternative to Find And Run Robot- Honigkuchen added Built-in viewer as a feature to UltraSearch
- TBayAreaPat commented on UltraSearch
My #1 choice for searching/launching. UltraSearch performs real-time searches vs indexing as most search launchers do. You get Pro trial vs free to start, but the free version seems comparable. Dashboard displays "search for file", "search for file content", & a boxclick preview panel which makes the dashboard wider than many launchers. Clicking off preview doesn't change it from being a little wider, but Search for (word) file content saves a lot of tagging, and the panel has good moving...
Featured in Lists
What apps have I been using for years for my daily production. No games!
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What is UltraSearch?
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Instant File Search Unlike Windows Search that chokes on large folders, UltraSearch delivers real-time results as you type—even across 1TB+ drives. It bypasses Windows indexing entirely, scanning NTFS structures directly for unmatched speed.
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Advanced Filtering Need files modified "between March 1-15" that are "PDFs over 2MB"? The filter panel handles this in clicks. Unlike Everything Search, it supports file size ranges and exact date ranges—critical for cleaning up disk space.
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Regex & Wildcards Technical users will love the full regex support. Search for ^report_.*.docx to find all Word docs starting with "report_". Saves hours when dealing with messy project folders.
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Portable Operation The 5MB .exe runs from USB drives without installation. I keep it on my admin toolkit drive—perfect for troubleshooting PCs without tampering with their Windows Search.
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Hidden File Detection Finds hidden/system files (like thumbs.db or desktop.ini) that other tools ignore. Essential for deep cleaning or forensic work.
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Search Presets Save frequent searches (e.g., "All temporary files >100MB") as shortcuts. Lacks cloud sync but saves local presets intelligently.
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Command-Line Interface Automate searches via CLI for scripting. Syntax is complex but documented—I use it to auto-clean temp files weekly.
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Minimal Resource Use Uses just 15-20MB RAM since it doesn’t maintain a background index. CPU spikes only during active searches.
Missing Features Worth Noting:
No file content search (text inside PDFs/DOCs)
No thumbnail/preview pane
Network drive support is unreliable
Best For: Sysadmins, developers, or anyone who regularly battles file chaos on NTFS drives. Overkill for casual users.









Comments and Reviews
This will be an honest review with pros and cons that will help you decide if this software is right for your needs. I've been using it for over 3 years now - it's one of those specialized tools that delivers incredible performance but comes with some rough edges. When you need to find files instantly on your local drives, this program is unmatched. It locates files and folders faster than anything I've used, showing results as you type with no noticeable delay, even when searching through hundreds of thousands of files. The search capabilities go far beyond Windows' built-in search - it handles complex wildcards, regular expressions, and can filter by size, date, and attributes with perfect accuracy. For my work managing large projects with thousands of files, it's saved me countless hours of waiting for searches to complete. The portable version is particularly useful - you can run it from a drive without installation. But here's some points that needed to be considered- the user interface looks outdated, like something from Windows XP era, with small icons and menus that aren't always intuitive. While its lightning fast for NTFS drives, support for network shares and non-NTFS formats is spotty at best. There's no file preview functionality, which feels like a missed opportunity for a search tool this powerful. The first few weeks using it, I had to refer to the documentation frequently to understand some of the more advanced features. It's Windows-only, though there is a command-line version that works elsewhere. The price may seem steep compared to free alternatives, but none of those can match its raw speed and reliability for local file searches. What impressed me most is how thoroughly it indexes drives - it finds files that other search tools miss, including hidden system files and temporary files. However, configuring the more advanced options requires patience - the settings aren't always clearly explained. At its core, this is a specialist tool designed for power users. If you only occasionally search for files, Windows Search might be sufficient. But if you regularly need to locate files quickly and precisely on NTFS drives, worth putting up with its quirks. - it's like having a grumpy but supremely capable assistant that works miracles once you learn how to ask properly.
By default, UltraSearch DOES have a preview pane- which can be toggled on/off.
My #1 choice for searching/launching. UltraSearch performs real-time searches vs indexing as most search launchers do. You get Pro trial vs free to start, but the free version seems comparable. Dashboard displays "search for file", "search for file content", & a boxclick preview panel which makes the dashboard wider than many launchers. Clicking off preview doesn't change it from being a little wider, but Search for (word) file content saves a lot of tagging, and the panel has good moving flexibility. Setup is easy, adding drives is easy and there's good intuition of items wanted aside from filters. You click Ctrl 2x to launch. If you use a 3rd party program like Notepad Replacer (to use Notepad++ as default) you will still need to change filetypes via windows default, too. Some launchers may have bookmark finding capability. I don't know if UltraSearch has anything for that. Also, like some other programs, if UAC control is up, UltraSearch won't autostart.. even if set to start with Windows. UAC is a security feature of Windows. First result doesn't seem to highlight for Enter, so you may need to click first.
Blazing fast. Used to be really good on the free version but it now expires your software and auto installs the pro version just for it to nag you with an unskippable buy licence prompt so its not free anymore
They do still start with pro, but the switchover is seamless now. I really don't even notice the difference.
UltraSearch searches text in all types of files slowly without indexing.
I like UltraSearch because it does not create any big index files at all, instead it uses Master File Table for searching, therefore it is lightning fast, it searches while you are typing. UltraSearch Free supports regular expressions and also searches file content on any drive, folder or a USB device.
Free easy to use tool, MUCH faster then windows search.
Incredibly fast and very flexible. Fundamentally changes the way I use my computer. The Windows search should be this useful and fast.