How much time do you spend searching for a certain file on your
computer? Normally, I would spend a couple of minutes before finding
the whereabouts of the needed data. My hard disks are filled with
thousands of files, all named the way I considered best. Anyway, my
point is that sometimes you can use a lot of time finding what you want
on your computer. I've been to a friend of mine and asked for a
document I knew for sure he had and I received it after a couple of
days. Not that he was lazy; he just could not find it because it was
stored deep on the hard disk.
Vista
Glance is one solution for this type of issue. It is a data indexing
software designed to provide you with fast and relevant search results.
The free edition of the
application
is powerful enough for any user, but for more options and a better
experience, there is the Pro version of the software that combines
simplicity and ease of use with strong elements designed to help you in
finding what you need, be it on your hard drive or on the Internet.
Its additional features are not numerous, but extend the flexibility of
the free version. Tree View mode is one of the most powerful features;
in this mode, the software will group the results by their parent
folder and drive. The heuristic algorithm provided by Vista Glance will
show the most relevant results at the top of the list.
Additionally, the Pro variant of the program is able of snooping into
archives and retrieve the relevant results in there as well. The
archive types supported include the most popular file types (ZIP, RAR.
ACE or CAB) and less used ones (SQZ, ZOO, GZIP, ARJ, PAK and TAR). For
this feature to function, you should enable it from the Set Indexing
Area in the top left corner menu. Take into consideration that enabling
this feature results in considerably expanding the indexing time.
Once the results window is filled, the user can proceed to multiple
operations. First of all, they can be opened directly from the
application into Windows Explorer. Other file operations supported
include cut and copy the files or deleting them. Hovering the
mouse over a result will open an additional window that contains the
afore mentioned options and provides more information on the
file/folder: location, date of its creation/modification/last access
and the attribute.
Now the best part is that you can open a Vista Glance search bar
anywhere on your computer. The software integrates perfectly with
Windows shell and you will find a Vista Glance option in every context
menu you perform (in Windows shell). The software is available when
right clicking on the desktop, on the taskbar (under tools) and even in
Windows Explorer.
Besides searching your hard drive for the typed query, Vista Glance
also provides quick access to the search engines on the Internet. It
comes complete with Google, Yahoo! and MSN searches. The downfall is
that the software's settings will not allow the user to add his/her own
search engines to use. I agree these three are the biggest and most
accurate (well, Google is, but still) but there are as many preferences
as there are computer users.
There is one thing that I cannot explain when using the float bar in
Vista Glance. No matter the query, the software displays absolutely no
result if the search is among the files on my hard drive. Searching on
the Internet (using the above mentioned search engines) the application
works fine. I tested the other components of the
applications and the results came within one or two seconds in both taskbar and Windows Explorer.
For faster results, the user can assign keywords to the files. The
option is absolutely fantastic because you can assign them by right
clicking on a file or folder and select Keywords>Add Keyword from
the context menu.
Despite the fact that the taskbar Vista Glance comes in extremely
useful, there is a minor mischief: at one point, it shrinks too much
and you can barely see the search area.
Setting Indexing area option available in Vista Glance Pro allows the
user to exclude files and folders from indexing. This way, the
relevancy of the results is higher and the search will last less. A
consequence of using this feature is also faster indexing.
The Good
The application is pervasive enough and the intrusiveness level is
zero. It will not disturb you unnecessarily. The features of the Pro
version give greater flexibility due to the sorting options.
Vista Glance can be from practically any area of your computer as it resides in the right click context menu.
The Bad
Searching in the desktop floating bar worked only with the Internet search options. The taskbar option shrinks at some point.
Letting the user add the web search engines would be a huge plus.
