On a modern operating system, finding files is a solved problem. No matter what you’re looking for, tracking down a specific file doesn’t present much of a challenge. As long as you have a rough idea what the file name is, you’re good to go. Finding specific content within files, on the other hand, can still be fairly difficult. You can drop down to the command line to search within plain text files, but that’s only part of the problem. What if you’re looking to find specific text inside of a Microsoft Word document or a PDF, but you’re not sure which file is the right one?
What Is SeekFast?
SeekFast is a simple, but powerful, tool that helps you find text inside files. This includes plain text files, but that’s just the beginning. We’ll look at all the support file formats later, but essentially, if you can put words in it, SeekFast can search it.
System Requirements
SeekFast is only available for Windows systems, so macOS and Linux users will need to look for another option. Supported operating systems include Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. You’ll also need a system with a minimum 2 GB RAM and 40 MB free hard-drive space to install SeekFast.
Features
SeekFast may have a straightforward aim, but it’s fairly feature-rich. First and foremost is its file support. You can search Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, OpenOffice documents, and RTF-formatted files. You can also search any sort of text file. This includes source code for programming languages including C, C++, JavaScript, XML, HTML, and more. When you install SeekFast, you get the option to install Windows Explorer integration. This lets you easily right-click on a folder and search across files in SeekFast while browsing. This makes using the program much easier. You’ll see results not as the app finds them, but sorted by relevance. This means that the results you see are more likely to be what you’re looking for, not just the first thing the app found. Being able to preview the results before you open the file helps you avoid wasting any time.
Limitations
There are a few limitations to SeekFast. First, you can only search folders, not an entire hard drive. Even if your drive only has 10 files on it, you’d need to put them in a folder before you can search them. Second, there are size limitations. You can’t search in any file more than 50 MB in size or in PDF files more than 16 MB in size. Additionally, while the paid version of the app doesn’t have the same limitations as the free version, it can’t search more than 10,000 files. Finally, PDF search is limited to Latin characters only.
Using Seekfast
Installing SeekFast is easy: simply download the installer from the website, run the installer, then follow the prompts. When the app first launches, it will default to searching its own folder. You may want to open settings and choose a different default directory if you’ll frequently be searching the same directory. Otherwise, just choose the directory you want to search for now, then type in your search term. As you search, you’ll see results pop up across all sorts of different files. All of this happens without indexing, so you don’t have to worry about the app slowing down your computer when you’re working on something else. In the app’s window you’ll see a small preview of the files it finds. What you’ll see depends on the type of file. Once you see what you’re looking for, you can open the app with a single tap. There’s no need to open Windows Explorer to find the file once you’ve seen that it’s the one you’re looking for.
Pricing
The pricing for SeekFast is simple. All it comes down to is how many copies you want. A single license for SeekFast costs $28, but you can get a discount if you buy multiple licenses. A five-license bundle costs $105, or $21 per license. A 20-license bundle costs $280, or $14 per license. Finally, a 50-user license costs $450, or just $9 per license. You can also use the free version of SeekFast without buying a license. Simply download and run the app. You’ll be limited to just twenty results in a given search, but this is enough to evaluate the app.
Conclusion
Whether or not SeekFast is a key app for you comes down to a few factors. The first is how organized you are: if you have a super-organized file and folder structure, you may never need to search for anything. The second is what you spend time doing on your computer. As a writer, I use a lot of plain text, so there are plenty of tools to help me search through various files. SeekFast would still be useful to me, but a lawyer or similar professional who spends a lot of time in Word documents and PDFs will get much more out of SeekFast. When time is money, the price you pay for SeekFast is nearly trivial. If you’re on the fence, the free version of SeekFast should help you make up your mind. The limitations probably will probably keep you from wanting to use the free version forever. That said, it should do more than enough to help you decide whether to buy the app.
