A long time ago on a blog far far away, I mentioned that I was trying Copernic, and liking it. Since that time, I've used a variety of desktop search tools. I've stayed away from Google's and used mostly the Microsoft Windows Desktop search toolbar (and had deinstalled Copernic). Microsoft's is fast and reasonably easy to use, but has trouble formatting some documents -- especially code.

The other day something inspired me to try Copernic again. It's close to what I want after a few overall tweaks. The thing that is missing really is a combined search. It thinks in terms of files or e-mails or .... I just want to search my desktop. Group the types of results, but don't make me pre-decide. It's still extremely fast. The search results are highlighted nicely in an inline document view pane. Even better, you can skip between the matches within a document easily and quickly. Windows Desktop search offers no similar features.

It's a big window/application though -- if they could tighten up the display into a more MSN/Google style experience without the "refine" and "other search results" panes being visible by default, the application would be a bit more tidy (and moving the search text box above the other two panes). The "web" button in the application launches a web browser to the Copernic web search instead of being inline. I'd prefer a built in browser experience, even if they want to default to their web site. If I want to do a web search, I'll pop open a browser and pick my favorite search engine.

Still, overall, recommended. Price is right: free.