By default, Windows Search indexes the contents of files in the Documents, Pictures, and Music folders, as well as the Desktop—or the entire PC if you select the option to index the entire PC in Windows Search settings. By default, it does not index network drives or NAS devices. The alternatives fall into three categories: instant file-name search (Everything), content search without an index (Agent Ransack), and content search with an index (DocFetcher). For a server shared by a team, a common index is required that enforces each user’s access rights—this is the final section.
Prices and features obtained from the publishers' websites on September 27, 2026.
Windows Search is the search engine built into Windows, used by the search bar and File Explorer. According to Microsoft's documentation on indexing:
For files stored on a PC, Windows Search is sufficient in most cases. The reasons for seeking an alternative usually involve searching a network share, the speed of searching by name through a large number of files, and searching within scanned PDFs, archived emails, or compressed archives.
| Tool | Pricing | Search within the content | Network Drives, NAS | OCR of Scanned PDFs | Compliance with Access Rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Search -reference | Included with Windows | Yes, indexed locations | Notindexed by default | Not specified | View resultsfiltered by each PC user's Windows permissions |
| Everything | Free of charge | Limited, no index, slow | Yes, add this to the options | Not specified | Someinaccessible file namesare visible; opening is blocked |
| Agent Ransack / FileLocator Pro | Free LitePro: $79 per user, perpetual license | Ouisans: Index in Lite, Index in Pro | Mapped drivesand UNC paths | Pro Version | Direct search for Windows permissions, undocumented for the shared index |
| DocFetcher | Freeand open source | Yes, withindex | Not specified | Not specified | Not specified |
Everything, published by voidtools, finds files and folders by name as you type. It indexes only the names: according to the publisher, a fresh installation of Windows 11 (approximately 250,000 files) is indexed in about 5 seconds, and 1,000,000 files in about one minute. On NTFS volumes, the index is kept up to date in real time using the USN journal, including changes made while Everything is closed.
Agent Ransack, published by Mythicsoft, searches for files by name and content, and highlights the text it finds. It supports Perl-compatible regular expressions and Office formats. Agent Ransack and FileLocator Pro share the same code: the Lite version is free, while the Professional version requires a purchase.
DocFetcher is an open-source desktop search application released under the Eclipse Public License. It extracts the text from files into an index once, and then searches that index instead of re-reading the files.
The tools listed above are installed on a PC and perform searches from that PC. On a file server used by dozens of people, three additional considerations arise: the server’s access permissions must apply to each user’s search results; the index must be shared rather than duplicated on each workstation; and the search history must be accessible, including scanned PDFs, archived emails, and ZIP archives.
There are two main types of solutions that meet these needs. On one hand, there are enterprise AI platforms from very large corporations, such as Sinequa, part of the ChapsVision Group: over 200 connectors, document-level security, AI agents and assistants, clients such as TotalEnergies, Airbus, and Siemens, and an undisclosed price. On the other hand, there are solutions focused on document search and file servers, such as Outmind.
Outmind indexes file servers, Windows shares, and NAS devices where they are, without requiring migration, and makes their content searchable via full-text search and an AI assistant that cites its sources.
Example: Setec Bâtiment, engineering firm
Indexed sources: file servers, SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams. Read the Setec case study
To compare the two approaches in detail: Outmind vs. Sinequa—what are the differences? Best practices for naming conventions and folder structures are covered in the article “How to Search Effectively in a File Server.”
Windows Search indexes the contents of text files located in the indexed locations: Documents, Pictures, Music, and Desktop by default; the entire PC if you enable the corresponding option in the search settings. Simply type a word into the search bar or in File Explorer. For non-indexed locations, Ransack Agent searches the unindexed content, and DocFetcher builds its own index of the content.
Everything: Find a file by name in seconds. Agent Ransack (Lite mode), free even for business use, to search for a word within file contents, including network drives. DocFetcher, open source, to index the contents of PDFs, Office documents, PST files, and archives.
This is because Windows does not index network drives or NAS devices by default. The workaround described on Microsoft Q&A involves making the folder available offline to create a local, indexable copy. Everything and Agent Ransack also allow you to include a network drive in their searches.
Yes, if the tool uses optical character recognition (OCR). Among the tools compared, FileLocator Pro—the paid version of Agent Ransack—offers this feature. Outmind automatically applies OCR to PDF pages without text from indexed file servers.
Using a shared index rather than an index per workstation, which applies the server's access rights to each user. Outmind indexes Windows shares and NAS drives without moving the files, reads the permissions for each file, and shows each user only the documents they are already authorized to open.
Partly. The `content` function searches the content, but the content itself is not indexed: the developer notes that this search is slow. Everything indexes only file and folder names; for regular content searches, Agent Ransack or DocFetcher are better suited.
