Make FSA to work faster

Our users ask, why "FSA search slower than other search tools?" or "You guys should work to speed it up!". In fact, FSA is even faster than other search tools, but one need to know some basic tips about how to optimize the software.

Some tools just skip files!

One day we tested FSA speed compared to some freeware and commercial tools. We found a significant bug in Windows (tested under Windows 2000 Professional ™). If you search in folders on your desktop and the search path is quite long (:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.User\Desktop) some tools just skip files!

Try your search tool against FSA. Search for all files and folders (*.* mask) at your desktop and compare the number of found files with number of files found with FSA.

It’s a know bug of Microsoft Windows ™, it sometimes skip some files, especially, if a search path is long. FSA will search in all folders and files you have.

Optimization: text filters

The first step towards search optimization is disabling unnecessary text files. As you know FSA can search not just in plain text files, but in MS Word, Excel, PDF files. You can disable filters, that you don’t need. It aids to reduce the time of search.

Optimization: narrow the search

You can narrow the search (by the date, the size etc.). It helps reducing the time of search too.

Try to search for files of specific size;
Try to search for files modified or created in last day, week, month;
Try to use file mask, for instance, to find files with word "project", use mask *project*.*

Problems: it takes too long to search in Word files

Check plug-ins installed

It takes about 2-3 seconds to open each Word file and convert it to the text. If it takes longer, then you should pay attention to Word settings. For instance, you might have a lot of plug-ins installed that slow down the opening of Word.

Close opened Word and Excel files

Be sure you have closed all Word and Excel application running during your search. As FSA use Word and Excel to do a conversion, opened Word and Excel documents sometimes slow the search significantly.

Get File Search Assistant

You can get File Search Assistant right now. It's a file search tool that allows to search for popular file types on local hard disk and across a network.