Free Programs

Ava Find

Google Desktop Search may get all the press, but Ava Find is a strong competitor. The first time it starts up, this substitute for Microsoft Find scans your drives and stores the locations of your files in a cache. Once finished, it delivers results instantly as you type. You can limit search results by folder or drive and specify whether you're looking for videos, music, applications, or recent downloads. This real-time approach delivers outstanding results, but it requires a lot of computing power. A scan of a 20GB hard drive took about a minute, slowed our PC, and couldn't be stopped. Also, after 30 days, Ava Find won't let you delete, rename, or perform most other file functions from the results window. Those essential features are limited to the Professional version--and that, sadly, keeps us from giving Ava Find our highest rating.