User Reviews
Copernic Desktop Search
Copernic Desktop Search allows you to instantly find files, emails, images, multimedia and more, that are located on your PC (not the Internet). It creates an initial index of your hard drive and pro ...
Average of 24 user ratings: 
- Sep 15, 2008
- For version:
- NA
Not as good as free v2 
- Interface: 4
- Features: 3
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I was using v2 and "upgraded" to new "Home" version (v3). The new version seems to be a downgrade (i.e. removed features) on V2 so I uninstalled it and reloaded V2. The new "home" version should provide at least the same functionality and more whilst remaining free. Main features missing: Customisable preview pane, search as you type, ability to save searches. CDS v2 is, in my opinion, the best free desktop search tool, the new Home version (v3) isn't !!!
Review by: les2008 (2)
Read all 2 reviews by les2008
- Jul 10, 2008
- For version:
- 2.3
Excellent program
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Just what was needed with more bells and whistles than I would expect for a free program. This lets you monitor your hard drive to ensure that you have what you think you have and nothing more. When space gets tight on your old HD, all of the extra stuff you don't need is easy to find with this.
Review by: JURYCOM (29)
Read all 29 reviews by JURYCOM
- Apr 29, 2008
- For version:
- 2.3
The ultimate windows search killer
- Interface: 4
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This proggie is damn near perfect. Copernic only indexes (locates and lists files for future reference) when your system is idle. Its finding capacity of files (after indexing) is very, very good. Just make sure you dont expect it to find a file you've just created or saved from the net etc.. you will need to re-index to get that done. Besides on the fly indexing (resource heavy anyway) this program is what I have been waiting for in order to find files hidden away in a multitude of directories. The taskbar toolbar is perhaps not to everyone's liking (normally enough clutter there), but it actually works well. Comes up with results immediately and gives you the option to open it all up to have a better look. Perfect. Even if you dont intend on keeping it, you should really try it for a couple of weeks to get the feel of its file finding capacity. It does what its supposed to do and it does it fast. 9/10 from me !
Review by: BENDECHO (5)
Read all 5 reviews by BENDECHO
- Apr 20, 2008
- For version:
- 2.3
Better (and quicker) than vista search.
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This just has to be the best Desktop Search available today. Copernic Desktop Search Version 2.3 (Build 30)works perfectly with Vista and since Vista SP1 it now has superb integration with Windows. No problems or hassle,Copernic works just perfectly. At the moment I am running Copernic alongside Vista search but I will shortly be making Copernic my default Desktop Search. If you are having any problems with Vista indexing and search (Or even if you are not) then use Copernic. You will be surprised at how efficient this FREE program is!!
Review by: Redfoxx (3)
Read all 3 reviews by Redfoxx
- Nov 12, 2007
- For version:
- 2.1.1
Nice, but doesn't index .pst files
- Interface: 3
- Features: 3
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 4
- Overall:
I tried using this for a few weeks, mostly to index e-mails and Excel spreadsheets. I used both manual indexing and scheduled indexing. In both cases, CDS periodically cleared the index and rebuilt it from scratch, but without the e-mails stored in my PST files. PST files are an important way to prevent server overload and to free yourself from reliance on server availability. I uninstalled CDS because it couldn't handle this.
Review by: Harlan (13)
Read all 13 reviews by Harlan
- Sep 13, 2007
- For version:
- 2.1.1
Wonderful piece of software
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Very useful and easy to use. You can use it to find a text within your files (and you are even shown a preview of the file!), you can use it to find files by size, date, etc., etc. Very powerful and flexible. I don't give it a 5 in "ease of use" just because of the fact that it is slightly annoying that to do an advance search you first need to go through a simple search.
Review by: Tinchote
First post
- Jul 17, 2007
- For version:
- 2.1
Excellent unless you have a pst file
- Interface: 4
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 2
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I find Copernic search totally amazing. It is more powerful and flexible than any of its rivals. Unfortunately, I had to uninstall it because it leaves my Outlook PST file locked. With the file locked, I found I could not back it up or access it from my laptop. Occasionally, Outlook couldn't even start, because Copernic had its file open. It order to regain access to my file, I would have close Copernic, and then reboot. However, Copernic would warn that it would never find any message received while it wasn't running. Since I sometimes access my file from my laptop, this means there would be holes in its search. I rate this highly only because I know there are millions of users with Microsoft Exchange Server who don't face this problem. If your PST file is local, I would not recommend this software.
Review by: DavidBangs
First post
- Apr 08, 2007
- For version:
- 2.02
And it's for free?
- Interface: 4
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Copernic indexed 275,000+ "keywords" in my computer--I have a lot of texts, images, and audio files--and not only did that much more quickly than I expected but it also finishes searches as close to "instantly" as makes no difference to me. Now I'm batch-converting my Paint-Shop-Pro image files to compressed JPEGs so that Copernic Desktop Search can show me thumbnails of them (and I know from the "E" in those extensions that they're just copies, not JPGs I've made for Web pages). A side effect of this is that Windows Explorer can now "see" those images, too --but I didn't begin the project till I'd found how good Copernic is. Its search-within-texts, showing the words without having to open the files, is excellent, too. I'd tried Windows Live Search, and Copernic is faster and (I think) much better. Now I can go looking in my files instead of looking for a search tool!
Review by: D_Spider (28)
Read all 28 reviews by D_Spider
- Sep 22, 2006
- For version:
- 2.0
Another valuable freeware tool
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 4
- Overall:
Excellent application. Install, wait for the index generation to be completed and have a look at the results. Much better than other solutions available. Compliments to the programmer(s).
Review by: JoeDalton (3)
Read all 3 reviews by JoeDalton
- Feb 24, 2006
- For version:
- 1.63
Excellent - better than google
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Copernic changed my life. My disc order is finally under control. Efficiently, and without ads, spam or any other annoyances. Remains up-to-date and quietly does its indexing job in the background.
Review by: xxenon (2)
Read all 2 reviews by xxenon
- Feb 10, 2006
- For version:
- 1.63
Good, fast, reliable
- Interface: 3
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
At work I work on a machine running NT 4.0, so I can't search words in documents like on my home computer (XP). I find it very useful. No need to know the full name, just a part is enough. Especially the search in attachments in email. Great.
Review by: Miller
First post
- Jan 12, 2006
- For version:
- 1.63
Big disappointment
- Interface: 1
- Features: 1
- Ease of use: 1
- Value: 3
- Overall:
I uninstalled right away. I used win2k to test it. It seems okay, but when I do something *, i will get few yahoo.com or htm files, and I can't do *.* - (return invalid query as error) to find out where the large files are . Basically, it doesn't find things with wildcard. In other words, to look for something, you have to know the whole name. * just does not work.
Review by: homeflash (63)
Read all 63 reviews by homeflash
- Dec 21, 2005
- For version:
- 1.63
Nearly most valuable software i own
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
With the exception of Excel, this is most valuable software I own. Working for a large company we have a lot of data to track. This does the job, and across networks also. No limits on index size, speed is excellent and recent releases are extremely stable. I have over 20K documents and 2M words index. Tried Yahoo and Google but dumped them both after 30 minutes. Great product. My only request would be the ability to have a history of previous search configurations. Just a clean, fast product with better support than most commercial products. I've actually got a call from Tech support over a previous issue. That was a first for me.
Review by: rkoyle (15)
Read all 15 reviews by rkoyle
- May 25, 2005
- For version:
- 1.5
Good fast search, but pauses sometimes
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 2
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I like this better than Google Desktop since I'm not limited in indexing size and can choose any folders or network drive I'd like to index. However, it has a tendency to pause for 15 seconds or more at random times. Also, occasionally, the program will consume 90% CPU for quite some time even though it is supposed to stop working when the user activates the mouse. On the whole, I like the product, but will continue looking at competitors.
Review by: DougNelson
First post
- May 17, 2005
- For version:
- 1.5
I use it all the time
- Interface: 4
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
No more file name/content searches using the file explorer. This program is lightning quick, more comprehensive, and I seem to find what I need more often. I use it for web search also. I have other Copernic software (some purchased), and I see them as a reliable software company, providing very good value. Strongly recommended.
Review by: Flowta (5)
Read all 5 reviews by Flowta
- Jan 10, 2005
- For version:
- 1.2
I would like to say everything was ok, but...
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 3
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This looks a really good program and to be fair it behaves itself most of the time. I have a lot of pdf files and sometimes it just cannot index a particular file and just hangs not doing anything. Not crashing, but not indexing either... I have reported this to Copernic but would appreciate if anyone else has similar issues.
Review by: TheMan (5)
Read all 5 reviews by TheMan
- Dec 09, 2004
- For version:
- 1.2
You've got nothing to lose
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Being a longtime user of Copernic Agent Personal, I was excited to see another addition to the family. As we all know, searching for stuff through Windows built-in feature is time consuming, limited in ability, and not as accurate as it could be. Copernic eliminates these problems and is lightning quick. Not bad for a free program - better than other shareware indexing programs I've tried before. This one is a keeper.
Review by: dsilver (13)
Read all 13 reviews by dsilver
- Dec 02, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Not for me.
- Interface: 3
- Features: 2
- Ease of use: 2
- Value: 4
- Overall:
I was not too impressed with the internet search and I found it unstable on my system. I couldn't find an image search filtering option for image size and it took a considerable bite of my RAM. The program made some changes in my system and menu bar without permission. Being a technologically challenged person, I found this disturbing. A positive note- I thought the search capability for files and E-mail on my system were impressive. Overall..not for me.
Review by: AungDin (57)
Read all 57 reviews by AungDin
- Dec 02, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Copernic is back
- Interface: 4
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I used several other programs. Even a program that was worth $200,-. But Copernic is Top now and it can search within .pdf files
Review by: johan3075
First post
- Dec 02, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Not worth 5 stars
- Interface: 4
- Features: 2
- Ease of use: 3
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This is a handy tool for those using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express exclusively. There are no search engine options, email client options, or default browser options. I found it unstable and prone to freeze ups on my system.
Review by: fair_is_fair (45)
Read all 45 reviews by fair_is_fair
- Dec 01, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Best desktop search
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
At this moment, it is the best desktop search. It successfully indexes everything on disk. It does quick search. It has preview in window. It arranges results by date, file type, etc. It allows image search on disk with thumbanails. I doubt that Google will have anything of this (except good indexing) even when it moves from beta.
Review by: IvanIcin (5)
Read all 5 reviews by IvanIcin
- Dec 01, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Thumbs up!
- Interface: 3
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Haven't studied it extensively yet but just the fact that it can search WordPerfect documents warrants a thumbs up!
Review by: offmdan (4)
Read all 4 reviews by offmdan
- Dec 01, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Who needs google search?
- Interface: 5
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This is the quickest search tool I have come across. Type a single word and get results instantly. Great for that mp3 search. Only issue I have was that during the initial scan, nine files were deleted. Which ones, I don't know. Other than this major concern I am more than pleased with this tool.
Review by: thegeed (5)
Read all 5 reviews by thegeed
- Dec 01, 2004
- For version:
- 1.1
Better than google
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Excellent desk top search engine, initial indexing is very fast - searches are lightning fast - if you need to find anything on your hard drive, this is for you!
Review by: jpander (2)
Read all 2 reviews by jpander
