Where’s My Stuff search tool

Finding a particular document or other file on your computer can be a difficult and time-consuming task.

Where’s My Stuff aims to make this easier by speeding up the search process and displaying the results clearly and logically.

All search utilities have to build a list (or, more properly, an index) of all the files on the computer’s hard disk before they can be of any use, which can take a while. Impressively, the program indexed all 21GB of data on our hard disk in just a couple of minutes. Google’s free Desktop Search took over two hours to complete its index of the same files. The Where’s My Stuff index does have to be manually updated every so often, but it’s still quick.

As a test we searched for all documents containing a specific word using Where’s My Stuff, Google Desktop and the search utility built into Windows 7. Google Desktop returned 24 results in a few seconds, presented in a similar format to the Google web search within a web browser. Windows 7’s search took slightly longer to find 83 files, presented in a single list within Windows Explorer. Both can preview files, either in the browser (Google) or the appropriate program if it is installed (Windows).

Where’s My Stuff found 170 files instantly. We were impressed by the program’s accuracy in finding all of the duplicate copies of the same files – neither of the other programs managed this using the default settings. We also liked the clarity of the interface, with all 170 results in a manageable format and easy to rearrange by filename, type or the date on which they were created or modified. It’s not possible to preview files, though opening a file or its folder was quick.

It’s important to note that Google Desktop and Windows 7 both search the contents of your files as well as their titles (so it will search inside a Word document, for instance) whereas Where’s My Stuff doesn’t look inside the files, which is partly why it’s so quick. If you have lots of files whose titles aren’t related to their contents, you might find that Where’s My Stuff doesn’t do much good as it won’t be able to find the relevant data.

Usefully, search results can be printed, and they are sub divided into tabs such as documents and media.

Where’s My Stuff is a simple, accurate search tool, but its cost is an important factor. The two tools against which we compared it are both free, whereas this program costs nearly £50. But if you find that the free products aren’t doing the job, it’s a good replacement.