FileSearch 1.11.4

Read results in context

FileSearch 1.11.4 brings richer investigation tools to the main window and Quick Search:

• Built-in previews: whole PDF pages, spreadsheet grids, messages, ZIP members, EPUB chapters, formatted documents, images, and source files. Expand retains supported page, part, and record locations.
• Find inside previews: highlight and navigate literal phrases in loaded text, formatted content, or embedded text on the displayed PDF page. Database Find can scan beyond the loaded page, with term/phrase modes, column selection, cancellation, and explicit limits.
• SQLite and CSharpDB search: find table values and open matching records in a read-only snapshot. Loading stages, Stop loading, session reuse, and bounded page continuation give more control over database browsing.
• Structured mail queries: use from:, to:, cc:, recipient:, subject:, and sent: in Unified mode. Message identity and locations survive previews, exports, and MCP responses.
• PDF and Office text in ZIP files: search native text in PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX members, with archive-member and inner document locations. Isolated parsing and partial-coverage notices retain the existing resource limits.
• Clearer search and selection: shared indexed-location selection, matching-preserving Quick Search handoff, protected exact-name ranking, stable deliberate selection, and highlighted filtering within returned results.
• Searchable offline Help and a shorter README: an animated real-app tour, practical first-search instructions, and focused CLI/developer guides.
• Maintenance: updated NuGet packages, reproducible benchmark runners, and native preview regression probes. PowerToys remains a separately installed optional companion.

Reliability fixes

Database previews now become ready after the requested record/cell is selected. Closing an idle index now finishes its database/WAL cleanup before reuse, while active readers and writes retain safe deferred cleanup. Native PDF rendering runs in disposable workers across previews and OCR, containing Windows software-renderer shutdown failures while retaining whole pages and source locations. When Windows has no usable WebP decoder or decoder initialization fails, the preview shows an explained Details/Open fallback. The MSI supplies neutral-language metadata for the bundled SQLite DLL without changing the vendor binary or its version. Earlier 1.11 validation candidates were not published.

After upgrading

Refresh existing content indexes to populate the new database, mail-field, spreadsheet, and archive extraction coverage. Existing CSharpDB storage remains readable; this is an extraction-coverage refresh, not a blanket storage-format rebuild requirement.

Preview Find searches the loaded part or displayed PDF page. Database Find remains bounded to the selected table. ZIP search does not recurse into nested archives or add mail-attachment content search. Local diagnostic timings were mixed; this release makes no general speed or competitor-performance claim.

Windows downloads

• FileSearch-1.11.4.0-win-x64.msi: the unsigned desktop installer.
• FileSearch-1.11.4.0-win-x64-portable.zip: extract the complete folder and run FileSearch.Gui.exe; also includes the CLI and MCP server. No separate .NET installation is needed.
• PowerToys companion: optional, separate unsigned MSIX and development-layout ZIP downloads. The unsigned MSIX must be signed with a certificate trusted by the computer before normal installation. The development layout is for computers where Developer Mode is already enabled; see the setup guide.
• SHA-256 checksum files accompany the downloads. Signing credentials were not configured for this release; a Store MSIX was not produced.

Validation

• CI: 1,576 tests passed and four explicitly installed-model tests skipped in each Debug/Release configuration; warning-free builds, Help search, CLI and published sidecar checks passed.

• Fresh Windows verification: the complete GUI and full solution exited cleanly with no native crash reports. Local WPF preview smoke passed 47 cases; PDF worker roundtrips passed from all four Windows hosts.

• Release pipeline: the tagged Release build passed 1,576 tests with four optional model tests skipped. Normal MSI validation, portable/MSI sidecar smoke tests, and companion package checks passed.

• Downloaded assets: all seven files match GitHub's SHA-256 digests, and all four binary packages match their checksum files. All 54 asset inspection checks passed, including executable versions, x64 architecture, 159 indexed Help sections, companion manifest/discovery, and main-app dependency isolation. Read-only MSI inspection confirmed version 1.11.4.0 and preserved SQLite component identity with neutral-language metadata.

• Downloaded runtime checks: the portable CLI, indexer, and MCP server (five tools) passed; native PDF rendering passed from all four Windows hosts with the source PDF unchanged and released. The optional companion's native COM probe returned both search commands, completed remote disposal, and exited cleanly without changing registration. These checks did not install the MSI or MSIX.

See the README, database guide, mail guide, and full changelog.

Changes since the previous release: v1.10.0...v1.11.4.

FileSearch 1.10.0

Optional PowerToys integration

FileSearch 1.10.0 adds a separately installed companion for PowerToys Command Palette:

• FileSearch: file names finds files in existing folder indexes.
• FileSearch: file contents searches indexed document text, including existing OCR text, with Unified queries such as type:pdf invoice.
• Results show paths and matching text. Open files, reveal them in Explorer, copy paths or matching text, or choose Open in FileSearch to continue the query in the desktop app.

PowerToys remains optional. The normal FileSearch installers do not bundle the companion or PowerToys SDK, add integration startup processes, prompt to install PowerToys, or change shortcuts.

The companion searches compatible folder indexes only. Queries return up to 50 distinct files with a three-second deadline; partial results are identified. It does not start another indexer or fall back to a live disk scan. Drive-wide MFT snapshots and semantic search are not used by this first version.

See the PowerToys setup guide.

Desktop and Help updates

• Desktop query handoff supports a query, folder, search target, and selected file, including activation of an existing FileSearch window.
• Active searches and replacements are preserved. A removed folder does not redirect the incoming query to another location.
• Bundled Help now includes PowerToys setup, settings, result actions, troubleshooting, limits, and desktop query arguments.
• Updated the existing System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs dependency to 10.0.13 to address its reported vulnerabilities.

Windows downloads

• FileSearch-1.10.0.0-win-x64-portable.zip: the complete desktop app and command-line tools.
• FileSearch-1.10.0.0-win-x64.msi: the normal installer, unsigned.
• FileSearch.PowerToys_1.10.0.0_win-x64.msix: the optional companion, unsigned. It requires signing with a trusted certificate before normal installation.
• FileSearch.PowerToys_1.10.0.0_win-x64-development.zip: an optional development layout for local testing on Windows 11 with Developer Mode already enabled. Extract it to a permanent folder and follow README-DEVELOPMENT.txt to register the manifest. It does not enable Developer Mode or change Windows security settings.

Signing credentials are not configured for this repository, so signed MSI and Store/MSIX artifacts are not included. The companion's unsigned MSIX is a development artifact. All downloads have accompanying SHA-256 checksums. Install FileSearch 1.10.0 or later before using the companion.

Validation

• Local Release build completed without warnings: 949 tests passed and four optional external-model tests were skipped.
• GitHub CI passed Debug and Release builds and test suites, with 949 tests passing and four optional model tests skipped in each configuration.
• Published CLI, MCP handshake, indexer lifecycle, bundled Help, and normal-app PowerToys dependency isolation checks passed.
• Native Windows COM activation and both companion search commands were verified against an isolated fixture index during development.
• The Release workflow passed its validation and packaging gates, including portable/MSI helper checks and optional companion package verification.
• All four uploaded binaries/archives were downloaded and matched their SHA-256 checksums. The downloaded portable app's Help bundle and PowerToys dependency isolation, companion layout, and GUI/MSI versions were also verified.

Full changelog: v1.9.1...v1.10.0

FileSearch 1.9.1.0

Find and replace

• Open the Replace panel in the main Search screen using the toggle, Search menu, or configurable Ctrl+H shortcut. Preview the current folder and filters, review before/after details, and apply only checked items.
• Replace literal text or regex matches, including capture substitutions and empty replacements. Unicode text keeps its encoding, BOM, and line endings.
• Edit DOCX paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, PowerPoint slides and notes, and Excel text cells directly in the original document structures. Excel formula editing is optional and off by default.
• Rename files, folders, or both, with extensions protected by default, collision checks, nested rename handling, and protection for scope and indexed roots.
• Durable originals and journals support Undo after restart. Stale, locked, unsupported, or conflicting items are skipped; cancellation preserves completed changes for recovery.

Workflow integration

• Add a Find and replace step using a fresh folder scan or the exact files from a complete earlier Search step.
• Dry run previews without writing. Desktop runs pause for checked-item review, and grouped Undo restores replacement steps in reverse order after restart.
• Renames update earlier search paths and active loop variables. Saved path references and affected indexed locations are refreshed.
• CLI replacement requires explicit --apply-replacements; --yes alone does not authorize replacement.

See the workflow guide and JSON examples and supported replacement formats.

Semantic search

• Desktop Semantic search controls let you search for a concept and adjust Minimum score and Maximum files.
• Added optional local EmbeddingGemma model-pack support alongside the existing ONNX text embedding pipeline. Model packs are installed separately.

See the Smart Search guide.

Full changelog: v1.8.0...v1.9.1

Packaging

• Keep bundled model-license bytes consistent across Windows clean checkouts so optional model-pack downloads validate against their pinned checksums.

Validation

• Local Windows clean-checkout Release suite: 922 passed, four optional model integration tests skipped because external scratch model packs were not configured.

• GitHub Debug and Release test suites passed, including the canonical model-license byte checks.

• Main Search and workflow WPF smoke checks passed all 26 checks, covering preview, keyboard behavior, approved items, Apply, and Undo.

• GitHub CI and the Release workflow completed successfully, including portable and MSI published-sidecar smoke tests.

• Downloaded ZIP and MSI SHA-256 checksums were verified; the portable package includes the GUI, CLI, indexer, extractor host, MCP server, bundled help, and model-license files at version 1.9.1.0.

Windows downloads

This release provides a win-x64 portable ZIP, an unsigned MSI, and SHA-256 checksums. Signed MSI and Store/MSIX artifacts were not produced because repository signing and Store configuration are not present.

FileSearch 1.8.0.0

What's Changed

Outlook mail search

• Added native content search for .msg messages and local .pst / .ost mail stores without requiring Outlook or an Outlook IFilter.
• Search message subjects, senders, recipients, body text, attachment names, and mail folders through live content searches, folder content indexes, Quick Search's indexed-content option, and CLI searches.
• Added individual message result cards, sender/date/folder metadata, message-specific previews, and mail metadata in CLI exports. PST/OST messages can be opened as text-only EML copies in the registered mail application.

Mail search reads local files and cached OST messages. It does not search attachment contents or synchronize online mailboxes. Changed PST/OST stores are re-extracted as a whole; close Outlook or use a stable copy for busy stores. See the mail search guide for coverage and limits.

Whole-drive NTFS file-name indexing

• Added an optional file and folder name index for local NTFS drives, built through a fast administrator-assisted master file table scan or an unprivileged file-ID folder scan.
• Keep indexed names current through the NTFS USN change journal, with saved snapshots and rebuild handling when journal checkpoints are no longer available.
• Integrated drive indexes with Quick Search and indexed file/folder name searches in the main window and CLI.
• Added drive-index settings and status controls, plus volumes list, volumes build, volumes search, and volumes remove CLI commands.

Search interface and performance

• Redesigned the search bar, toolbar, collapsible sidebar, grouped result cards, preview pane, and status area. Added persisted sidebar state and improved match navigation.
• Improved typing, filtering, scrolling, and result display for large result sets through virtualized grouped lists and batched result delivery.
• Prevented stale Quick Search results from replacing newer searches and moved file metadata loading off the UI thread.

Documentation and maintenance

• Updated bundled HTML help to match the current interface, indexing options, Quick Search, result previews, CLI commands, and workflows.
• Added Outlook mail-search help and a local ONNX Smart Search walkthrough, covering compatible model packs, vector indexing, semantic: queries, and current limitations.
• Updated index storage for large file sizes and NTFS journal positions, with an in-place upgrade for existing schema-26 databases.
• Aligned application binary versions with release package versions and included mail-reader licenses and third-party notices in the packages.
• Updated application and test dependencies, including ONNX Runtime 1.30.0, CSharpDB.Engine 4.6.4, and WebView2. Includes the dependency update by @dependabot[bot] in #13.

Validation

• Local Debug and Release suites each passed all 805 tests, with no failures or skipped tests; Debug coverage was collected.
• GitHub CI and the release workflow passed, including release validation, portable ZIP and MSI packaging, and published sidecar smoke tests.

Full Changelog: v1.7.0...v1.8.0

FileSearch 1.7.0.0

What's Changed

• Bump the dotnet-packages group with 1 update by @dependabot[bot] in #7
• Bump the dotnet-packages group with 1 update by @dependabot[bot] in #9
• Bump actions/setup-dotnet from 5 to 6 in the github-actions group by @dependabot[bot] in #10
• Fix Build and test CI failures from CSharpDB integer overflow in index schema by @MaxAkbar with @Copilot in #11
• Bump the dotnet-packages group with 1 update by @dependabot[bot] in #12

New Contributors

• @MaxAkbar with @Copilot made their first contribution in #11

Full Changelog: v1.6.0...v1.7.0

FileSearch 1.6.0.0

Full Changelog: v1.5.0...v1.6.0

FileSearch 1.5.0.0

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.5.0

FileSearch 1.4.0.0

What's Changed

• Bump actions/cache from 5 to 6 in the github-actions group by @dependabot[bot] in #6

Full Changelog: v1.3.0...v1.4.0

FileSearch 1.3.0.0

What's Changed

• Bump the dotnet-packages group with 1 update by @dependabot[bot] in #4
• Bump the github-actions group with 2 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #5

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.3.0

FileSearch 1.2.0.0

Full Changelog: v1.1.0...v1.2.0