Dowse 0.1.0

Dowse 0.1.0

Find files on your Windows PC by what's in them, not just their names. Free and open source (MIT).

Download

Download Dowse-Setup-0.1.0.exe from the assets below. The installer includes Python and the application's dependencies; you do not need to install Python or Node.js.

This first release is unsigned. Windows may display an unknown-publisher or Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warning. There is no code-signing certificate on this installer. Do not disable Windows security protections to install it. Download only from this official repository and verify the SHA-256 checksum before deciding whether to run it. A checksum verifies the downloaded bytes; it does not establish a trusted publisher or remove SmartScreen warnings.

What you can do

• Describe a photo, document, recording or video to find it; search across languages.
• Inspect a matching PDF page or audio/video moment inside Dowse.
• Open Quick search with Alt + Shift + Space, or browse the Search gallery and Explore aisles.
• Choose folders and individual files, turn sources on or off, and find similar files.

Files are read and searched on your PC. First-run setup downloads the embedding model and runtime; those downloads require internet access. The recommended multimodal model is about 865 MB, plus the runtime. A graphics card is optional; CPU mode is available.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (x64).
• Approximately 1 GB for the default model and runtime, plus space for the application and your search index.
• Microsoft Edge WebView2; the installer adds it if missing.

Safety fixes included

• Index encryption covers existing cache subfolders and future thumbnails. If Windows cannot apply the requested encryption change, Dowse shows an error and does not start. Windows EFS support is required for this optional feature.
• Office, OpenDocument and EPUB readers enforce a shared 64 MiB decompressed-content budget, including metadata. An oversized document fails safely without stopping indexing of other files.

Verify your download

Download SHA256SUMS.txt alongside the installer. In PowerShell, run:

Get-FileHash .\Dowse-Setup-0.1.0.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the result with the hash in SHA256SUMS.txt.

Source and validation

• Public source commit: 576eedf5ea61fa0316ad0bc5c284c37da19e0dbe.
• Windows build and installer tests: frontend checks, Python tests, installer build, installation, model setup, search, update, interrupted-install repair and uninstall.
• User guide · Report a bug.

Dowse is MIT licensed. The downloaded models have their own licenses; EmbeddingGemma uses Google's Gemma Terms of Use. This release does not claim or include sponsorship from a code-signing service.