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Introduction

The eSearch Project was initiated in 2023 with the goal of creating an alternative to dtSearch Desktop tailored for the European market. Our focus was on building a user interface that is easily translatable and modern in design. Due to licensing constraints, we selected the open-source and well-established Lucene.NET search engine.

To provide a contemporary user experience, we adopted the Avalonia framework, using an MVVM architecture and targeting the latest version of .NET Core. The default UI supports dark mode for a modern look and feel.

For stemming, users can choose between the traditional Porter English stemmer or our multilingual stemming rules, originally developed for dtSearch. For synonyms, we utilize the same rules created for the User Thesaurus Plus add-on. For phonic search (as known in dtSearch), we implement standard Soundex rules.

We also introduced a plugin architecture to support indexing from additional data sources such as Amazon S3, Dropbox, SharePoint, and more.

As large language models (LLMs) rapidly evolved and gained commercial relevance, we introduced an AI Mode in late 2024. This mode supports connections to the Perplexity API, OpenAI API, and a customizable option for any other OpenAI-compatible API, whether online or offline. We aim to expand these AI capabilities as the field continues to mature.

In addition to the main eSearch Pro desktop application, we developed a portable version for use on USB drives. This version is ideal for publishing searchable data or for eDiscovery, allowing searches on machines without requiring software installation.

For enterprise environments, eSearch supports command-line options that allow IT administrators to restrict user capabilities. These restrictions can limit users to searching existing indexes or querying LLMs, without the ability to create new indexes, modify LLM connections, or change configuration settings.

Currently, licensing is proprietary. The eSearch Pro version is free for personal, non-commercial use, while a TARILIO-branded version is available for commercial use. We may consider open-sourcing eSearch Pro in the future. The plugin API will be published to enable third-party development of plugins for external data sources. These may be distributed as community plugins, similar to the model used by the Obsidian application, which distinguishes between core and community plugins.

To download beta versions, view release notes, or sign up as a beta tester, visit: 👉 https://searchcloudone.com/universal-desktop-search/

For feedback and support contact: support@electronart.co.uk

4 June 2025.