Sift v0.2.0 — instant file search for Windows.
Type a name, see every match on your drives before you finish typing.
Highlights
- Instant index. Reads the NTFS master file table directly (
FSCTL_ENUM_USN_DATA) — about a million files indexed in a couple of seconds, no directory walking. - Live index. Follows the NTFS USN change journal after the first scan: files you create, rename, delete, or recycle show up in (or drop out of) results within a second. No rescans. The status bar shows
· live. - Search-as-you-type across every fixed NTFS drive — case-insensitive, every space-separated term must match, ranked closest-match-first.
- Open / Reveal in Explorer / Copy path — double-click, Enter, or right-click. Keyboard-first.
- One ~11 MB native Rust binary. No installer, no service, no telemetry.
Install
Download sift.exe and run it. Sift needs administrator rights (it reads the MFT directly) and offers to relaunch elevated on startup. Unsigned, so SmartScreen may warn on first launch — click More info → Run anyway. Verify with Get-FileHash sift.exe -Algorithm SHA256 against sift.exe.sha256.