But Windows computers don’t come with such a thing pre-installed, but that doesn’t mean, developers, don’t have a similar tool for you. Yes, there are a handful of programs, which can act the same way on your Windows computer, just the way, Spotlight works on a Mac. But when there are many tools that offer the same functionality, choosing the most appropriate one can be challenging, and I am here to save you from the trial and error loop. That said, I will talk about the top best Spotlight alternatives for a Windows 10-8-7 computer.
What are the best Spotlight Alternatives for Windows 10?
As Spotlight is available for Mac and not for Windows 10-8-7, it is not possible to get exactly the same, however, there are some tools that can mimic its functions. Thus, here is a quick view of alternatives that can use be used on Windows to get the related Spotlight like features:
1. Ueli
2. KeyPirinha
3. Launchy
4. Wox
5. Search Everything
6. Cerebro Pro
Ueli
Designed with Electron framework under the hood, Ueli is one of the simplest Spotlight alternatives you can find for Windows. With a dark theme and a few other colour schemes, Ueli can launch programs, search for items in some selected folders, do calculations, search the web, send emails, and every other simple thing right from the one box.
KeyPirinha
KeyPirinha Is a lightweight Spotlight alternative for Windows 10/8/7, which is a simple portable app, which is very simple and easy to use and also come with some advanced functionalities that might come in handy. Besides the ability to launch apps, search for files and do most other simple tasks, you can even execute commands within a certain app to make your job even simpler.
The only problem with KeyPirinha though is, it is a little difficult to set up and you need to edit the configuration file first to get started with the program.
However, if you are into coding, it will be a piece of pie for you. Even the process to change the hotkey is also a little difficult, and so it requires digging into the configuration file. KeyPirinha is still a powerful Spotlight alternative you can go for.
Launchy
Another useful Spotlight alternative you can count on for Windows is Launchy, which has support for plugins to enhance the functionality of the program. Besides the ability to search for files, it is optimized for the web and you can even execute commands within programs, which makes it a cool alternative to Spotlight. Launchy can even open a certain variety of files within a particular app and you can even delay the response as per your requirements.
Launchy seems to be a little slow but it is one of the best apps that you can go for, as it has support for plugins. To make the process of searching for local files efficient, you can add certain folders for searches.
Besides the availability of the program for Windows, it is also available for Linux and Mac which means you will always feel at home if you switch platforms. The look and feel of Launchy can also be changed depending upon your likeness.
Wox
One of the best alternatives Spotlight for Windows is Wox, and it has all the reasons you should start using it right away. The app is not limited to searching for local files and the web using a default search engine, but it also has the functionality to download additional plugins and search for videos on YouTube, songs on Spotify, Translate using Google Translate and a lot of other things.
There are a number of great plugins, you can download enhance the capability of Wox.
Search Everything
If you are not looking for an alternative to Spotlight for Windows to perform a plethora of tasks, but you are going to search files locally most of the time, Search Everything is for you. Search Everything is one of the best search tools available for Windows, and it can also work more efficiently than the default search tool available with Windows. The search results can also be exported to a text file to work with them later on.
Search Everything is quite lightweight and comes with a simple user interface with no unwanted elements at all. Search Everything can be the perfect alternative for your default search tool as I already said and it can definitely sort things out for you. Whenever you search for something using Search Everything, you will find a handful of results, which might frustrate you, but it can still be useful if your file is located in an invisible corner of a hard drive.
Cerebro app
Cerebro App is an open-source productivity booster tool. If you’re looking for some additional set of functionalities, Cerebro App can come in handy for you, as it can also bring search results from the web just below the search box on Cerebro App.
This makes Cerebro app even more useful and you don’t need to you open your entire web browser for searching something in the blink of an eye. Just like most other Spotlight alternatives I mentioned here, the Cerebro app is also customizable in a number of ways.
One thing to be noted, it has not been updated since 2017, albeit it works on Windows 10, still, the user needs it to test on their own Windows system thoroughly before relying on it.
When we keep getting new functionalities with every new Windows update having Spotlight alternative on your Windows computer can definitely come in handy. You can use most of the programs I have mentioned here to search for free small pieces of information in the most effortless way yet. Most of the programs I have mentioned here are open-source and you can download the source code for optional modifications from the GitHub other places depending upon each of the programs. All the programs here are lightweight and the size is less than 10 MB, which means will hardly have any major effects on your system performance.
Hope the list of top 6 Spotlight alternative for Windows will be useful for you. Do you know any other program that deserves its name in the list? Feel free to comment on the same below.
Other Alternatives:
FLUENT SEARCH MUST BE ON THIS LIST !!!