This week’s Freeware Frenzy will be a follow up to a Head-to-Head I wrote earlier this year. So without any further ado, let’s take a look at Copernic Desktop Search 2.

After you agree to the license, the program will install itself immediately. But the process will continue with a quick configuration. You’ll need to choose between Typical and Custom, where the custom options are indexing local files, emails & contacts, and browser history & favorites. Typical will select them all. Then the setup will finish. As with most desktop search applications, you’ll see a small search bar on the right edge of the Windows taskbar, called the ‘Deskbar’, as well as a tray icon. When you select ‘Run Copernic Desktop Search 2 Now’, you’ll see not only the main program window, but also a browser window with a thank you and tips on getting started. I was not thrilled with the desktop icon and the browser toolbars (in both Internet Explorer and Firefox) that Copernic added without my consent.

As expected, Copernic will need to index your computer’s files, so it can quickly search for them later. This is the same process used online by search engines such as Google. I noticed that Copernic’s index service was taking an unusually long while to start because it was ‘waiting for computer resources’. Copernic only indexes your files when it believes the computer is idling, so as not to disturb or slowdown your work. But this was clearly taking too long, as the computer was completely idle. Or so I thought. I realized that Copernic believed my computer was constantly in use because I run Folding@Home on my CPU at all times. Now, F@H is designed to step back in priority when other programs need to run, and I have not any problems with that until now. Apparently, Copernic was waiting until the computer freed resources, rather then trying to start so Folding would know to stop. After manually shutting down the Folding process with a three key salute (CTRL-ALT-DEL), Copernic began to index immediately. It is interesting to note that no other desktop search application I have tried had this problem. Unfortunately my troubles were only just beginning.

The indexing service froze after about three minutes and locked up my machine completely. I was forced to reboot. The index then ran without incident for about ten minutes before stopping again. I was forced to manually close another process, not Folding, to free up enough CPU time for Copernic to finish.

I had one final issue with Copernic, and it is no small problem. During the course of this review, I also lost my deskbar. No matter how I tried to re-enable it and restart Copernic, it refused to reappear. I was forced to reinstall the program. This restored the deskbar and the subsequent indexing went smoothly. But I still experienced occasional freezes, so I have to fault it heavily for not working correctly. For the few times I could use it, let’s see what it could do.

Copernic divides all of your files into eight major categories: Email, Files, Music, Pictures, Videos, Contacts, Favorites and History. The latter two can come from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape. Email and Contacts can come from both Microsoft Outlook/Express and Thunderbird. You can search within a specific category or with an ‘All’ search to find any type of file related to your query. The "My Searches" addition was useful for frequent searchers. You can use the built in searches, such as Today’s Email or Recent Pictures, or create a custom search and save it for later.

The actual searching ability of Copernic performed admirably, always locating the correct files based on my queries. I had little luck with the suggestions as I typed though. Often they did not show what I wanted, even when it did eventually find the correct file after searching. In the options menu, you can fully customize your searches amongst programs and file types, as well as the integration between Copernic and your browser’s/Window’s settings. You can also tweak how frequently Copernic will index your files.

To conclude, give Copernic Desktop Search 2 a try if you are looking for a search program with plenty of flaws. But I highly recommend trying the other options from my first Desktop Search Head-to-Head: http://www.pcmech.com/article/desktop-search-headtohead-windows-desktop-search-vs-x1-enterprise-client/

You can find Copernic Desktop Search 2 at: http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html