DocFetcher (Install)

DocFetcher (Install) is an open-source desktop search application for Windows. It searches the contents of files stored on a computer, allowing users to find text within local documents rather than relying only on filenames. It is intended for people who need to search their own collections of documents, source files, archives, or email data from one desktop application.

The application lets users index only the locations and content they need, and it supports 64-bit systems and Unicode. Its archive support covers zip, 7z, rar, and tar files, with customizable zip extensions and support for archives nested without a fixed nesting limit. Users can customize the file extensions recognized as plain text, supporting searches through source code and other text-based formats, including source code stored inside Jar files when the relevant archive extensions are configured. DocFetcher can also search Outlook emails stored in PST files.

For HTML content, DocFetcher can detect a file and its matching folder, such as foo.html and foo_files, and treat them as one document to reduce folder clutter in results. Regular-expression rules can exclude selected files from indexing. Regular expressions can also enable mime-type detection, allowing the application to inspect file contents when a filename extension does not accurately identify the file type. Its query syntax includes basic OR, AND, and NOT constructs.

DocFetcher provides a crap-free interface and lists no data collection among its characteristics. It is free and open-source software, making its license and privacy approach relevant to users choosing a local search tool for Windows. In the MirrorNest catalog, DocFetcher (Install) belongs in the Windows desktop search category. MirrorNest links directly to the official release rather than hosting a mirrored copy, so the catalog serves as a route to the original distribution.