I’ve gained a bit of notoriety at work as the guru of little freeware tools to automate tasks, solve odd problems, and generally enable lazyness through letting tools do the work for me. As such, you should blindly follow what I recommend for you see, I’m not here to make a profit, I’m here to *be* a prophet. Here is one of my number-one gun tools that you really must have no matter what IDE you use or what language you code with (or which sentences you end with prepositions). Enter Wingrep. No, really.
WinGrep is a great, small, free GUI tool that lets you find all the files that in their content match a given string or regex recursively through any directory tree. Pick a dir, type in a string, and by the power of Grayskull, there you have it, near-instant matches served up all wiggly and steamy. As you review the files with matches, the GUI shows you the previous and next 5 matching lines around the match to put everything in delightful context.
This is of course similar to the purported purposes of windows explorer, Visual Studio search, and Google desktop with the minor exceptions of:
1) actually working (as in the case of explorer search)
2) being application / language independent (VS)
3) searching through ALL text file types that programmers care about (google desktop)
Check it:
This bad boy will also do hot reg-ex search-and-replaces and is fast as all the spice girls put together. Not a day goes by that I don’t use this pig, and I love it every time. If this app were any more ass-kicking it would probably spray out those Isle of Mann ass-kicking-machine-flags
all over your screen like you just p0wned solitaire for the 723th time. (Which would be totally awesome.) It’s free to download and use indefinitely provided you blithely ignore the nag screen or you can register for the trifling sum of $30. (I think that equates to about $524 Canadian or something like 1/234th of a euro, but you should probably check that for yourself.)
This is really one of those must have apps that I would install instantly upon reinstalling a new box. Quick, easy, app-agnostic, no more or less features than you need.
5 out of 5
Have a secret little app you love thats not totally played out on Lifehacker or hasn’t been on Hanselman’s tools list for the last 2 years? Lay it on me with some hot comments! Do it!
22 comments ↓
I’m not sure what’s cooler: WinGrep or the Isle of Mann triskelion. Either way, nice post.
[...] Windows Grep’s search is quick and far more powerful than a simple Google Desktop or Windows Explorer folder search, with lightning fast results and an option for previewing the matching text and optionally the lines surrounding the text to give you an idea of context. The search works on plain text files, binary files (like Word docs), and can even search within zip archives. Windows Grep can also perform a find and replace on the text. Whether you’re a programmer or someone who does a lot of work with text, Windows Grep is an excellent tool for searching across multiple files quickly and easily. Windows Grep is free to download (it asks for a registration after 30 days but never requires one), Windows only. WinGrep [via Mike Duncan] [...]
[...] Get it here: WinGrep [via Mike Duncan] [...]
[...] lo ha provato assicura che si tratta di un prodotto che supera di molto la ricerca integrata di Windows ( non ci [...]
I’d be interested in a comparison with Funduc’s Search and Replace. I’ve used that one for a while but moved over to WinGrep since It was free. When/if I start using it more I will probably buy it, though.
About the same price, both are super fast, etc. I have actually made S&R script files to handle some repetitive tasks, but they are a bit too difficult most times.
not really an app. but this one is cool. SwitchPlanet.com
I wrote about it today. Would love it if you link back to me. I am working hard with my blog.
http://webtechlog.blogspot.com/2007/07/exchange-your-not-in-use-dvds-cds-video.html
Wow! Imagine being charged with the task of scrubbing the ass-kicking machines balls! There must be at least three sets of the bastards under that armour…It would be a respirator job, I reckon. Those medieval dudes were pretty sweaty under those tin cans they wore. Kinda like the innards of a modern computer, or a Dalek out of its shell….
http://web.archive.org/web/20070408142539/www.wingrep.com/download.htm
Last free version any one?
check out powergrep …
[...] Duncan has suggested Windows Grep in his article Windows Grep - a free top-5 must-have developer tool you really want. Trust me. [via [...]
Great to find people like you prophet …I’ll be in touch
(a promise…not a menace)
[...] WinGrep Price = Free I’ve already written extensively about this bad boy here http://www.mikeduncan.com/wingrep-code-tool . (screenshots, download links, etc are there too). I use this every single day at work. No [...]
1 Canadian dollar is now worth around 50 American
been looking for a search-and-replace util for making minor changes in a ton of files at once, great post.
btw, love the $524 CDN comment since clearly the tables have already began to turn
Why do we need all these separate Windows ports of *nix tools. There’s a better alternative, it’s call Cygwin.
[...] WinGrep Price = FreeI’ve already written extensively about this bad boy here http://www.mikeduncan.com/wingrep-code-tool . (screenshots, download links, etc are there too). I use this every single day at work. No [...]
I wrote a cool tool to manage code snippets. It docks to the side of your screen so it can be used with any code editor you have. Just drag and drop to and from the window. It has built in search, so you can find the snippets of code you need. You can even set up shared folders so a team can share code libraries.
http://www.snipitpro.com
I often have to search huge .txt and .xml files, which WinGrep cannot handle. Spend the money on PowerGrep, an amazing tool with a built-in editor that can handle such files.
I don’t see how anyone can recommend windows grep. I work with a group of 10 developers and about 100k lines of source. wingrep can’t even handle that small amount. “Out of resources errors” all the time. And who the h*ll counts number of files before starting the actual search? If I wanted to know the number of files I would find a wc utility.
I don’t know what was the state of Windows Grep at the time of writing, but it is not free today, it is a shareware.
Personally, for such task, I use either the old version of Agent Ransack, or the very fast free version of BareGrep.
I also don’t recommend WinGrep if you want real regex support. Tried WinGrep but could not use standard things like \w or group captures in replace patterns.
Sorry. I tried it and it’s horrid. I type very fast and the very first turn off was the dialog box where you have to click through all your directories to get to where you need. In the command prompt, with the help of the TAB autocomplete feature I can get down into a directory six-levels deep in about a half second. With this pathetic tool I have to go into slow-user mode and slowly click through until I get to the directory I need. Sorry, I need something faster than this. And reading the other comments about crashes and overflows… well, I guess it’s just another “freeware” piece of garbage created by hacks who don’t know anything about good user interface design.
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