Changelog

Version 1.9

Version 1.9 was released March 23rd, 2026.

Key changes:

• Saved report comparison feature allows you to see what was changed in your system between two snapshots.
• Improved PDF content search support.
• Improved HTML search report saving.

Improvements:

• New feature: Saved report comparison feature allows you to see what was changed between two saved reports. For example, save a file before installing software, and another after installing it, and the comparison feature can list you everything that was added or removed during the installation.
• New feature: You can now open the standard Windows file/folder properties dialog using the Right Click menu.
• New feature: You can now delete one or all items WinFindr finds using the Right Click Menu.
• New feature: Added support for a new search mode, if you enter a search term with quotation marks, it means an exact match. For example, a search of "foo" shall only match files and folders whose name is exactly "foo" (regardless of file extension).
• Added new Right Click menu options such as opening file/folder properties and added the ability to delete
• Improved search inside PDF files support. In short, there are numerous different PDF file formats and format versions, we are now supporting one more of those.
• Greatly improved HTML search report file format (i.e. Menu > Save as > HTML)
• Data column is saved to the HTML report only if needed. That is, if the result list contains any registry entries whose value is written to the data column.
• You can now search without a search term in some cases, e.g. to find all hidden files from your system, or to find all the document files from your system.
• The program now handles better more results on the result list with less flickering and other such issues.

Fixes:

• Open Key didn't always work, i.e. it didn't open the selected registry key in RegEdit.
• In some systems, the program could display a "Failed to save settings to disk" error message when starting the search. While this didn't prevent the program from running, it was rather annoying.
• Search terms could match the file path, instead of the filename.
• Other minor bugs fixed.

Known Issues:

• If a listed path is very long, the text can overlap or clip incorrectly. This is a cosmetic issue.
• The default result list does not handle cases with thousands of results very well. As a workaround, please use the text-only result list type.
• Changing some settings, such as UI Dark Mode / Light Mode or language without restarting the app might cause cosmetic issues with the UI. Restarting the app fixes these.

Version 1.8

Version 1.8 was released July 17th, 2025.

Key Changes:

1. Two new natural language search modes: Similar word matching and phonetic matching.
2. You can now have WinFindr to stay running in the tray area as an icon, and configure it to start automatically with Windows.
3. Improved compatibility with screen readers and other accessibility features.

Improvements:

1. New feature: Added two new natural language search modes, to find data based on word similarity and a phonetic search.
2. New feature: You can now set WinFindr to automatically start with Windows. This is available in Settings.
3. New feature: You can set WinFindr to stay running in the Windows task bar as a tray icon. This is available in Settings.
4. New feature: You can now set WinFindr to always start with administrator privileges. This is also available in Settings.
5. New feature: Added a compact tabs mode, which will better utilize all the available space within the program window.
6. The search now displays an indeterminate progress if actual progress is not possible to be shown, for example when the system is searched for the first time.
7. Improved the compatibility with screen reader software by adding a special screen reader UI mode. Also available from the Settings.
8. The special screen reader UI mode is automatically enabled if a screen reader is detected to be running in the system.
9. Increased the default maximum search result count from 999 to 9999.
10. If user attempts to activate a license and no license if found, the error message now also reminds the user that an internet connection is required to activate a new license.
11. Clicking the result list now closes the Filters menu, if open.
12. The Search Log now uses a normal font color instead of the gray font.
13. The user interface now automatically adjusts its default font size to better match the system font size.
14. The program window title now says WinFindr Pro for those awesome people who have bought the Pro version.

Fixes:

1. When changing settings and using the Restore Default Settings button, it was possible that Save Settings was not visible, making it rather impossible to save the new settings.
2. In some systems, starting the search could always display a "Failed to write settings to disk" error. Which was rather annoying.
3. In some systems, sometimes after resizing the program window, there might be a phantom scroll bar drawn over the UI. This was a cosmetic issue, not affecting the way the program worked but it could be rather distracting.
4. In Settings, the translation list was so wide its scroll bar was usually outside of the visible user interface area.
5. It was possible to start the search without any search options enabled.
6. Clicking the Restore Default Settings did not always fully restore the default settings.
7. When searching only for files, the Sort By filter in the Results list was still showing sort options relating to folders and registry data.
8. If you had search results listed, unchecking the Hide counts from the tab names option didn't work.
9. Changing the color mode without restarting the WinFindr could cause the Apply My License button to be shown with the wrong color.
10. The user interface could sometimes display an additional vertical scroll bar.
11. Version 1.7's executable was not digitally signed.

Known Issues:

1. If you have search results visible and then minimize and maximize the program window, some visual corruption might occur within the WinFindr window.
2. In the text-only search result mode, the scroll direction of the mouse wheel is reversed.
3. Changing the result view settings while there are already results listed can cause the listing user interface to get corrupted.

Version 1.7

Version 1.7 was released June 26th, 2025.

Key Changes:

1. Greatly improved the support for searching for text inside PDF files.
2. It’s now possible to search for files based on the file attributes.
3. The results list now shows more information about the found items - but you can also choose to see only a minimal amount of information, it’s up to you.

Improvements:

1. New feature: You can now search for files based on their file attributes.
2. New feature: Selecting what types of files you want to search for is now easier with options to search for, for example, video files, instead of having to enter the file extension of each file type you want to find.
3. New feature: In addition to using the standard Windows window frame, you can now also choose to use standard Windows buttons for the UI. These options are available in the Settings tab.
4. New feature: Results summary view shows the total size of the found items, as well as other statistics.
5. New feature: Previously, only the size of files were reported, now also the size of folders, registry keys and registry entries are reported.
6. New feature: The results list now shows more information about each search result, such as file creation date, file and registry key last modified date and file attributes.
7. New feature: Added a search option where only the most common system paths are searched.
8. The file extension input field is now bigger, allowing you to more easily enter more file extensions.
9. The height of the search input and other key text input fields is now automatically set based on their content.
10. Changing the type of data to be searched no longer automatically edits the search from paths.
11. If the program is running in portable mode from a USB drive, the settings will be saved to the USB drive instead of the system temporary directory.
12. If the program is being run on a system with a small screen (1920x1080 or smaller), the program will start maximized by default.
13. When the search starts, there can be a few seconds of awkward silence before the user interface reports what is going on. This is now replaced with "Starting the search ..." text.
14. The option to sort by result type will not be visible if only searching for one type of data. For example, if searching for files, it makes no sense to display the option to sort by having registry keys first.
15. You can now press Ctrl + S to trigger the saving of the results list to a file.
16. Saved searches tab is no longer visible unless the user has at least one saved search.
17. It is no longer possible to move the window if it is maximized.

Fixes:

1. Clicking a row and immediately performing a Right Click on the same row could be incorrectly counted as a double click on that row.
2. The maximum search path depth could be edited while the search was running.
3. The program UI might display incorrectly if the screen resolution changes while the program is running.
4. If the search is aborted, this is shown in the UI but it’s not always written to the Search Log.
5. Scrolling the list of installed apps doesn’t work using the mouse scroll wheel on some systems.
6. It was not possible to scroll the list of translations in Settings using the mouse wheel.
7. Pressing some special keys from the keyboard, such as Print Screen, could add a period or a comma character to the result list’s filter input.
8. If you searched for something that doesn’t produce any results right away, the UI could say "Starting the search ..." for many seconds, which makes it seem the program has frozen.
9. Clicking the un-maximize button at the top right corner of the app window could un-maximize the window, but the new size could be the entire screen size, which makes clicking the button rather useless.
10. Progress indication during the search might not always work properly.
11. It can be impossible to save changed settings in some situations, as the Save Settings button is not visible.
12. Using the program in Japanese could show an annoying error message after the search had completed.
13. Clicking the Stop button did not immediately stop the search.

Known Issues:

1. The user interface can sometimes display an additional vertical scroll bar or other visual corruption. Resizing the app window might fix it. This is a cosmetic issue.

Version 1.6

Version 1.6 was released November 30th, 2023.

Improvements:

1. New feature: New, more modern results listing UI component.
2. New feature: WinFindr can now search for epub format ebooks based on their content.
3. New feature: You can now filter and sort the results list with much more options.
4. New feature: Added support for searching for files and folders from Windows network drives.
5. New feature: You can now ignore (and therefore instantly remove) items from the results list by using the Right Click menu.
6. New feature: You can now define the search depth. For example, if you want to search for files only from C:\Temp\ and one level of sub directories, you can now do that by entering "1" as the search depth.
7. New feature: Added support for searching for files based on their metadata. For example, you can search mp3 music files based on their tag data such as album name.
8. New feature: You can now choose whether you want files to be searched based on their name. Disabling this option allows you to search files only based on their metadata or content. Previously, it was possible to search for files based on their content, but the same search would also always match files whose name contained the search terms.
9. New feature: Registry entry search results now also show the value of the registry entry.
10. New feature: Adding new ignore items now update the results list immediately. For example, if you add C:\Windows\ to your ignore list, all C:\Windows\ search results are immediately removed from the search results without the need to run the search again.
11. New feature: The search results now show the type of the found file results, similarly how the type of the found registry entries is shown.
12. New feature: The Ignore input now also supports wildcards. Previously, only the search terms supported wildcards.
13. New feature: Clicking the Search Sources text will now show the directory browsing dialog. Previously, you had to move the mouse cursor to the very right side of the window and click the ... button.
14. New feature: Clicking the Search For text will now automatically select all the search data types.
15. New feature: WinFindr Pro users can now reset their license information in the About tab for example in case they want to change the name of the license owner.

Fixes:

1. Searching for files with a specific kind of wildcard did not work, as the search never found any results.
2. Maximizing the program window could cause it to go over the Windows task bar.

Known Issues:

1. The new user interface can only handle a small number of search results. The maximum number of results is set to 4999. If you are expecting more search results in your use case, please do not update to this version. This issue will be fixed in the next version.
2. Data within the results list can overlap with other data. This is a cosmetic issue.
3. The user interface can sometimes display an additional vertical scroll bar. Resizing the app window might remove it. This is a cosmetic issue.

Version 1.4

Version 1.4 was released September 28th, 2023.

Improvements:

1. New feature: Proximity search allows you to define that you want to find your search terms within a specific proximity. For example, if you have search terms "cute" and "cat", with proximity search, you can define that those search terms must be found within, say, 10 words of each other.
2. New feature: Added a search option to ignore special characters between words. If enabled, a search term "cute cat" will match files such as "cute-cat.jpg" and "cute_cat.jpg"
3. New feature: Added a search option to ignore accent characters. If enabled, a search term "café" will match "cafes.pdf".
4. Greatly improved the speed of the new search inside documents feature.
5. WinFindr can now find more document and PDF file formats based on their content.
6. You can now enter input paths inside quotation marks, which is handy when copying paths from Windows 11 file explorer.
7. Now comes also with a Dutch translation!
8. The program will now show an error message if user attempts to enter conflicting search paths. For example, trying to search from C:\ and C:\Windows\ will trigger the error message, because if C:\ is searched, then C:\Windows\ is already also included to the search.
9. The number of already analyzed dirs and keys is now updated more often, which avoids the potentially confusing situation with the program searching but the status text not updating.
10. The Search, Saved searches and Ignore tabs now show a tooltip that shows the content of these sections.
11. Trying to start the search with a confusing set of search options and paths will now display an error message. For example, if you choose only to look for files, yet the search from paths only include registry keys, there are filesystem paths to search and therefore the search can never find anything.
12. The search page will now automatically fill in certain search settings if the user has forgotten to enter them. For example, if you choose to search for PDF documents by their content and you have the Look for files of specific type option selected, but the list of file types does not include PDF files, PDF is automatically added to the list of file extensions.

Fixes:

1. If the search completed very quickly, the user interface could display "Searched 0 folders and found xyz results". The UI saying the program searched zero paths was misleading and incorrect.
2. In some cases, the "Do not search these paths" was not honored and the results could include items from excluded paths.
3. It was not possible to add a Windows network drive / NAS drive to the search source paths list using the ... button.
4. In some cases, the program could list results that match some of the specified ignore words.

Version 1.3

Version 1.3 was released September 21st, 2023.

Improvements:

1. WinFindr can now search for files inside Zip and Rar files.
2. WinFindr can now search for data inside text files (.txt, .csv etc) and inside document files (.doc, .odt and .pdf)
3. WinFindr can now search files based on their size, for example, to only look for files that are smaller than a specific size.
4. The search speed is now greatly improved in the AND logic mode, that is, all of the given search terms must match.
5. Added an option to Settings for you to decide whether you want search settings to be saved between sessions.
6. Added an option to use the standard window frame instead of the custom one.
7. Added an option to use larger font within the program's UI.
8. Aborted search will now say why the search was aborted, for example, whether a timeout happened.
9. You can now enter Windows environment variables as search source paths, for example, %TMP%.
10. If you only search for filesystem data, all the default registry related data are automatically cleared from the UI.
11. You can now define whether you want to search for registry entry names, entry values or both, and which types of registry entries you want to search for.
12. The search progress bar now works smoother.
13. Registry search results now display the exact type of the found registry entries.

Fixes:

1. The default disk drive selection can include non fixed drives, which can cause errors when searching. For example, the default drive selection could contain a Google Drive drive or a DVD drive without any disk in it, and searching from them could cause the search to fail.
2. It was possible to edit the Ignore search terms and other search settings while a search was already running.
3. The search timeout setting didn't always work.
4. Saving the results list to a file dialog could use incorrect colors if the main user interface was in dark mode.
5. After you have searched something AND selected at least one row from the results, then open the Search tab or Settings tab and Right Click. The menu would show "Copy path to clipboard", even though the results list is not even open.
6. If the search ends with an automated stoppage (e.g. via timeout), OR user clicks the Stop button to stop the search, the Settings tab was not visible, while it should be visible if no search is currently active.
7. If you had some search terms already written, and then you did Right Click > Reset search, the list of search terms was cleared, but the Search tab still showed the number of search terms before clicking Reset search.
8. In some special cases, the search could get stuck and never complete without a timeout. This could happen in systems where the filesystem or Windows registry contained special symbolic links which formed a loop, and WinFindr would scan that loop until the program's timeout triggered.
9. The default result list column widths were not very optimal in relation to the app window size.
10. Clicking Start and Save and entering a name for the saved search that already exists causes an error message about a duplicate name to show, this is correct. However, the search would still start even though the saving of the search was aborted.

Version 1.2

Version 1.2 was released July 13th, 2023.

Improvements:

1. New feature: Save and Start allows you to save the search parameters and start the search, with a click of just one button. Previously you had to first run a search before it was possible to save it for future use.
2. New feature: Dedicated search paths exclusion input allows you to easily define which paths you don't want to be searched. previously this had to be done via the Ignore search terms, which was a bit awkward.
3. New feature: Dedicated buttons to add new directories to the search sources and exclude sources lists.
4. The data searching now works faster, a lot faster. Especially in cases of many search words or many ignore words used at the same time. In the real world benchmark test, the improvement was a mind boggling 2100% speed increase.

Fixes:

1. The Search page could be shown in a way that the search terms input field is hidden. This could happen in systems with specific screen resolution and font settings. This is now fixed by including a vertical scroll bar to the Search page.

Version 1.1

Version 1.1 was released June 22nd, 2023.

Improvements:

1. New feature: Dedicated search source input field allows you to define which drives and/or registry root keys to search, previously this had to be done via the Ignore search terms, which was a bit awkward.
2. New feature: Ability to save searches. If you are often running the same searches, simply save it and it can be later run with just one click.
3. New feature: Added a Right Click menu option to copy the selected item’s path to clipboard.
4. New feature: Added a Right Click menu option to save only the selected items to file.
5. The results list now uses the Windows natural sorting algorithm, the same Windows file explorer uses.
6. The scan progress view now shows how many directories and registry keys have been analyzed, previously only their sum was shown.
7. Added a search progress bar which is visible after the given search source paths have been analyzed already at least one time.
8. In case the program fails to save its settings to disk, there is now an error message informing the user that this just happened.
9. If running in Portable mode, the program will use WinFindr.dat within the program folder to save its settings if the file exists, if not, the WinFindr.dat file is created to the system’s temporary directory.
10. Reset Search is no longer visible in the Right Click menu during the search, as it doesn’t really make sense.
11. Searching with multiple search terms is now a bit faster.

Fixes:

1. The Search Log can sometimes display a wrong number of results found in its total value.
2. The search process could get stuck and never complete in some systems using a specific set of search terms.

Version 1.0

Version 1.0 was released June 8th, 2023.

First public version release 🚀