Halftone Search

Google Desktop is a free software tool that can be downloaded from the Google website. It is a powerful cross-platform solution that enables you to search your local computer in the same way you search the internet with Google. This versatile program is generally good, however, it may not be perfect for every situation.

Enter Halftone Search from Trietech. It is an innovative Google Desktop add-on that can create advanced functionality for MS Windows users. One of the limitations of Google Desktop is its use of an HTML interface. While this is fine for the internet, it can be less user-friendly for local desktop applications. Halftone Search solves this problem by offering an alternative Google Toolbar UI that uses Windows native controls. With this add-on, you can customize fonts, highlight search terms in the results, and more.

Halftone Search offers multiple ways to search your computer. It includes a choice of a pop-up menu in the Windows tray, a form, or a dockable toolbar in the main program window. It also allows you to extract compressed files on-the-fly and shows their contents. In addition to its interface enhancements, Halftone Search extends the Google Desktop search engine itself.

Google Desktop relies on “drivers” or plugins to collect searchable data from your local files. Halftone Search installs drivers for compressed file archives (rar, zip, arj, tar, gz, bz2, etc.), chm files, MS Help v.2 files, plain-text files with unicode support, web archives (mht), and any drivers you may have installed by MSN Desktop Search. Furthermore, Halftone Search enables you to manage all the installed drivers.

In conclusion, Halftone Search is a must-have add-on for every Google Desktop user with a Windows powered PC. Its powerful features extend the functionality of Google Desktop, offering a better, more user-friendly experience for searching your local computer.