A lightweight Windows file launcher and search utility built with C++, ImGui, DirectX 11, and SQLite.
Better Search aims to provide a fast and minimal search experience for opening files and folders directly from the keyboard. The project focuses on responsive UI, efficient indexing, and scalable search performance.
- Fast file and folder search
- Prefix-based searching
- SQLite-backed persistent index
- Lightweight ImGui interface
- Acrylic / glass-style UI effects
- Direct file launching from search results
- Asynchronous index loading
- Modern C++ implementation
- DirectX 11 rendering backend
| Component | Usage |
|---|---|
| C++17/20 | Core application |
| ImGui | User Interface |
| DirectX 11 | Rendering |
| SQLite | File indexing database |
| nlohmann/json | Legacy indexing and data serialization |
| Win32 API | Windowing and system integration |
| Visual Studio 2022 | Development environment |
- Files are scanned from selected directories.
- Metadata is stored inside a SQLite database.
- User input is matched against indexed filenames.
- Results are displayed instantly in the ImGui interface.
- Selected files are opened using the Windows Shell API.
The long-term goal is to evolve Better Search into a high-performance Windows search utility capable of indexing and searching millions of files while maintaining a lightweight user experience.
Planned improvements include:
- Full system-wide indexing across all local drives
- Real-time filesystem monitoring
- Automatic index updates for moved, renamed, and deleted files
- Reduced memory consumption
- Improved search ranking
- Background indexing service
- Trie-based in-memory search acceleration
- NTFS USN Journal integration for Everything-style indexing
- Keyboard shortcuts and launcher workflow improvements
- SQLite-based indexing
- Acrylic glass UI
- Asynchronous loading
- Direct file launching
- Prefix search implementation
- Persistent file database
- Full-drive indexing
- Automatic filesystem synchronization
- Search result ranking
- Memory usage optimization
- Background indexing workers
- NTFS USN Journal support
- Real-time indexing
- Fuzzy search
- File type filters
- Recent files support
- Plugin system
- Windows 10 / Windows 11
- Visual Studio 2022
- DirectX 11 SDK
- SQLite3
git clone https://github.com/akshaytheGodxo/searchbar.git
cd searchbarOpen the solution in Visual Studio 2022 and build using the x64 Debug or x64 Release configuration.
This project is currently under active development.