anshdadhich/finder

FastSeek - macOS Spotlight-style File Search for Windows

A blazing-fast file search tool for Windows that indexes all files using the NTFS Master File Table (MFT) directly, wrapped in a beautiful macOS Spotlight-style UI powered by Tauri v2.

Architecture

fastsearch-core/          (Rust library — your original engine, unchanged)
  ├── src/index/search.rs  (Fuzzy search with rayon parallelism)
  ├── src/index/store.rs   (In-memory arena index + LZ4 cache)
  ├── src/mft/reader.rs    (Direct NTFS MFT parsing)
  ├── src/mft/watcher.rs   (USN journal live updates)
  └── src/utils/drives.rs  (NTFS drive detection)

fastsearch-tauri/         (Tauri v2 desktop app)
  ├── src-tauri/
  │   ├── src/main.rs      (Backend: tray, global shortcuts, window mgmt)
  │   ├── capabilities/    (Tauri v2 permissions system)
  │   ├── tauri.conf.json  (v2 config)
  │   ├── Cargo.toml       (v2 deps + plugins)
  │   └── icons/           (Generated by create_icons.py)
  └── ui/
      ├── index.html       (Spotlight-style layout)
      ├── styles.css       (Frosted glass, dark theme, animations)
      └── app.js           (Instant search, keyboard nav)

Why Tauri v2?

• Keep your Rust core intact — MFT scanning, indexing, and search logic stays in Rust with zero changes
• Native Windows integration — System tray, global shortcuts (Win+Space), native window management
• Beautiful UI — HTML/CSS/JS frontend with macOS Spotlight aesthetics: blur effects, smooth animations
• Small footprint — ~5-10MB vs Electron's 100MB+
• Capabilities-based security — Tauri v2's permission model

Why NOT C#?

• Your core is already Rust with deep Windows kernel integration (NTFS MFT parsing, USN journal watching)
• Porting to C# would require rewriting all unsafe Win32 interop, MFT parsing, USN journal code
• Rust → C# FFI is complex and loses performance advantages
• Tauri gives you a better UI with less effort while keeping your Rust engine

Features

• ⚡ Instant search — Indexes millions of files in seconds via NTFS MFT
• 🔍 Fuzzy matching with ranking (exact → starts with → contains)
• 📂 Live index updates via USN journal watching
• 🎨 Spotlight-style UI with blur backdrop, smooth animations
• ⌨️ Global shortcuts: Win+Space to open, ESC to close
• 🖱️ Navigation: ↑ ↓ arrows, Enter to open, Ctrl+Enter to reveal in Explorer
• 💾 Smart caching — Compressed LZ4 cache with delta catch-up on restart
• 🚫 Directory exclusions via UI
• 🔔 System tray — Menu with Show/Quit, left-click to toggle

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (stable, ≥ 1.77.2) — rustup.rs
• Python 3 (to generate placeholder icons)
• Windows 10/11 (NTFS MFT scanning won't work on Linux/Mac)
• Administrator privileges (required for MFT direct access)
• Microsoft Edge WebView2 (usually pre-installed on Win10/11)

Clone & Build

# 1. Clone
git clone https://huggingface.co/anshdadhich/finder
cd finder

# 2. Generate placeholder icons (or replace with real ones later)
cd fastsearch-tauri
python create_icons.py

# 3. Build & run in dev mode (admin PowerShell)
cargo tauri dev

# 4. Build release installer
cargo tauri build

Release artifacts:

src-tauri/target/release/fastsearch-tauri.exe   (standalone)
src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/*.msi        (Windows installer)
src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/*.exe       (NSIS installer)

Important: Run PowerShell as Administrator before cargo tauri dev. The MFT scanner requires elevated privileges.

Usage

Shortcut	Action
Win + Space	Open/close search overlay
ESC	Close search
↑ / ↓	Navigate results
Enter	Open file/folder
Ctrl + Enter	Reveal in File Explorer

Troubleshooting

Error	Fix
icons/icon.ico not found; required for generating a Windows Resource	Run python create_icons.py to generate placeholder icons
"identifier" is a required property	Your cargo tauri is v1. Upgrade: cargo install tauri-cli --force
No NTFS drives found	Run as Administrator
devUrl is not a uri	Already fixed — pull latest from repo

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Core engine	Rust (windows crate, MFT direct read, USN journals, LZ4, rayon)
Desktop framework	Tauri v2
Global shortcuts	tauri-plugin-global-shortcut v2
Shell/open	tauri-plugin-shell v2
Frontend	Plain HTML/CSS/JS (no build step needed)
UI style	macOS Spotlight-inspired (frosted glass, dark theme)

Original Engine

The core file search engine (fastsearch-core/) was written by anshdadhich and uses:

• Direct NTFS MFT reading for lightning-fast indexing
• USN (Update Sequence Number) journal for live file system tracking
• In-memory arena-based index with binary search lookups
• LZ4-compressed persistent cache
• Rayon's parallel iterators for search