Achilles-Search

A blazing-fast, native Windows desktop file search engine built in pure C17. Index hundreds of thousands of files in seconds and search them instantly with real-time results as you type.

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What is Achilles-Search?

Achilles-Search is a lightweight desktop search tool that lets you find any file on your computer almost instantly. Unlike the built-in Windows search, Achilles-Search builds its own high-performance in-memory index of your filesystem, so searches return results in real-time as you type each character.

It runs as a native Windows application with no frameworks, no runtimes, and no dependencies. Just a single .exe that sits in your system tray and is always one hotkey away.

How It Works

1. Scan - You pick a directory and click Index. A background worker thread recursively scans every file and folder using the Windows API, building a compressed in-memory index.

   

   

2. Search - As you type in the search box, a multi-threaded parallel matcher instantly filters through the entire index and displays matching filenames and paths in real-time.

   

3. Interact - Double-click any result to reveal it in Windows Explorer, or right-click to copy its full path to your clipboard.

   

   

The application lives in your system tray. Press Alt + Shift + Space from anywhere on your desktop to instantly summon the search window.

Key Features

• Instant Search - Results appear in real-time as you type, powered by a multi-threaded parallel file matcher.
• Background Indexing - Filesystem scanning runs on a dedicated worker thread so the UI never freezes.
• System Tray - Minimizes to tray on close. Always running, always one hotkey away.
• Global Hotkey - Alt + Shift + Space toggles the window from anywhere.
• Real-Time Monitoring - Watches indexed directories for changes using asynchronous overlapped I/O.
• Content Indexing - Inverted word index enables searching inside file contents.
• Persistent Database - Save and restore your index across sessions with a custom binary serializer.
• Zero Dependencies - Pure C17 with native Win32 APIs. No external libraries required.

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Platform

Requirement	Details
Operating System	Windows 10 / Windows 11 (64-bit)
Architecture	x86-64 (AMD64)
Runtime Dependencies	None

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Installation

Download (Recommended)

Pre-built binaries are available on the Releases page.

Download	Description
AchillesSearch-x.x.x-win64.exe	Windows installer with Start Menu shortcut
AchillesSearch-x.x.x-win64.zip	Portable version — extract and run, no install needed

Build from Source

If you prefer to compile it yourself, you will need:

• CMake 3.20+
• A C compiler — MSVC (Visual Studio 2022) or GCC (MinGW via MSYS2)

Using MSVC (Visual Studio)

git clone https://github.com/Kri311/Achilles-Search.git
cd Achilles-Search

cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release

Using GCC (MinGW / MSYS2)

Make sure C:\msys64\mingw64\bin is added to your system PATH.

git clone https://github.com/Kri311/Achilles-Search.git
cd Achilles-Search

cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release

The compiled executable will be at build/bin/AchillesSearch.exe.

Packaging an Installer

To generate the distributable ZIP and NSIS installer locally (requires NSIS):

cd build
cpack -C Release

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Project Structure

Achilles-Search/
├── include/              # Public header files
│   ├── common/           # Types, errors, config, logger, utilities
│   ├── core/             # Scanner, index, search, content index, monitor
│   ├── data/             # Vector, HashMap
│   └── storage/          # Database serialization
├── src/                  # Source implementation
│   ├── common/           # Logger, utilities
│   ├── core/             # Scanner, indexer, search engine, monitor
│   ├── data/             # Dynamic vector, hash map
│   ├── storage/          # Binary database serializer
│   └── main.c            # Win32 GUI entry point
├── tests/                # Unit tests for every module
├── .github/workflows/    # CI/CD release automation
├── CMakeLists.txt        # Build configuration
└── README.md

Module	What It Does
Scanner	Recursively walks directories using Windows FindFirstFileW / FindNextFileW
Indexer	Builds a prefix-path compressed in-memory index of all scanned files
Search Engine	Multi-threaded parallel matcher that filters the index against a query
Content Index	Inverted word index for searching inside file contents
Monitor	Watches directories for real-time changes via ReadDirectoryChangesW
Database	Custom binary format to persist and restore the index to/from disk
GUI	Native Win32 window with ListView, status bar, system tray, and global hotkey

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License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for full details.