The short answer: if you remember the name, use Everything; if you only remember what was written inside, use CHATDA. Both are free, and they sit on the same PC without getting in each other's way.
Everything reads the NTFS master file table directly to build a list of names. Even with hundreds of thousands of files, name search is instant and the index is built in seconds. When you know the file name, little else comes close.
It does not index the text inside documents; its own FAQ says so plainly. So a search for a phrase that appears in last year's quote, but not in its file name, will not find it.
CHATDA opens PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Hangul files, reads the body text and indexes it. On one PC it indexed 105,630 files, read the text of 74,157 documents, and the index came to 102.5 MB. The price is a slow first run — it really is reading inside every document.
Only what each tool states about itself.
| CHATDA | Everything | Windows Search | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find by filename | yes | yes | yes |
| Find by document contents | yes | no | partial |
| Hangul (HWP) contents | yes | no | partial |
| Korean initials · KR/EN typo recovery | yes | no | no |
| 12-language keyboard & transliteration | yes | no | no |
| Free | yes | yes | yes |
△ depends on format — Windows Search reads HWP contents only on PCs with Hangul installed. Everything is among the fastest filename search tools and states in its official FAQ that it does not index file contents. As of September 2026.
No. They keep separate indexes. Use Everything for names, CHATDA for contents — that combination is the fastest.
Yes, names and contents together. For pure name-only speed, Everything is still ahead.