VX Search: Comprehensive File Search & Classification Tool OverviewVX Search is a professional-grade file search and classification solution designed for organizations and advanced users who need fast, accurate discovery and analysis of files across local disks, network shares, NAS devices, and even cloud-mounted storage. It combines a flexible set of search criteria, powerful file classification and reporting capabilities, and automation options that help administrators manage large volumes of files, enforce policies, and perform forensic or compliance-related tasks.
What VX Search Does
- Locates files quickly using name patterns, content searches, metadata, and extended attributes.
- Classifies files by type, content, size, date, owner, permissions, and other attributes.
- Generates reports and visualizations that summarize search results, file distribution, duplicates, and classification statistics.
- Automates actions such as moving, copying, deleting, or tagging files based on rules.
- Integrates with enterprise environments through command-line tools, scripting support, and network-aware scanning.
Core Features
Search options
- Full-text content search with support for multiple encodings and large files.
- Filename and wildcard searches, regular expressions, and Boolean logic.
- Metadata and attribute filters (size ranges, creation/modification/access dates, permissions, file owner, file version information).
- Search by hashes (MD5, SHA1, SHA256) for exact-file identification and duplicate detection.
Classification and analysis
- Automatic file type identification using signatures and extensions.
- Classification by content (e.g., documents containing PCI/PII terms, source code, images).
- Duplicate file detection and disk space analysis.
- File similarity and near-duplicate detection (depending on configuration).
Reporting and visualization
- Exportable reports in HTML, CSV, XML, PDF and other formats.
- Charts and tables showing file type distribution, biggest folders, duplicate file groups, timeline of file changes, and more.
- Custom report templates and scheduled report generation.
Automation & actions
- Rule-based actions: move, copy, delete, replace text, tag or set attributes.
- Command-line interface for integration in batch jobs and scripts.
- Scheduler for periodic scans and automatic remediation workflows.
Security & auditing
- Access to NTFS security attributes and ACL inspection.
- Ability to search for files containing sensitive patterns (credit card numbers, social security numbers, custom regex).
- Audit trails and logs for forensic scenarios.
Scalability & performance
- Multi-threaded scanning engine for high performance on multi-core systems.
- Network-aware scanning optimized for SMB/CIFS shares and mapped drives.
- Incremental scanning/indexing options to reduce repeated I/O on large datasets.
Typical Use Cases
IT administration
- Identify large or obsolete files to reclaim storage.
- Discover unapproved file types (executables, scripts) stored on user shares.
- Detect and remove duplicate or redundant data.
Security & compliance
- Search for files containing regulated data (PII, PHI, PCI) across the enterprise.
- Create evidentiary reports for audits and legal discovery.
- Locate potential malware or unauthorized binaries using hash matching.
Forensics & incident response
- Rapidly enumerate files on compromised hosts and network storage.
- Extract and export file metadata and content matches for investigators.
- Produce chain-of-custody–style reports and hashes for evidentiary integrity.
Content management & migration
- Classify files by type and age to plan migrations to cloud or archival storage.
- Identify candidates for deduplication and archiving.
- Generate manifests and inventories for project handoffs.
Development & QA
- Locate source files, libraries, or third-party components across code repositories.
- Find usages of deprecated APIs or licenses by full-text searching codebases.
Deployment & Integration
Installation and environment
- Typically available for Windows, with server and desktop editions; some vendors provide Linux/Unix variants or capabilities via command-line utilities.
- Supports scanning local volumes, mounted network shares, NAS devices, and mapped drives.
- May integrate with domain credentials for permission-aware scanning.
APIs and automation
- Command-line interface (CLI) for embedding VX Search tasks into scripts or automation frameworks.
- Scheduled tasks for recurring scans and report generation.
- Export formats compatible with spreadsheets, SIEMs, and other reporting systems.
Permissions and access
- When run with administrative privileges, VX Search can access NTFS metadata, system files, and other restricted areas for complete inventories.
- Permission-aware scanning respects access controls when run under standard user accounts, limiting results to accessible files.
Strengths
- Fast, multi-threaded scanning with robust filtering options.
- Rich classification capabilities for compliance and forensics.
- Flexible reporting and export formats for audits and executive summaries.
- Automation via CLI and schedulers enables repeatable workflows.
Limitations and Considerations
- Enterprise licensing costs may be a factor for large-scale deployments.
- Full performance and deep-file access typically require elevated privileges — balance with security policies.
- Network scans across high-latency links can be slow; consider running local agents or staging data.
- Some advanced content inspection (e.g., OCR on images, deep archive extraction) may require supplementary tools or modules.
Example Workflow: Discovering and Acting on PII
- Define search criteria: target user shares, match common PII patterns (regex for SSNs, credit card numbers), file types to inspect (DOCX, PDF, TXT).
- Run an initial scan and generate a CSV report of matches with file paths, sizes, and matched snippets.
- Review results, mark confirmed files, and create an automation rule to quarantine or move matches to a secure folder.
- Schedule weekly scans to monitor for reoccurrence and maintain audit logs for compliance.
Comparison with Alternatives
| Capability | VX Search | Generic Desktop Search | Enterprise DLP | SIEM / Forensics Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-text search | Yes | Limited | Yes (focused) | Varies |
| Classification & reports | Advanced | Basic | Advanced | Limited |
| Automation (move/delete) | Yes | No | Limited | Varies |
| Network share scanning | Yes | Limited | Yes | Varies |
| Command-line support | Yes | Often no | Sometimes | Yes |
| Forensic reporting | Good | Poor | Sometimes | Strong |
Best Practices
- Run initial scans under an account with sufficient privileges to get complete inventories, then re-run under least-privilege accounts for operational checks.
- Limit full-content scans to relevant file types to reduce I/O and false positives.
- Combine VX Search results with DLP or endpoint security tools for active enforcement.
- Archive and hash-match known-sensitive files to detect unauthorized copies.
- Test automation rules in a non-production environment before applying destructive actions.
Conclusion
VX Search is a mature, capable file search and classification tool suited for administrators, security teams, and compliance officers who need detailed visibility into file inventories across local and networked storage. Its combination of fast search, flexible classification, reporting, and automation makes it valuable for storage optimization, compliance discovery, incident response, and migration planning. When deployed and configured thoughtfully — with attention to permissions, performance, and integration — VX Search can significantly reduce the manual effort of locating, classifying, and remediating files across an organization.
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