Desktop Search Engine Compatible with MS Works (not MS Word)

DI reader Jerome Wallach is looking for a Windows Destkop search program that can index Microsoft Work documents:

I do cancer research and must be extra ordinarily protective of my data for obvious reasons. My Windows search engine that came with my Windows XP or Works simply doesn't work.

Yahoo Desktop, Ditto Windows Desktop do not work with .wps when I diligently checked a year ago. Please advise.

Now the Microsoft Works document formats [WKS (spreadsheet), WDB (database) and WPS (word processor)] are natively different from their Microsoft Office cousins even though they are interchangeable. Luckily, there are two three very good desktop search software that can index the MS Works wps files for you:

» ISYS Desktop Search - ISYS:desktop is the program of choice among corporate users. Ofcourse it's not free but way ahead of the all other desktop search program in terms of features, language support and highly customizable. It supports Microsoft Works (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0) [detailed review of ISYS:desktop 7]

» X1 Desktop Search - Two months ago, Idealabs decided to change their business model and released their popular X1 software for free, rebranded as the X1 Enterprise Client. If you don't have the budget for ISYS, X1 is the way to go. It has an inbuilt preview engine for practially all file formats. Supports Microsoft Works for Mac versions through 2.0 and Microsoft Works Windows versions through 4.0. [detailed review of X1 desktop search]

» Yahoo Desktop Search - YDS is based on X1 technology with all the features same except the program UI. The program provides a separate expansion pack to support the additional file types. If you are a Yahoo! fan, you may prefer to install YDS instead of X1. But both have a similar set of features so you can choose anyone.