FilePulse User Guide

Complete Tutorial and Reference

Learn how to use FilePulse effectively with our comprehensive guide covering basic operations to advanced configurations.

Getting Started

How to run FilePulse for the first time

By default, FilePulse requires ports 80 and 443. If you need to change these ports, please modify config.json

Default ports: 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS)

To change ports, modify the config.json file

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1

Run as Administrator

Run FilePulse.exe with administrator privileges

FilePulse.exe
2

Open Browser

Open your browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1, then enter the default username and password (both are "root") to access the system

http://127.0.0.1Username: root, Password: root

Important Notes

If FilePulse.exe displays a shield icon after download, please move it to another folder until the shield disappears, otherwise it will affect opening a target with normal permissions. You can ignore this if you don't need this feature.

If running normally, the program will automatically switch to administrator privileges, but please do not set "Run this program as administrator" in the compatibility tab of FilePulse.exe properties. If compatibility is set, it will have the same issue as mentioned above and cannot open a target with normal permissions. You can ignore this if you don't need this feature.

If "Volume change log is inactive" appears, it means there is a problem with a drive letter. You need to modify config.json to remove the problematic drive letter from drive_list.

After version upgrade, it is recommended to place the newly downloaded FilePulse in a separate new folder to avoid conflicts between old and new configurations.

The software currently uses packing protection, which may cause false positives from antivirus software. Please add FilePulse.exe to the whitelist to resolve this issue.

Core Features Overview

Explore the main capabilities of FilePulse

Core Feature 1: File Name Search

Similar to Everything, with various complex filtering conditions, mainly used for users' complex searches, can respond in milliseconds

Core Feature 2: File Content Search

Similar to AnyTXT, by predefining file name search conditions to filter files that need content indexing, when users need to search, folder content can respond in milliseconds

Core Feature 3: Quick Launcher

Similar to Listary, input keywords and results are pre-sorted according to most habits, quickly locate target location and launch

Core Feature 4: Remote File Preview

Supports common text formats, image formats, document formats, and video formats

Core Feature 5: Launcher Panel

Similar to Sonic Launcher, pre-add commonly used software (due to browser limitations, drag and drop cannot get complete paths, currently requires manual input, future native app will support drag and drop)

Core Feature 6: Cluster Networking

Uses core features 1 to 4 (launcher panel is unnecessary for cluster use)

Supported File Content Search Types

FilePulse supports content searching across multiple file formats

Different file types are processed by specialized handlers to ensure optimal search performance and accuracy.

text_handler

Reads all text-type files as is

txt, md, json, py, js, css, xml, csv, log, etc.

docx_handler

All text content from Microsoft Word documents

docx

xlsx_handler

All text content from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets

xlsx

pptx_handler

All text content from Microsoft PowerPoint presentations

pptx

pdf_handler

All text content from PDF documents

pdf

html_handler

HTML web page content with tags removed

html, htm

Other specialized formats will be supported in future updates

Keyboard Shortcuts

Master these shortcuts to boost your productivity

Global Shortcuts

Alt + F
Open quick launcher, input some keywords to immediately run a program
Alt + W
Open launcher panel, users can add some path icons, future can open by double-clicking
Alt + `
Open file name search page. When pressing Alt+` while focusing on a Windows folder, the search system will specifically search cascaded objects under this folder
Win + `
Open file content search page

Web Interface Shortcuts

Alt + 4
In search and quick launcher pages, quickly modify search type (folders and files, folders, files)
Alt + 1/2
In launcher panel, used to quickly switch groups
Alt + 1/2/3
Switch Content Plugin
Alt + Page Up/Down, Ctrl + Arrow Keys
Switch pagination
Up/Down Arrow Keys
Select items in search results table
Left/Right Arrow Keys
Open menu for selected item, fast forward/rewind video by 5 seconds in preview
Enter
Execute menu item
Ctrl + Enter
Quickly locate target location in File Explorer
Ctrl + C
Copy target file
Ctrl + X
Cut target file
Space
Quick preview selected file remotely
Alt + Enter
Fullscreen display for preview video window
Ctrl + Left/Right Arrow Keys
Fast forward/rewind video by 30 seconds in preview window
Alt + /
Select search content on the page

Advanced Usage

Unlock the full potential of FilePulse

Certificate Replacement

The built-in certificate is a development certificate. To replace with a real certificate, replace the files in the certs directory.

Enable HTTP3

HTTP2/HTTP3 are enabled by default, but may automatically downgrade to HTTP2 due to development certificate issues. After replacing with a real certificate, HTTP3 can be used normally.

Advanced Expressions

Simple Expression (Advanced expression OFF)

Search Content and Path edit boxes support NOT (!), AND (space), OR (

Advanced Expression (Advanced expression ON)

Search Content and Path edit boxes support NOT <not>, AND <and>, OR <or>, left parenthesis <left>, right parenthesis <right>

Advanced File Content Search

Normal Search (Linear Search OFF)

Four search modes: normal mode, regular expression, prefix matching, fuzzy matching. Fuzzy matching has the worst performance, try to avoid using it. Prefix matching requires at least two word segments to start, and in simple expressions it is separated by spaces, so prefix matching needs advanced expressions.

Linear Search (Linear Search ON)

Two search modes: wildcard search, regular expression search. Both perform individual matching on all files to be queried, performance will be worse.

Connect to Remote Server

In the login interface, directly enter the address and port number of the remote server in API Base URL, such as https://abc.com:443, then enter the username and password to connect to the remote server.

Remote Drive Mounting

1

Add the target server address, port number, username and password in Remote Servers, the system will automatically connect to the target server. Use https:// for http2 and http3 when writing addresses, use http:// for http1.1.

2

After connection, you need to mount the target server drive to local drive, click Mount Servers, select the server name just connected, and write the address of the server being accessed in the callback address.

3

Mount takes about a few seconds depending on how many files the target server has. After completion, you can search remote server file names and file contents just like locally. Searching remote file content will transfer large amounts of data, it is recommended to use score mode to only take top10.

Configuration Modification

Some configurations cannot currently be modified in the web interface and need to manually modify the configuration file config.json.

server_name: server_name is the server name.
username/password: username, password, last_password_change are administrator account information. This information can already be modified in the web interface. Once the password is modified, all previously issued tokens will become invalid. For example, if the browser remembers the token, after the password is modified, using the old token to search will be rejected by the server.
port_https/port_http: port_https and port_http are the ports used by the server.
drive_list: drive_list is the list of drives monitored on the server. If drive_list is modified, it is best to delete the index folder and let the search content rebuild.
hot_keys: hot_keys are hotkeys. There are now two types: default_page means pressing a shortcut key to open a page, current_path checks if it is a Windows folder, if so, opens the search system to specifically search cascaded objects under this folder.
open_link_after_boot: open_link_after_boot indicates whether to automatically open the browser after the software starts.
max_batch: max_batch is the batch processing size. The larger the value, the faster the content search system builds, but the higher the machine performance requirements. The default value is 10, which is very conservative. My machine has enough memory, fast CPU, and fast SSD, so I set it to 500, and the build speed improved dramatically.

Troubleshooting

If memory cannot be allocated when building search content, max_batch is set too large. Just modify the config.json file and set max_batch to a smaller value, then run again.

If search content build gets stuck, you can delete all entries in rules in rules.json, which is equivalent to clearing all rules, then run again.

Build results are in the index directory, which can be deleted at any time to rebuild. I personally recommend not building overly large plain text, such as a 500MB Word document with mostly images will be fine, but if it is a 500MB plain text file with pure text content, the search system may take a very long time to build. And such large plain text files will consume huge amounts of memory during building.