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Search

Softonic has a powerful search engine that can help you find the software you are looking for quickly and easily.

Regular Search

Using the search functionality is by far the fastest way to find the programs you are looking for on Softonic.

You can enter the name of a particular program into the search field or you can enter a few characteristics to find all the related programs. The more search terms you enter, the fewer results will be returned, so it is sometimes best to start with the most general search terms.

The search engine first looks for exact matches in the program name and if it does not find anything, looks through the product description and review.

An example:

If you are looking for the popular mp3 player, WinAmp, you would enter "winamp" into the search field and click Search.

This would return all the programs with the word "winamp" in their name, with the exact match displayed first for your convenience.

If you did not know the name of the program, you could alternatively enter "mp3 player" in the search field and click Search, which would then return a list of programs whose descriptions contain the words "mp3" and "player".

Advanced Search

The advanced search functionality adds powerful options that can help you fine-tune your search results.

You can access the advanced options by clicking on the plus (+) symbol next to the Search button in the page header.

Clicking on the minus (-) symbol will hide the advanced options.

Advanced Options:

Containing can be useful to tighten or loosen the search results.

any word: will return programs that contain at least one of the search terms anywhere in the description or name
all words: will return programs that contain all of the search terms anywhere in the description or name
exact match: will return programs that contain the exact search term

License is a great way to find free programs. See our FAQ for more information about licenses.

Free: will only return programs that are completely free to use
Trial: will only return programs that have a trial version
For sale: will only return programs that are on sale

Added can be used to find programs that were added within a period of time.

1 week: will return programs that were updated in the last week
1 month: will return programs that were updated in the last month
1 year: will return programs that were updated in the last year

Rated let's you quickly find the very best programs.

By selecting the minimum amount of stars you can filter out the programs that don't meet your standards.

Search Results

Once you have entered your search parameters and submitted the search, you will be redirected to a search results page.

This page displays the most important information about each of the programs that matched your search criteria.

Only the first 10 programs are displayed on the page. If your search returned more than 10 results, you can use the page navigation at the top and bottom of the result list.

If your initial search parameters returned too many results, you can change the parameters at the top of page and resubmit your search.

By default the results are sorted by relevance which incorporates several factors to present the best results first. It may be useful for you to order the results another way.

Sort by

Relevance: A special blend that provides Softonic's optimized results
Date published: If you're looking for software that was recently published
Downloads: For when the most popular means the best
Weekly downloads: To find the most popular of the recently added programs
License: Groups the result by their license type: Freeware, Shareware or Adware
Softonic Rating: Quickly find the top rated software matching your results
File Size: An easy way to find programs that won't take too long to download
Title: A great to find a specific title amongst many results

Use the drop down list at the top right of the result list, or by click on the name in the header of the corresponding column.