Cathy

Written by Barry Dysert (last updated April 10, 2017)

1

Cathy is a GUI-based utility originally designed for keeping track of audio/video media, but it can also be used to catalog network-based Windows files and folders. What you do is create a catalog of the root folder you want to scan. I have four such catalogs for network folders I want to keep an eye on, each of which is visible when I start the program. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Cathy's catalogs.

Once catalogued, you can quickly access the subfolders and files in the catalog. You can see what is in a catalog by selecting it (click on it once in Cathy's main screen) and then click the Directory tab. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Directory tab.

Using the Directory tab you can navigate through subdirectories, open them, and open files. The bigger benefit to Cathy, though, is its ability to quickly search through your catalogs to find files. As you may have noticed the figure shown earlier, my "\share" catalog consumes over 119 GB of storage and quite a few subfolders. When I want to find a file there, though, I just click the "Search" tab, type some of the file's name, and click Search. The search is very fast because it's already been indexed.

The only downside to Cathy is that it doesn't continuously keep the catalogs up to date. This means you might need to manually refresh one or more of your catalogs if they're frequently modified. Even this only takes about a minute, though, so it's not that much of a detriment to the overall usefulness of the utility.

Cathy is a free download and can be retrieved from this site (you'll need to scroll down a bit to find it on this page):

http://www.mtg.sk/rva/

 This tip (13003) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.

Author Bio

Barry Dysert

Barry has been a computer professional for over 35 years, working in different positions such as technical team leader, project manager, and software developer. He is currently a software engineer with an emphasis on developing custom applications under Microsoft Windows. When not working with Windows or writing Tips, Barry is an amateur writer. His first non-fiction book is titled "A Chronological Commentary of Revelation." ...

MORE FROM BARRY

Using an On-Screen Keyboard

For people who find it difficult to use a mechanical keyboard, the on-screen keyboard may provide an acceptable ...

Discover More

Adding and Removing Desktop Widgets

You can add and remove widgets on a whim. Both operations are just a couple of mouse clicks away. Removing a widget from ...

Discover More

Creating and Using Compressed Folders

If you're low on disk space but still want to keep your files online, you might consider moving them to compressed ...

Discover More
More WindowsTips

Getting Started with Continue on PC

In todays on-the-go lifestyle, we tend to have multiple electronic devices. Easily being able to connect our devices can ...

Discover More

WizTree

Need to find out which files are hogging the most space on your hard drives? The WizTree utility can analyze your drives ...

Discover More

Everything

If you want to be able to find any file on your hard disk in just seconds, Everything is a utility you'll find ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 3?

2021-09-05 12:52:27

Ernesto

Hallo, Barry. Ernesto here.
I have been using Cathy for several years now, until... Alas, I am using a new computer with windows 10 , version 20H2 and Cathy is not running properly there.

What I get when I start it is {[fig}] is a frame with the menu, no catalogues, no files, no further options. Have you seen anything like this?
If so, have you found a solution? I ran the Compatibility assistant to no avail. I really miss Cathy, I have tested several subtitutes but they are years away from Cathy.

I might end up using searchmyfiles, it produces a flat table of one or several drives but not as friendly as our beloved Cathy and it would not store the catalogues themselves. So the DB tasks have to done by hand.

Thank you,
Take care.

echavezs@gmail.com

aka, Ernesto.


Newest Tips