Fast search for IMAP?

I have an IMAP account with over 10 years' worth of emails in it, and I'd like to be able to search it quickly from my Windows machine. I'm looking for something that will give me an indexed search of my email (ideally without changing anything on the IMAP server, but that's not vital).

I don't mind if it keeps a mirror on my Windows PC and indexes and searches that locally, as long it keeps itself up to date automatically. I use Thunderbird as a client, but I don't mind using a separate application to search.

Solution 1:

Thunderbird 3.0 beta 1 added integration with Windows Vista's search (or if you have XP, you can download Windows Search here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/default.mspx)

Thunderbird is now up to 3.0 beta 2 and you can download it here: http://en-us.www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0b2/

You could also download and use Windows Live Mail (it is free) which supports IMAP and integrates with Windows Search: http://download.live.com/wlmail

Solution 2:

You could use something like fetchmail or getmail to download your messages, and then use mairix to search them, lightning fast and got a lot of options to refine your searches. mairix. Cygwin got a mairix package for easy installation.