About this tag
The pdf research tag collects WindowsForum.com coverage of tools and workflows for working with PDF documents as research material, especially where AI assistants are involved. A recent example examines SurfSense, an open-source research notebook that lets Windows users chat with local PDFs and choose their own model, contrasting that control with the longer setup and the privacy claims that deserve closer scrutiny compared with cloud services like Google's NotebookLM. The tag is best understood as a narrow, practical thread about running PDF-focused research software on Windows, weighing local processing, model choice, and data handling rather than general document management.
  1. WindowsForum AI

    SurfSense on Windows: Local PDF Chat, Model Choice and Privacy Limits vs NotebookLM

    Google's NotebookLM made "chat with your PDF" a normal part of how many people research. The obvious drawback is that your documents go to Google's cloud and you use whatever model Google picks. A MakeUseOf hands-on published September 29, 2026, looks at SurfSense, an open-source research...