Everything

Windows search is slow and often misses files. Everything reads the drive’s own record of file names, so any file on the computer appears as I type. With a few settings it becomes the fastest way to move around the file system.

Install

I use the portable edition of Everything 1.5.

Administrator rights

When you install Everything, it asks for indexing options.

  • Everything Service. A small background service reads the index, and Everything itself runs as a normal user. This is the best choice on a computer you control.
  • Run as administrator. No service, but Windows asks for permission at each start, and anything opened from Everything also runs as administrator.

Without either, add the folders to search in Tools > Options > Indexes > Folders. Results then refresh on a schedule rather than instantly.

Upgrade

If you installed the portable version, replace Everything.exe with the newly downloaded file to upgrade.

My settings

Shortcuts are set in Tools > Options > Keyboard.

Reach it from anywhere

Alt+Z (Toggle window hotkey) shows or hides Everything from any program. Search takes one keystroke instead of a trip to the Start menu.

Move between results

Command Shortcut Why
File > Search in Everything Alt+E Narrows the search to the selected folder.
File > Search path in Everything Alt+S Shows the folder that holds the selected file.

Add Ctrl to either (Ctrl+Alt+E, Ctrl+Alt+S) to open the result in a new tab, so the first search stays. Turn on Options > General > UI > Switch to new search tabs immediately so the new tab takes the keyboard at once. Alt+W closes it.

“Explore in Everything” also opens the folder list, but it acts on the item under the mouse pointer, not the selected one.

For moving through folders entirely by keyboard, see Everything as a file explorer.

Act on files

Ctrl+Alt+C (Copy to) and Ctrl+Alt+M (Move to) file the results without opening another program.

Keep the results clean

Exclude folders you never search, in Tools > Options > Indexes > Exclude. Fewer irrelevant results means the right one is nearer the top.

Organise bookmarks

Saved searches soon outgrow one flat menu. Type /menu_folders=1 in the search box and press Enter; a backslash in a bookmark name then starts a sub-menu. To use / instead, type /menu_folder_separator=/.

Back up

A backup restores your setup on a new computer in minutes.

  • Settings: type /config_save in the search box; restore with /config_load.
  • Bookmarks: Bookmarks > Export and Bookmarks > Import.
  • Filters: Search > Organize Filters > Export and Import.

Tips

  • Ctrl+H searches past searches. Ctrl+J searches past runs.
  • Renames done inside Everything can be undone: Edit > Undo, with the full list in Edit > Undo History.

Searches I use:

Search Finds
child:*.mov Folders that contain .mov files
child:*.md depth:<=6 The same, no more than six folders deep
path:len>120 Paths long enough to break some programs
dupe: Files with the same name; sizedupe: and dmdupe: match size and date modified
size:>1gb Large files; size:tiny and size:huge also work
dm:lastsec Files changing right now

From the command line, two doskey macros around the es.exe command-line tool:

search-dm="C:\Apps\Everything\es.exe" -size -sizecolor 13 -dm -dmcolor 11 -sort dm -n 10 $*
search="C:\Apps\Everything\es.exe" -size -sizecolor 13 -dm -dmcolor 11 -s -n 30 $*

Further reading