Everything: Searching Local Files Quickly

Have you ever had to find a local file by clicking through folder after folder, and still not found it? Or you've started Windows' built-in search, gone off to eat, and come back to find the progress bar still hasn't finished? There's a program that means you don't have to wait. In the blink of an eye, the file you want is right in front of you. It's called Everything.

Download it from here. Click Next through the installer and keep the default options.

#About the Software

Everything is arguably the fastest file search software around. It finds what you need instantly, its interface is clean, and it's only a few megabytes in size. It has everything you could want. It uses about 200 MB of memory (I have a lot of local files), yet this has no effect on its search speed.

#How to Use It

#Setting a Hotkey to Open It

Set a hotkey to open Everything quickly. Sometimes when you need to search for a file, you don't want to find the Everything icon and open it. You just press the hotkey you've set. I set mine to Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Q, which avoids conflicts with other keys and is easy to press.

The setting is shown in the image below.

You can set up other related shortcuts if you're interested. I'm only showing the one I use most.

#Searching for Files

Before you search, I suggest you set up an exclusion list to keep the number of files down. Exclude the folders you don't need. I've put the folders I hardly ever use in there.

Here's a GIF first, so you can get a feel for it.

I'm only using it in a simple way. Once you actually use it, you'll understand how powerful this tool is and why I recommend it. The simple use I've described is already enough for most people. For more specific operations, you can see the search syntax help under Help -> Search Syntax.

Here are a few common examples. Say I want to open the pycharm software. I'd naturally type pycharm first, but I get a huge number of results and none of them is the one I want. So I try adding the .exe suffix, and it's nowhere to be found! How can that be, when I definitely installed it? Well, the actual file name is pycharm64.exe, so typing pycharm.exe obviously won't find it. For this kind of problem, the usual answer isn't to search this way. Instead, type pycharm exe:, which means "find items whose name contains pycharm and whose extension is exe." Here's how it looks.

For common software like this, though, I still recommend putting a shortcut to it on your desktop, in the Start menu, or on the taskbar.

#Search Everything from the Right-Click Menu

Sometimes I only want to search within a specific folder, not across the whole computer. In that case, right-click an empty area inside the folder, and you'll see the option Search Everything…. It fills the search box with the current folder's path, and then you just type the file name you're looking for. I won't go into more detail or add pictures here.

#Pitfalls to Watch Out For

#Whole Word Matching

Sometimes I'm looking for a file named demo123.txt, but when I type demo, demo123 doesn't show up in the results below. Then when I add 123, demo123.txt appears right in front of me. Don't panic. You've most likely pressed Ctrl+B by accident, which turns on whole word matching, so the search can't find the file. Just press Ctrl+B once more to turn it off.

#Summary

If you've installed it and tried it for a while, you may well feel like donating to the author. That's right: Everything is something you'll only truly appreciate once you use it. It's one of the must-have programs on Windows.

But if you don't have a need to open and search for files over and over, and you only use your computer for watching shows and playing games, then close this article now, because it isn't for you. If you do have that need, share this article with someone else right away. Maybe your recommendation will save someone a few hairs.