4 ms·

If you're running Windows then install Everything.

oliwary 5y ago
This has completely changed the way I use files. I rarely ever open the explorer to navigate to a folder, but instead open everything to search for a file and then instantly jump to the file location. Naming files well becomes much more important than where they are located.
- bitexploder 5y ago
  Spotlight on mac. I use recoll on my Linux machine and let it update every few days. Fast local file system indexing is amazing and abstracts away a lot of file system pain. You often don't even need to name files particularly well to find what you want if you index file contents as well.
- AceyMan 5y ago
  For me, > ls -rec . | ? name -match <substring_in_filename> becomes muscle memory as a pwsh daily driver-type-person (=> PowerShell 7).
  - DHowett 5y ago
    For simple matches against one pattern, you may prefer... > ls -rec . -filter *substring*` ... as filtering can be offloaded to the "provider" when Get-ChildItem (ls) knows about it. Even if the filesystem provider doesn't handle patterns any differently from Where-Object (?), you can save the cost of hydrating FileInfo objects only to query and discard most of them. For multiple patterns or anything that you'd need a regular expression for, Where-Object is superior!
    - AceyMan 5y ago
      Thanks, I'm not usually doing performance required stuff but when I write a function I always want to know the best way to feed the pipeline, I appreciate it. #snoverville
  - tremon 5y ago
    aka find . -iname \*<substring_in_filename>* (=> V5 Unix from 1971, although the case insensitive -iname was never standardized)
- Lascaille 5y ago
  > Naming files well becomes much more important than where they are located. Aren't you just exchanging the location of relevant metadata from the path to the filename?
bobsmooth 5y ago
Have it pinned to my taskbar. There's also Windows PowerToys that has a quick launcher.
Stratoscope 5y ago
Yep, Everything is a game changer. I don't worry much about where a file is any more, I just worry about giving it a good filename. Then I will always be able to find it, wherever it is. Be sure to set a hotkey for it. I use Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar since it didn't seem to conflict with anything else. Of course before you can use Everything, you have to find Everything. Here's where: https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/
- jaclaz 5y ago
  Only for the record, there is also Swiftsearch: https://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/ that uses the NTFS $MFT directly and that (if needed) is fully portable, see: http://reboot.pro/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=609 http://reboot.pro/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=609
tkot 5y ago
And if you are running Linux then fsearch is worth giving a try: https://cboxdoerfer.github.io/fsearch/ https://cboxdoerfer.github.io/fsearch/
whywhywhywhy 5y ago
Boggles the mind how Windows search basically just doesn’t work at this point compared to what you have on other operating systems. Feels like I can’t even search for a certain file type in a folder. Really frustrating that Apple, the only company to truly master OS search doesn’t seem that interested in making the type of OS that has files anymore.
- tanseydavid 5y ago
  >> Boggles the mind how Windows search basically just doesn’t work at this point Now that you've tried Windows Search on your desktop, please allow us to help (or coerce) you to use MS Bing to search the entire world-wide-web. </sarc>
_dain_ 5y ago
Everything is a lovely tool, but I'm continually amazed that it should have to exist at all. Why is the Windows built-in search so atrocious? You literally cannot use it as part of a getting-anything-done-at-all workflow. And it keeps getting worse with every update? Why would I want to mix Bing search results with stuff from my filesystem?
- tanseydavid 5y ago
  "But he has nothing on at all," said a little child at last. "Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child," said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. "But he has nothing on at all," cried at last the whole people. I agree completely with your sentiment here and it truly boggles the mind. Thank God for Search Everything.

This has completely changed the way I use files. I rarely ever open the explorer to navigate to a folder, but instead open everything to search for a file and then instantly jump to the file location. Naming files well becomes much more important than where they are located.

bitexploder 5y ago
Spotlight on mac. I use recoll on my Linux machine and let it update every few days. Fast local file system indexing is amazing and abstracts away a lot of file system pain. You often don't even need to name files particularly well to find what you want if you index file contents as well.
AceyMan 5y ago
For me, > ls -rec . | ? name -match <substring_in_filename> becomes muscle memory as a pwsh daily driver-type-person (=> PowerShell 7).
- DHowett 5y ago
  For simple matches against one pattern, you may prefer... > ls -rec . -filter *substring*` ... as filtering can be offloaded to the "provider" when Get-ChildItem (ls) knows about it. Even if the filesystem provider doesn't handle patterns any differently from Where-Object (?), you can save the cost of hydrating FileInfo objects only to query and discard most of them. For multiple patterns or anything that you'd need a regular expression for, Where-Object is superior!
  - AceyMan 5y ago
    Thanks, I'm not usually doing performance required stuff but when I write a function I always want to know the best way to feed the pipeline, I appreciate it. #snoverville
- tremon 5y ago
  aka find . -iname \*<substring_in_filename>* (=> V5 Unix from 1971, although the case insensitive -iname was never standardized)
Lascaille 5y ago
> Naming files well becomes much more important than where they are located. Aren't you just exchanging the location of relevant metadata from the path to the filename?

bobsmooth 5y ago

Have it pinned to my taskbar. There's also Windows PowerToys that has a quick launcher.

Stratoscope 5y ago

Yep, Everything is a game changer. I don't worry much about where a file is any more, I just worry about giving it a good filename. Then I will always be able to find it, wherever it is. Be sure to set a hotkey for it. I use Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar since it didn't seem to conflict with anything else. Of course before you can use Everything, you have to find Everything. Here's where: https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/

jaclaz 5y ago
Only for the record, there is also Swiftsearch: https://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/swiftsearch/ that uses the NTFS $MFT directly and that (if needed) is fully portable, see: http://reboot.pro/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=609 http://reboot.pro/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=609

tkot 5y ago

And if you are running Linux then fsearch is worth giving a try: https://cboxdoerfer.github.io/fsearch/ https://cboxdoerfer.github.io/fsearch/

whywhywhywhy 5y ago

Boggles the mind how Windows search basically just doesn’t work at this point compared to what you have on other operating systems. Feels like I can’t even search for a certain file type in a folder. Really frustrating that Apple, the only company to truly master OS search doesn’t seem that interested in making the type of OS that has files anymore.

tanseydavid 5y ago
>> Boggles the mind how Windows search basically just doesn’t work at this point Now that you've tried Windows Search on your desktop, please allow us to help (or coerce) you to use MS Bing to search the entire world-wide-web. </sarc>

_dain_ 5y ago

Everything is a lovely tool, but I'm continually amazed that it should have to exist at all. Why is the Windows built-in search so atrocious? You literally cannot use it as part of a getting-anything-done-at-all workflow. And it keeps getting worse with every update? Why would I want to mix Bing search results with stuff from my filesystem?

tanseydavid 5y ago
"But he has nothing on at all," said a little child at last. "Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child," said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. "But he has nothing on at all," cried at last the whole people. I agree completely with your sentiment here and it truly boggles the mind. Thank God for Search Everything.