Windows 10: How do I make an application searchable?

1

For most applications I've installed, I can type "windows + q" and it pops up a search bar. I can type in there and find an app. But I've downloaded and installed Notepad2. It's just an exe you drop anywhere. Windows is not able to find this if I press "windows + q, notepad".

I use this program regularly and I'd like it to be searchable. Is there a certain directory I could drop it into so that it's searchable?

Daniel Kaplan

Posted 2017-08-19T17:37:31.633

Reputation: 419

Answers

3

Put a shortcut to the executable in %programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and it should become searchable in the Start Menu.

Worth noting that, although it should become visible immediately in the Start Menu, it might take a while before you can search for it by just typing a couple of letters.

Richard

Posted 2017-08-19T17:37:31.633

Reputation: 4 197

I just tried this solution on a Windows 10 installed recently (March 2019) and even after several days Win+q still cannot find my shortcut. Any idea if this feature is now broken? Does it still work for you? – joanis – 2019-03-26T17:45:56.247

@joanis Odd. I just added a shortcut to an exe I'd written (which wasn't previously in the Start Menu) to the path mentioned and it appeared as a result with Win+Q after about 5 minutes. – Richard – 2019-04-23T18:56:49.563

1I just did more tests and I see some links get indexed and some not. The target of the link seems to matter: a link to putty.exe can be found, while a link to chrome.exe with a specific page to load cannot. Now, links in C:\Users\<me>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs work more reliably than in %programdata%\..., but the bookmark-like browser shortcuts still don't get indexed. More weird, a shortcut to just putty.exe works, but not a shortcut with a given session: a shortcut to ...path...\putty.exe @host1 is not indexed. Frustratingly unreliable. – joanis – 2019-04-23T20:05:34.147

Asked: 2017-08-19T17:37:31.633

Viewed: 1 799 times

Active: 2017-08-19T21:18:48.953