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So here's a question that I haven't been able to find the answer to anywhere:
What field(s) does Windows 10 use to index files by whenever performing a start menu search? The obvious answer would be that it's indexing by filename and filename alone, but I'm not entirely so sure. If it's not clear what I mean, observe the following example below:
As of right now, the ONLY folder that I have Windows 10 indexing on my computer is the "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"
folder (and all of its contents). This is because I put shortcuts to all of my programs in there. But look at this:
Notice that the shortcut with the filename "Epic Games Launcher.lnk" showed up first, before the shortcut with the filename "Unreal Engine.lnk." Now,for those who don't know, there is a relationship between the Epic Games Launcher and Unreal Engine (the Epic Games Launcher is what you use to install Unreal Engine), but I still don't understand why it appears in the search first despite not having the word "Unreal" anywhere in its filename.
I noticed that the "description" of the "Epic Games Launcher.lnk" that can be viewed when opening up the properties says "UnrealEngineLauncher," but whenever I type "UnrealE" into the search, nothing shows up at all, so I don't assume that Windows is using this "description" field to index the shortcuts. So I have no idea what it's really doing.
Does anybody understand this, and, apart from deleting the Epic Games Launcher shortcut, does anybody know how to make Windows 10 index by filename only? Thanks.
At a guess, perhaps it's looking at the executable path in the
.lnk
file. – Anaksunaman – 2018-04-18T05:59:04.750@Anaksunaman I doubt that can be it; the path in this case is:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Binaries\Win32\EpicGamesLauncher.exe"
which does not contain the text string "unreal." Further, if I name a shortcut something completely arbitrary and then type that name into the search, it still shows up. So it must be indexing by something in addition to the filename, but whatever it is still mystifies me. I suspect it could be a property somewhere that the epic games launcher itself set whenever I installed it, but who knows where that is? – ereHsaWyhsipS – 2018-04-18T06:19:54.557
So, in general, I'm wondering what Windows is actually doing whenever you do these searches. I really want to find out! – ereHsaWyhsipS – 2018-04-18T06:21:07.610
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Can you reproduce this? (Search "web browser" and get Edge & IE only)
– guest-vm – 2018-04-27T18:30:52.117@guest-vm, yes, I was basically able to reproduce that. See here: https://prnt.sc/jb3d8a Notice that I also got "choose a default web browser" in addition.
– ereHsaWyhsipS – 2018-04-28T02:15:04.470Integrate Voidtools Everything to Classic Shell Start Menu
– guest-vm – 2018-04-28T08:31:48.960@guest-vm, yes, I do have other browsers installed. So it would seem that Windows' methods are indeed very arcane. Maybe I'll just take a look at Classic Shell and Everything and see what I can do with those. – ereHsaWyhsipS – 2018-04-28T17:22:27.070
"The obvious answer would be that it's indexing by filename and filename alone." That probably isn't the obvious answer. There are some very good tutorials online that show us that at the very least, Index Properties Only is the default. As a result, I am quite certain that includes the description field of the
Epic Games Launcher.lnk
within the properties realm. If you look at your Index advanced options, you will see that setting for LNK files. – Run5k – 2018-04-28T18:23:10.287"Does anybody understand this, and, apart from deleting the Epic Games Launcher shortcut, does anybody know how to make Windows 10 index by filename only?" While we do understand this, I'm afraid that you simply can't make Windows 10 index by filename only. As you might imagine, Microsoft felt that it was better to provide a comprehensive set of information within their search results, rather than a shortage. As others have stated, there are some prominent third-party search applications that can provide strict "filename only" results, if that's what you truly desire. – Run5k – 2018-04-28T18:41:02.760
Oracle VM VirtualBox.lnk
hasVirtualBox Manager
as its description. Search in start menu: "virtualbox"=>"Oracle VM VirtualBox.lnk", "manager"=>"Device/Task Manager", "virtualbox manager"=>"No result". Search in file explorer underC:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
: "manager"/"virtualbox manager"=>"VirtualBox.exe". Conclusion:.lnk
is not indexed by description. "web browser" is not found in properties of Edge & IE neither, yet in start menu "web browser"=>"Edge/IE". – guest-vm – 2018-04-28T20:09:43.777@guest-vm perhaps not, but I think that this entire scenario is easier to understand than this lengthy discussion would lead us to believe. The bottom line is that you can't utilize the built-in Windows index capabilities to search strictly by filename. The native search index is significantly more in-depth than that. While I am confident that there is documentation somewhere within the Microsoft developers' world that provides a thorough explanation of what is included within the
Properties
that the index utilizes, it seems rather trivial to dwell upon it. The OP needs a 3rd-party app – Run5k – 2018-04-28T20:22:21.863@Run5k Utilitarianly, it is unwise to dwell on it, yes. But since OP spent a bounty, I try not to sidestep it with workaround but help elucidate his issue (not everyone has Unreal Engine), in hope of attracting abler people to provide a good answer. – guest-vm – 2018-04-28T20:45:15.217
1@guest-vm while I agree with your overall philosophy, from my perspective, the bounty is relatively inconsequential. That's why I didn't attempt to write an answer, instead. However, I still wanted to help the OP as much as possible, and that's also why I didn't flag the post as
too broad
even though it contains multiple questions. The ultimate query is as follows: "Does anybody know how to make Windows 10 index by filename only?" The genuine answer should be "no," because unfortunately that isn't possible (regardless of the native Windows 10 index methods that piqued their curiosity). – Run5k – 2018-04-28T21:01:35.493