How to change Windows 10 "Best Match" recommendation

Question

Windows 10 (and various Windows before it) includes a short cut for opening programs by pressing on the Windows Key then typing the program you want to open. This typically works very well, but I've been having more problems with it lately (especially with 10).

In the past, I had issues with opening R (the statistical package), since "R" tends to match with a lot of things (for me classically Adobe Reader -- a program no one really just wants to open by itself). I just bit my tongue and learned to type "R", "down arrow", "enter." Nowadays, Windows 10 is giving me issues when opening Chrome. When I click the Windows Key and type "chrome" the best match returned is a chrome app (Workflowy, to be specific). Google Chrome is the second best match.

So enough is enough -- how can I tell Windows that when I type "R" I want "R x64" and when I type "chrome" I want "Google Chrome"? Or does Windows really just know what's best for me?

Answer 1

This is a Community Wiki answer, feel free to add your own research.

I couldn't find any documentation on how the "best match" feature works. In fact, I didn't even find an official announcement of the feature from Microsoft.

Judging from this post on Microsoft-News.com, the feature was automatically released sometime before September 4, 2015.

In my observation, Best Match will include:

• System-registered apps with shortcuts in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Dropbox

• User-created shortcuts for applications (.exe), when placed in C:\Users\Leven\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

• Documents in indexed locations

I couldn't find a way to include document shortcuts, regardless of location.