Search with Everything

Everything finds any file on a Windows machine by name, instantly. This recipe runs its search from XeFM and shows the results as a list in a pane, where copying, moving, renaming, comparing and every other file operation work on them as they do in any folder.

Nothing needs to be written or installed into XeFM: it uses Go ▸ Open List ▸ From Command…, which runs a command and shows the paths it prints.

Setting it up

1. Install Everything and leave it running. The command-line tool asks the running Everything for its results, so nothing is found while it is closed.
2. Download ES (Everything's command-line interface) from the voidtools downloads page and put es.exe in a folder on your PATH.
3. Check it from a command prompt: es.exe -n 5 readme should print up to five full paths.

Searching

Choose Go ▸ Open List ▸ From Command… and type an es.exe command:

Command	Finds
es.exe -path . ext:py	Python files under the folder the pane shows
es.exe -path . dm:thisweek	anything under it modified this week
es.exe -path . "size:>100mb"	large files under it
es.exe -n 500 invoice	names containing "invoice", anywhere on the machine

The query is Everything's own search syntax (ext:, dm:, size:, | for or, ! for not), as in its search box. Everything searches its whole index wherever the command runs, so -path . is what keeps the search to the folder the pane is showing. Without it, -n keeps a whole-machine search to a manageable number of rows.

The command runs through cmd.exe, which reads >, < and | as redirection and pipes. Put a query term that contains one in double quotes, as in "size:>100mb" or "*.jpg|*.png"; es.exe receives it without the quotes.

The dialog keeps your last 100 commands. Press ↓ to pick an earlier one and change only the query.

The results are a snapshot: the command is not re-run when files change. Backspace returns the pane to the folder it showed before.

Giving it a key

Open List ▸ From Command… ships without a key. Bind one in your config.py:

KEY_BINDINGS['open_list_from_command'] = ['Ctrl-Shift-K']

Without ES

You can also search in Everything's own window and bring the results over:

• Select the results, copy their full paths, and choose Go ▸ Open List ▸ From Clipboard in XeFM.
• Or save them with File ▸ Export as a .txt file in Everything, then put the cursor on that file in XeFM and choose Open as List from its right-click menu.

See also

• File Lists: everything Open List reads and shows.
• Discussion #446: why Everything is used this way rather than built into XeFM's own search.