In article , lid says...

Philip Herlihy wrote:
In article , lid says...
Philip Herlihy wrote:
In article ,
says...
What's the quickest access on Win10 to programs, files, & folders?

I'm not asking about the most used ones, which we put on the task bar.
And besides, the task bar is lousy for anything other than programs.

And you can forget the desktop - since that is already a huge mess.

I'm asking about programs, files, & folders not already on the task bar.
And not already on the desktop - which is already a huge mess.

Mostly I'm asking how to access files & folders with the least clicks.

Is there single click access to files and folders somehow on Win10?
Or at least right click (and then left click) access to all three on Win10?
The search facility is better in W10 than in any previous version of
Windows, in my view. So tap the Windows key and start typing. Very
rarely lets me down.

Did you program the Search Indexer ?

How long did that take you ?

It's got the GUI interface from hell :-/

One of these days, I'm going to figure out where
the exception list is stored, and hand-edit it,
rather than use the GUI.

Third-party searches are known for their "completeness".
They cover more filenames than the Windows one would.
With the Windows one, you can never be certain (from the
outside), what's actually in there.

It is possible to probe the windows.edb file and
make a filelist of what is in there. I've done that.
But the method is not all that convenient.

Paul

Let me see if I've got this right. I want to find a program (e.g.
"Quick Assist". I tap the Windows key once. I type Q then u then i ..
.. and the program I want is already there in the list. I click it, and
it starts. This is the GUI interface from Hell?

Quick Assist is a good test, because I'm routinely asked for help from
customers. So on a wide range of machines which are new to me, this is
what I tell them, over the phone, to do. It just works. It also works
for any of the many, many files and documents on my PC. If you can
design something better, we'll be all ears.


Go to the Search Indexer control panel.

Do you know how to get there ?
Control Panels is harder to get to now.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

Now, look at a row in the picture in Step 3.

"Users Appdata;Appdata"

What does that mean exactly ?

Are you impressed yet ?

That's the problem - matching the terse description in
those rows, with a potential location in the file tree.
Even if a mouse-over showed a balloon with a path,
that would have been better than nothing.

One of them for example, will say "CSC". What's a CSC ?
Is it a train company ? Does it make black fedora hats ?
WTF is it ? Is there an actual "CSC" in the file system ?
And so on.

Here's your task. Set it up so that included locations
just says "C:" . Have it index all of C: , just like
Agent Ransack or Everything.exe could do out of the box.

There is one location it should not allow you to index,
so you're allowed one "imperfection" in that window.
The Indexer is not allowed to index the location
where Windows.edb is stored, or the indexer could
go into a loop.

Keep your stopwatch handy.

How many minutes of playing whack-a-mole with that
stupid interface did it take, for you to successfully
customize the parts of C: you want searched ?

This is why real people cannot use crap like that.
First of all, people aren't aware that interface
is even there to start with. That's the first barrier.
Then when they get there, it's sheer hell searching
*all* the folders in the right pane, to find an item
that *might* match an entry in the left pane of the
Search Indexer modify panel.

The person who designed that should be fired.
For wasting time making it look "pretty", without
making it "functional". Obviously, the shorthand
description on the left is "manufactured", as the
tool itself needs real "absolute paths" to
control the Gatherer and so on. So the text on the
left is put there, just to **** off users!!!
*What is not to like*

Do you see why I'm angry now ? !!!

Just having to explain it is raising my blood pressure!!!

Stupid to the Nth power.

Paul

It's hard to understand the reason for your rage (unless, perhaps, it is
more to do with your blood pressure than anything else).

Designing a GUI is about the balance between hiding unnecessary
complexity, and providing access to lesser-used facilities. As you
point out, most W10 users (98%?) will never even think about changing
the indexing locations, so hiding all that seems a good move. But it's
not so hard to understand:

Search (!) in All Settings for "Indexing" and you'll get there easily.
Already you've left 98% (probably more) of Windows users behind.

Click "Modify" and you'll see what's set on or off.

If you drill down using the '' expanders you'll see there are two
folders with the name "appdata" in the Users folder which are excluded -
the relevant box(es) are unticked.

CSC stands for "Client Side Cache", and refers to "Offline Files":
"The Offline Files cache (Csc://{user's SID}) for all users who use the
computer. (This indexing scope is used only if CSC is enabled on the
computer.)"

If you want all of your C: drive indexed then simply click the relevant
box - though you may find matches coming up in search results which
aren't helpful. I tried that (being careful to Cancel rather than OK).
Some folders don't 'inherit' the tick - probably because these are
folders containing files users (remember the 98%?) won't need to see, so
you may need to drill down if some files you want aren't appearing. But
clicking the C: box does cascade to almost all subfolders.

As for identifying where the folders are which appear in the top-level
list of "Included Locations", then in the Modify dialogue, simply click
one in the lower pane and the upper pane will show you where it is.

So it isn't stupid, though it probably isn't "perfect" (whatever that
means). I have 134,628 items indexed on my system, from three internal
hard disks (but nothing on one disk needs to be indexed). By default,
Windows will index "your stuff" if you follow the usual conventions for
storing things. If you add a data folder at the root level, for example
(as some people insist on doing) then it takes moments to add it to the
indexing list. For most people it just works out of the box.
--

Phil, London