Monday, 2 July 2018

Run Custom Windows 7 Search via Shortcut

Run Custom Windows 7 Search via Shortcut


We often put documents into folders in Windows and then forget where they were. But thats whats great about searching. In Windows 7 you just type a search string in the top-right corner of an Explorer Window and its pretty good at finding your files.

If you often search for the same type of file across a broad folder structure, you may find this tip useful as it will show you how to create a Windows shortcut that immediately performs a custom search. It basically just launches a Windows search page and starts running your pre-configured search query straight away!

The sources below helped me to create my first direct Windows shortcut as follows:
  1. To make a shortcut in Windows, just right click inside a Windows Explorer window or on the Desktop and choose New > Shortcut.
  2. Insert the following string as the shortcut path then click Next:
    %SystemRoot%explorer.exe "search-ms:query=hello&crumb=kind:pics&"
  3. Give your shortcut a name and click ok
The above steps give you a shortcut that searches for pictures with search string �hello�. You can of course change "hello" for another search string, but also make more detailed searches by playing around with other options. Take a look here.

Sources I used to write this.
How to create a search shortcut.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/36815-search-shortcut-create.html

How to use search-ms protocol
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb266520(v=vs.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff684385(v=vs.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965711(v=vs.85).aspx

Here are some more examples of search query strings. I.e. the bit that goes between the quotation marks in the example above.
search-ms:query=microsoft&
search-ms:query=vacation&subquery=mydepartment.search-ms&
search-ms:query=seattle&crumb=kind:pics&
search-ms:query=seattle&crumb=folder:C:MyFolder&
(source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff684385(v=vs.85).aspx)

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