Classic Shell: Forum

Having just downloaded Classic Shell and using the Windows 7 Start Menu, not all files show up in searches (e.g. audio files, images, documents). To view these files, I have to click 'see more results' after searching. How do I make these files show up in the initial search?
Thanks in advance.

This means those files are not indexed. When you click "See more results", File Explorer searches in non-indexed locations too which is how it finds them. The Start Menu only searches indexed files.

You will have to add the folder where your files are located to Windows Indexing Options or to some Library.

To change which folders are indexed, open Control Panel -> Indexing Options -> click Modify, and add or remove locations as you want. Or right click the folder where you files are and select "Include in Library".

To change which file extensions (file types) are indexed and the metadata/properties for which file extensions are indexed, click the Advanced button. For example, if you set only the DOC file extension to index Properties only, not Properties and File Contents, then the text inside the pages of all DOC documents won't be indexed.

To fully understand how the search works, you can read the Start Menu search guide: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1588 It is quite long though. It is categorized so you can read only the portion of the article that concerns your search related question.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

How about non-indexed locations? I don't want to have my whole drive - or even parts of it indexed. That is a constant and unwanted load on drive performance.

Instead I'd like the shell to do a (from scratch) search of a user specified directory each time. But how? I can't find any opiton to search non-indexed locations??

A search on disk can take many minutes, even hours. The start menu is not intended to stay open for a long time.

@registrationsucks, Windows Search is not very good for non-indexed searches.
For non-indexed search, I can recommend you the freeware, Everything by Voidtools: https://www.voidtools.com/ It does super-fast filename-only searches (meaning it does not search the contents). It also has the additional feature to index file names (useful for network files).

For searching document and media metadata and general search inside files without indexing, I can recommend you the freeware, FileLocator Lite: https://www.mythicsoft.com/filelocatorlite It does comprehensive searches inside documents using installed Windows Search IFilters.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.