Stop "Search As You Type" when ENTER is pressed but search for full term

[burgundy]

I use Everything on a slow machine with many volumes. I have enabled the setting for "Search As You Type".

Sometimes I finish typing the search term but Everything is still dealing the earlier letters I keyed in. It can take 4 or 5 seconds to complete.

Would it be possible for Everything to search for the entire search term (and stop processing "Search As You Type") as soon as ENTER is pressed following a search term being keyed in?

I think this would be relatively straightforward to implement and would greatly help a set of users in the same situation.

Just my suggestion!

[NotNull]

I think that is what disabling Search as you type (under Options > UI ) does:
You can type your entire search, press ENTER and your search will start.

Or do you mean something else?

[raccoon]

I think he means the Enter key should double as a toggle for this option setting.

I'm not opposed to the idea, except that Everything's sleek interface doesn't display a Search As You Type visual indicator.

I still like my idea of a smarter Search As You Type that includes a 2 second delay if there's more than 20 characters typed, or if the search starts to take longer than 1.0 seconds to process results due to keyword complexity.

[NotNull]

Ah, I think I get it now ...
When Everything is behind with keeping up what was typed, the idea is to stop whatever Everything was doing when an ENTER was pressd and continue with the entire serach query that was typed.
Thanks for the eyeopener.

Is that what you suggested, @burgundy?


I got that too when searching for content: if I search for c:\folder content:abc , Everything "takes off" when content:a was typed and doesn't come back for a while. This suggestion would help with that. A delay too. Or wait for a <space> after content:text/content:"some text"

(my workaround for that: type connntent:abc and remove the extra n's afterwards)

[void]

Some suggestions:
Please try lowering the number of threads Everything uses to 1 (ideally this should be max logical CPUs - 1):

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /max_threads=1
• If successful you should see max_threads=1 in the status bar for a few seconds.

Sort by Name ascending for the best search performance. Avoid sorting by run count, date run or date recently changed (These are expensive to setup for each query).

Please make sure Tools -> Options -> Results -> Clear selection on search is checked (can be expensive if you have a large selection between queries).

Try enabling Hide results when the search is empty from Tools -> Options -> Results -> Check Hide results when the search is empty (requires more memory which might be effect performance for you)

What should be available in the next major release of Everything:
Optional delay to start the search from 'search as you type' queries -pressing ENTER would start the query immediately.
higher UI priority when a query is active (optional -on by default).
Optional Search priority

[burgundy]

Ah, I think I get it now ...
When Everything is behind with keeping up what was typed, the idea is to stop whatever Everything was doing when an ENTER was pressd and continue with the entire serach query that was typed.
Thanks for the eyeopener.

Is that what you suggested, @burgundy?

@Notnull, yes that is what I mean.

Suppose I want to search for "123456789". I can see Everything searching as I type for for "1" and then "12" and then "123" and so on, character by character. I have often reached the end of keying the entire string "123456789" but the character by character searching proceeds.

I wish to keep "search as you type" enabled. My suggestion is for the user to press enter after keying "123456789" and for Everything to stop searching as I typed and instead search for the whole search string.

Sorry for the late reply. Had a health scare.

[burgundy]

Some suggestions:
Please try lowering the number of threads Everything uses to 1 (ideally this should be max logical CPUs - 1):

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /max_threads=1
• If successful you should see max_threads=1 in the status bar for a few seconds.

@Void, that Max Threads change gave a big improvement.

Your proposed feature will improve the problem further. I mean where you mention:

"Optional delay to start the search from 'search as you type' queries -pressing ENTER would start the query immediately"

Sorry for the delay in replying but I had some health problems. I know annoying it can be annoying when a questioner vanishes while people are working hard to help. Actually I'm still here! Thanks.

[burgundy]

In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
/max_threads=1
If successful you should see max_threads=1 in the status bar for a few seconds.

I sometimes need to repeat that max threads setting. Can the setting get undone?

How can I check the current number of threads Everything uses?

[void]

I hope you are safe and well.

To check the current status of the max_threads setting:

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /max_threads
• If successful you should see max_threads=x in the status bar for a few seconds.
  where x is the current value.

If your settings are being lost, please make sure Everything is installed correctly:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the General tab on the left.
• Check Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything
• Uncheck Run as administrator.
• Check Everything Service. (Please make sure this is tick-checked and not square-checked)
• Click OK.
• Exit Everything (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).
• Restart Everything.

Everything 1.5 alpha has a search delay option under Tools -> Options -> Search.

[cata_solo]

Setting up a search delay value in Tools > General > Search is welcome and very useful.

The only issue even this value is set is related to the content: filter. Only if there is a content index to start searching (Options > Indexes > Index file content checked), otherwise the search should start if the Enter key is pressed or after entering the "special" filter that is recommended with content.

The case of content filter search must be treated in a special way because it consumes resources and requires computing power to be carried out in a timely manner. If the Index file content is not checked in Options using content: only start the search and for slow computers can be challenging to stop the process.

[void]

further discussion here