Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches??

If you are experiencing problems with "Everything", post here for assistance.
Post Reply
stevenroussos
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:00 pm

Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches??

Post by stevenroussos »

Windows Task Manager in PROCESES tab will show under "Everything" a list of all currently open searches, usually alphabetized. This is VERY useful.

1. Sometimes it is a little buggy. After 1st opening TaskMgr there is a number in paren after the main Everything.exe task, and if you click that line it expands into a nice alphabetical list showing the search text followed by "- Everything". (What system parameter is it actually showing then, BTW?).

But sometimes it will only say (2) and the list of individually open search frames is missing.

I discovered that if I click on a tab AT LEAST 2 away from PROCESSES in TaskMgr, then go back to PROCESSES, it updates itself. Very occasionally this does NOT fix it. Then I can close TaskMgr and restart it, and the Everything searches list is again complete.

>>> You may wish to add this to your bug list, if it even is your bug (May be a bug in TaskMgr or Windows itself for all I know.)

2. MAIN QUESTION: WHAT IS A "Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches?"

?Sometimes if doing a system restart I want to capture that list in a text format so can cut/paste my prior searches and re-establish some or all. BUT you cannot select/copy text from the TaskMgr.

I know I can open the "Search History.csv" in C:\Users\<name>AppData\Roaming\Everything with Excell and see the full history list, sort/filter as desired than select rows and copy to clipboard. HOWEVER:
A. this is a cumbersome extra step and
B. it will include more recent searches that I since closed. I ONLY want the CURRENTLY OPEN searches

I tried using a command line "'tasklist /fi "IMAGENAME eq Everything.exe" /v" but that does NOT show all the ope searches and their search text like TaskMgr does, only the 2 main Everything processes.

So, TaskMgr MUST be essentially using code that could be replicated in the command line. then I could just copy that for may quick-n-easy text list of all open windows.

BUT: I cannot figure out what that windows command might be?

WHAT IS IT? CAN ANYONE HELP???

Thanks!
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches??

Post by NotNull »

The information that you are seeing are the Window titles. If you did leave Everything's window title setting default (I guess you did), the title will include the current search query

However ...
I am not aware of any CMD or PowerShell command to get this info as these commands focus on processes.
Everything uses just one (1) process for all it's differnt search windows.


The good news:
Programs like AutoHotKey have the possibility to "read" the window titles.
Here is a quick, largely untested, piece of code that should get you halfway.
It reports in dialogboxes what Everything search queries were found.

I hope someone else steps in to finish it (=write results to a file)

Code: Select all

WinGet, AllWindows, List 
Loop, %AllWindows% 
{ 
WinGetTitle, ThisTitle, % "ahk_id " AllWindows%A_Index% 
IfInString, ThisTitle, - Everything
{
	 Query := StrReplace(ThisTitle, " - Everything","")
	 MsgBox %Query% 
}
} 
MsgBox No more Everything windows.

void
Developer
Posts: 16748
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches??

Post by void »

1. Sometimes it is a little buggy. After 1st opening TaskMgr there is a number in paren after the main Everything.exe task, and if you click that line it expands into a nice alphabetical list showing the search text followed by "- Everything". (What system parameter is it actually showing then, BTW?).
This is showing the Window caption.
To customize your Everything window caption, please see:
https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/customizing/#window_caption
2. MAIN QUESTION: WHAT IS A "Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches?"
Currently, Everything does not have an option to save/restore sessions.
An option to restore previous sessions is on my TODO list.

For common searches, please consider using bookmarks.
therube
Posts: 4977
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Command line to get a list of all CURRENTLY OPEN searches??

Post by therube »

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/gui_prop_view.html.
(Other Nirsoft utilities could probably yield similar results.)
Post Reply