Disable preview for certain extensions (e.g., Excel, xlsx)

[masgo]

My default setting for Everything is to have the preview tab turned on. I also like to use the keyboard a lot. This leads to issues when the search results include Excel files and some other file types. Since most Excel files I have are rather huge, loading the preview takes several seconds. This freezes everything until the preview was loaded. It also happens with other huge files, but Excel files are the most common problem.

Therefore I want to disable the preview for all xlsx files. How can I do that?

Also: is it possible to add file extensions which should be considered text and previewed as such (e.g., php, cpp, sh, and similar files)?

[void]

Thank you for your suggestion masgo,

Unfortunately, Everything 1.4 doesn't have an option to exclude files from the preview pane.

To disable the preview handler for xlsx files (system-wide):

• From the Start menu, search for: regedit
• Click Registry Editor.
• In the Registry Editor, navigate to:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx\ShellEx\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}
• Rename this key to:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx\ShellEx\_{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}
  (Note the addition of the _ at the start of the key name)

Everything 1.5 will have an option to exclude files from the preview pane.
If you would like to test this now, please try the Everything 1.5 alpha.



To exclude xlsx and xls files from the preview pane:

• In Everything 1.5, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /preview_exclude_files=*.xlsx;*.xls
• If successul, preview_exclude_files=*.xlsx;*.xls is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

preview_exclude_files

Everything 1.5 will also load previews in a background thread.



To preview other files as text:

• (this is the same process to preview files as text in Windows Explorer)
• From the Start menu, search for: regedit
• Click Registry Editor.
• In the Registry Editor, navigate to:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.php
• On the right, right click and under New, click String Value.
• Set the Name to: PerceivedType
• Set the Data to: text
• Navigate to:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cpp
• On the right, right click and under New, click String Value.
• Set the Name to: PerceivedType
• Set the Data to: text
• Navigate to:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sh
• On the right, right click and under New, click String Value.
• Set the Name to: PerceivedType
• Set the Data to: text
  (repeat for similar files)