I need correct search syntax for shortcut icon searches

[thirl88]

I'm trying to create shortcut icons that open Search Everything and perform searches within my music collection. By doing this I can make custom shortcut icons that I can double-click on and this will open Search Everything and give me a list of required files. But I'm finding that the syntax needed within a shortcut is different from simply entering search syntax directly into Search Everything. I guess I'm needing to use Command Line syntax but I do not know exactly how.

I name all of my mp3 files like this (for example): "James Blunt - Bonfire Heart ".
I have found that I can enter the following into the target line of a shortcut icon:

"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s "James Blunt"

This results in Search Everything opening up with list of all my files with the words "James Blunt" in the filename if they reside in any of my Chart Hits subfolders.

I can search for multiple different results in one go If I enter something like the following:

"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s "Queen|Beatles|Sheeran"

This results in a list of all files that have the word Queen, Beatles or Sheeran in their filename. Although this gives me a list of ALL files that contain those words in them and not just the specific artists, this is OK for my needs.

My main stumbling block is when I want to search for multiple results where one or more search strings have a space in them, for instance:

"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s "James Blunt|Queen"
This gives me a list of only James Blunt files and it ignores anything after the | (OR) part of the search text.

"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s "Queen|James Blunt"
This also only gives me results for James Blunt.

How do I make this work in a shortcut so that all search criteria is searched for?

[void]

Please try using triple-double quotes (""") to escape a single literal double quote (")

For example:

"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s """"James Blunt"""|Queen"

your search will be set to:
"M:\Chart Hits\" "James Blunt"|Queen

Command line options



If you are using Everything 1.5, please try:
"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -filename "M:\Chart Hits" -s* "James Blunt"|Queen

[thirl88]

Thank you very much, that has solved my problem.

I had previously read your instructions about adding extra quote marks and I had tried various combinations but never got it right.
Clearly I did not fully understand what you meant and I never tried adding triple-quotes!

Many thanks for the answer and the quick response.