What is "Runcount"?

[ChrisGreaves]

Everything 1.5.0.1333a(x64)
My first thought was that it would tell me how often an EXE had been executed, how many times a DOC had been opened and so on.

RunCount_01.png (30.05 KiB) Viewed 1761 times

But that can't be so. I have a Calendar.doc that is opened and modified each day. It is loaded from my AutoExec.bat on the first boot of the day.

In https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/searching/ I see:-
"runcount:<count> Search for files and folders with the specified run count."
Which tells me how to report RunCount, but not what it means.

Then I searched the forums and took in about a dozen topics, which seemed to me to discuss bugs in Runcount, but not what it DID (as in, "why would I use it?")

Now I have found Run History
"Everything" "Run History" is a database of how many times you have run every file or folder from "Everything". Every time you open a file or folder its run count is incremented by one. Pressing Enter from the search edit will focus the file or folder result with the highest run count."

And yet, and yet, as my image above shows, there is not a single object on my data partition that has been "run" from Everything more than three times.
Given my activity in Everything over the past seven days i am puzzled by this.

If by "Run" is meant "executing the file by double-clicking on it - selecting it and tapping Enter", then I am still a bit puzzled.
I suppose it is possible that I have run that List thing through Audacity three times, or read up on RoboCopy parameters three times, but I have no memory of diving into "T:\Greaves\Training\VBA\Beginner2Professional" at all, let alone three times.

All this of course because I am building a tutorial, function-by-infinite-function (HUGE grin), because I couldn't find a user manual. So it's quite alright by me if one of you responds "Stop pestering us with questions, Chris, and hurry up and get that tutorial written, so that we can refer you to it", but at the same time my head reels when I meet technology that everyone is discussing, and for the life of me I can't figure it out! (one of the posts sounded like "I can't live without RunCount" or similar)
Thanks, Chris

[NotNull]

Everything 1.5.0.1333a(x64)
My first thought was that it would tell me how often an EXE had been executed, how many times a DOC had been opened and so on.

That is correct. But then opened/started/executed from withing Everything.

When you (temporary) add the Runcount column to the result-list, you can see it increase.

Most of the time I have results sorted by runcount (descending). When I want a file/folder high in the list for easy accessibility, I Increase the resultcount to 1000 (right-click the file > Set Run Count
The rest will rise in the ranking aa I run them.

FWIW: Files/programs started through the context menu will not increment the runcount as this is handled by Explorer instead of Everything.

[ChrisGreaves]

That is correct. But then opened/started/executed from within Everything.

Ah. AhaHah!
Now I think I understand.
People use Everything as they used to use File Explorer: locate the file and then execute it.

So if I ran my files FROM the Everything results list, and maintained a RunCount column, then a Filter "Runcount>0" would provide a type of Most-Recently-Used list.
Let me see ...

RunCount_02.png (60.33 KiB) Viewed 1754 times

So now you see where my true passion lies, what i made for supper last night, who I am really ticked off at right now!
Except of course that I don't run from Everything, and if I wanted an Most Recently Used list I should sort the result list descending on Date-Modified or Date-Accessed or similar.

RunCount_03.png (76.71 KiB) Viewed 1754 times

So now you can see that I have subjugated my hobby and been working on the tutorial instead.
There are TWO Model Railway entries, one from each of two distinct folders.(No, Honest! It's just a hobby!)

Follow-on question:
Why is Everything showing a time value in a date field?
And why is the time field value given as midnight?
Could this be because Everything's database stores only the integral part of the date-time last accessed, but the column heading formatting is awry?

Thanks, Chris

[NotNull]

Why is Everything showing a time value in a date field?
And why is the time field value given as midnight?
Could this be because Everything's database stores only the integral part of the date-time last accessed, but the column heading formatting is awry?

Everything tries to mimic the Windows behaviour to give people a familiar environment. Explorer also shows data + time.

Everything saves filedates as the number of 100-nanosecond ticks since 1601-01-01 (just like Windows itself does).
That gets translated to a human-friendly date&time in the GUI [1]

You can even change the representation of date&time in Everything to your liking.
See customizing date formats and customizing time formats for that.

For example, If you like the date format "It's the year 2023. Saturday February 9", paste the following in the searchbar and press ENTER

/date_format='It''s the year' yyyy dddd MMMM d

(uses some undocumented stuff)

To restore the original format:

/date_format=

Don't know why all your accessed times are at midnight. Do you have a virusscanner or backup-script running at that time?




[1] Please don't ask about timezone offsets and daylight saving time; books can be written about that..

[ChrisGreaves]

You can even change the representation of date&time in Everything to your liking.
See customizing date formats and customizing time formats for that.

NotNull, thanks for this.
I have a section in the tutorial "INI file" and your comments will find their way there.
For now I shall resist formatting so that my screens look like the installation default.

Don't know why all your accessed times are at midnight. Do you have a virusscanner or backup-script running at that time?

Not that I am aware of.
(Later)

Untitled.png (48.74 KiB) Viewed 1719 times

I found one task in Task Scheduler, Windows preening itself, no doubt.
I am reluctant to kill tasks because (a) this is a Win7 machine and (b) I am down to my last laptop until I order a new one!

The time 00:00:00 isn't bothering me greatly. I thought I saw a documentation conflict, is all.
Thanks, Chris