Windows 10: Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box

Discus and support Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box in Windows 10 Support to solve the problem; Hi everyone, I don't know if this option even exists, but it's worth a try: When I Installed Win 10, if I wanted to quickly access one of those 6... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Support' started by Ed08, Sep 14, 2015.

  1. Ed08 Win User

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box


    Hi everyone,

    I don't know if this option even exists, but it's worth a try:

    When I Installed Win 10, if I wanted to quickly access one of those 6 Win 10 PC 'Folders' (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos), I would just had to type in the folder in the start menu search box, press Enter and it would access the folder.
    As soon as I changed the folders' original location, this 'typing shortcut' did not work anymore.

    My question is if any of you know how to solve this "problem"?
    Or generally - is it even possible to make typing shortcuts to folders or files in the search box? (i.e typing "x" for a specific folder named "y")

    Thank you,
    Ed

    :)
     

  2. Snipping tool no longer available

    Good deal.

    Since it doesn't find it in the search box, my guess is that perhaps just the shortcut to it is missing from the start menu (so the search box can't find it).

    If you want to see if that is the case, try this out:

    1) Put shellShortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box :programs into your run box and click OK to open the Start menu's folder

    (this is where the start menu shortcuts are really stored)

    2) Make a shortcut to the snipping tool (using the path you used in the run box earlier) and put it in this folder.

    3) Soon the search index should find that shortcut and begin showing it when you search for it again.

    Also, one quick tip I love: if you put the snip tool on your taskbar, it gets an automatic keyboard shortcut. Check out this picture for a sample: https://cmdrkeene.com/images/ani/TaskbarPins.gif
     
    Shawn 'Cmdr' Keene [MVP], Sep 14, 2015
    #2
  3. GTTG Win User
    Windows 10 Start Menu Search not finding shortcuts

    I have several shortcuts to apps and folders which are not found by the Windows 10 Start menu search.

    The shortcuts are under

    C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Application. They include shortcuts to folders, URLs and files.

    All of this currently works in Windows 8.1.

    I was under the impression that the Start menu search always searched for shortcuts under both C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu.

    In fact I've noticed that a simple shortcut on a fully indexed Documents folder is not found in the Start menu search.
    How have shortcut objects changed in Windows 10 that they are no longer available in searches? The shortcut files are being indexed because they show up in the Indexed Locations under C:\Users\{username}\Searches.

    Any suggestions? Any fixes on the way? This is critical for productivity!

    Thank you.
     
  4. dalchina New Member

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box

    dalchina, Sep 14, 2015
    #4
  5. Ed08 Win User
    Hi,

    Thank you for the quick response.
    This is not exactly what I meant. Cortana is supported in my region, Thus I use File Explorer only.

    I wanted to set abbreviations to specific folders or files in the File Explorer. For example, if I have a folder named "Downloads" that's located in drive M:\, I could just need to type "down" in the File explorer in order it to understand that I wanted to access this specific folder.
    Here is an example of what i mean:

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box [​IMG]

    and here is the situation now:

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box [​IMG]
     
  6. dalchina New Member
    Hi, the search box is Cortana's - you can see this is you rt click the task bar, hide/show it you have to go to 'Cortana'. Thus I'm puzzled about your comment that you only use file explorer.

    If you only want to use file explorer, then you can use 'Quick Access' (= 'favourites'). For example, if you rt click a folder in explorer, you should see 'Pin to Quick Access'. That adds a link in Quick Access. (But it doesn't offer an opportunity to rename it, so 'Downloads' was already in Quick Access, and pinning 'Downloads' on a different partition simply duplicated the name (!) - maybe there's some way round that...

    Personally having now tried the method in my previous post, although the search listed some folders, it certainly didn't show the one I wanted, and I would never consider trying to use it in practice, being a generalised search with multiple steps and therefore inconvenient.

    I use File Box Extender, which adds buttons to title bars in explorer and many (but not all) file browse dialogues, one being a drop-down list of favourites. Thus it's not unique to explorer. Two clicks and I'm there, assuming explorer is open.

    You might like to explore, say, Classic Shell, which includes an indexed search (I've not tried using the search myself yet, but use Classic Shell).
     
    dalchina, Sep 15, 2015
    #6
  7. dalchina New Member
    By the way, I note you've only 3 icons on the side of the pop-up search box- when that happened to me, Cortana wasn't working properly. Normally there are five. Try checking location is working (Click the notification icon in the tray and in Action Centre (aah- can't they use consistent terms?) inspect the Location tile at the bottom and make sure it's not shaded out).
     
    dalchina, Sep 15, 2015
    #7
  8. dalchina New Member

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box

    Hi Ed08, I think I've found what you're look for. Maybe. I was looking for sthg else entirely...
    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu Places

    These are shortcuts that the Cortana search box finds easily, the ones you found initially.
    Perhaps- you'd have to try it- you can create more shortcuts here to point to your new folders.
     
    dalchina, Sep 15, 2015
    #8
  9. Ed08 Win User
    Thank you again, dalchina, for you help!
    First of all, I fixed the issue with Cortana, and now it works.
    Secondly, I tried to create few shortcuts in the folder you mentioned and Cortana still couldn't find it in the search box.
    I was searching for more solutions and found a thread about what I was looking for, though it did not work for me:

    How to give cortana extra commands(kind of) / open your programs. | Se7enSins Gaming Community

    Maybe you can figure something out of it.
    Thank you again,
    Ed
     
  10. dalchina New Member
    Hi, great you managed to fix Cortana- that can be difficult. Far too fragile- early stage for Win 10.

    How to give cortana extra commands(kind of) / open your programs. | Se7enSins Gaming Community
    is this:
    Consider the old start menu folders in Win 7/8 and earlier. One of them is the folder mentioned in that article. So all that's happening is Cortana is finding things in the old start menu folder, just like the search box in the start menu in previous windows editions.

    Now I upgraded and I had/have a LOT of programs installed. One of them is 7-zip. So if I type 7-zip in the search box, it finds it. So all that's happening is they are suggesting adding some unique string in the old start menu folder.
    =======================================

    Note that there seems to be a bug in the new start menu, and I've come across another post on this forum exploring what I also see. Thus not all folders in the old start menu are available via 'All apps' - only some. And where those folders in my start menu contained subfolders, those subfolder contents are stripped out and presented linearly. Thus if I look at one folder (which containtained the shortcut folders of many programs) in the Win 10 start menu, go to the arrow and view the contents, as I scan down, suddenly I see Help Help Help Help Help... (all the help shortcuts from various programs which were nicely contained in subfolders in the old start menu.

    Classic Shell presents these properly.

    What does this apparent major oversight mean for this approach? Well, if the folder is empty (New Win 10 install) then it will work fine. If the string you want to search for is unique, it will work fine. However the entry 'should' also appear in the Win 10 start menu All Apps listing. (Unless, because of the bug, it's not displayed!).
     
    dalchina, Sep 16, 2015
    #10
  11. dalchina New Member
    By the way, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu Places appears to relate to
    'Choose which folders appear on Start' in settings (I've not confirmed this).

    Hmm, MS seems to have made a right mess of this with a very limited conception of what they thought a start menu should be and no testing or consideration of how start menu shortcuts inherited in an upgrade would be presented.
     
    dalchina, Sep 16, 2015
    #11
  12. Ed08 Win User
    What I did at the end is using the instructions at the link above and making .bat file, named "Downloads". Inside the file I put in: "explorer " and the name of the directory that I want to open by the .bat file (i.e "explorer M:\Downloads").
    It worked!

    Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box [​IMG]
     
Thema:

Shortcuts to Folders/Files in Start Menu Search Box

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