Everything 1.5a "Service" Feature & QuickLook v3.7.1

[Jack66]

Yesterday I found the QuickLook program for Windows Explorer, and I love it. I was doing some research on it, and I found https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook/wiki/File-Managers in GitHub which says it is compatible with Everything "out of the box." We just need to run Everything in its Service Mode, so I did a quick Google search and found viewtopic.php?t=314 forum post.

So I followed it, making the changes it said, making sure to use the 1.5a differences instead of the vanilla program. It has us change the "Search Everything" shortcuts to the "Everything_SendCommandLine" program, and so I just placed that program in the same folder as Everything64.exe (in its own folder), and linked to the shortcut that way, which is how I assume we are supposed to do it. Everything was easy to set up, it all appeared to be correct. But I never could open Everything through the command line. So I looked more closely, and then realized that the instructions for the Everything "Service" I found, was over a decade old.

A couple of quick searches later, and I realized that not only is it a default option, but due to my external hard drives, it was already active, and has been active for as long as I've been using the alpha version of Everything (which I absolutely love this program btw), the alpha is a huge step up from vanilla, if only for the dark mode. And is one of my most favorite programs, which I use all the time. Yet, the QuickLook program has never worked for me in Everything since I installed it.

And so, leave it to me to write a huge ass post, just to ask, what could I be doing wrong? I don't have Everything as a startup program, I've never had it start in Admin mode, and all of the requirements from the post from over a decade ago were fulfilled. Most likely it has to do with me, and something I either did wrong or overlooked, but it would be nice to have QuickLook working with Everything. I've restarted my PC since I installed QuckLook, so I really don't know.

[horst.epp]

QuickLook doesn't depend on any Everything version or service.
Its default hotkey is the space key which works fine as there is no such hotkey in Everything.
I used it some time but uninstalled it for several reasons:
1. Everything already makes use of Explorer preview functions.
2. My file managers (Total commander and XYplorer) integrated with Everything
have much better preview modules than QuickLook.

[NotNull]

The alpha version of Everything 1.5 is build to run side-by-side with Everything 1.4.
For that to work, Everything runs in a named instance, which cause the components that make up the Everything window o your screen to be named differently as those contain the instance name (Class EVERYTHING_(1.5) instead of the regular class EVERYTHING).

That causes QuickLook to be unable to find the Everything window and do it's thing.

There are ways to change the way Everything 1.5 works - and make QuickLook work again too - but that requires removing Everything 1.4 from your system completely and some manual steps to reconfigure Everything 1.5.

[void]

If you would like to replace Everything 1.4 with the 1.5 alpha, please see:
Replacing my Everything 1.4 installation with the test version

[David.P]

QuickLook also does not work for me, with Everything 1.5a.

Is there already something like a standard solution for this issue?

[horst.epp]

QuickLook also does not work for me, with Everything 1.5a.

Is there already something like a standard solution for this issue?

Use the following entry in your Everything-1.5.ini
alpha_instance=0
This will allows QuickLook to find your Everything Windows.
Its works here as I said above.

[David.P]

Hmmm, doesn't work here

Same with the Everything Toolbar, the result list remains empty

Does this have anything to do with that:

Ok, found the problem, the INI file wasn't on the same location as everything64.exe.
Now it works. Thank You

[horst.epp]

Hmmm, doesn't work here

Same with the Everything Toolbar, the result list remains empty

Does this have anything to do with that:

Ok, found the problem, the INI file wasn't on the same location as everything64.exe.
Now it works. Thank You

For a portable installation the ini-file is in the location of the Everything64.exe.
If you edit the wrong one it will not help of course.
You should know if you have a portable installation or not.

[void]

The window title bar should include the instance name.

What is shown in the Everything search window title bar?

It should look something like:

My Search - Everything 1.5.0.1314a (x64)
-or-
Everything 1.5.0.1314a (x64)

[braitow]

QuickLook also does not work for me, with Everything 1.5a.

Is there already something like a standard solution for this issue?

Use the following entry in your Everything-1.5.ini
alpha_instance=0
This will allows QuickLook to find your Everything Windows.
Its works here as I said above.

This worked for me.
I changed "alpha_instance=1" to "alpha_instance=0", in my Everything-1.5a.ini file inside "C:\Program Files\Everything 1.5a" and it just worked. Btw adding "alpha_instance=0" to my Everything-1.5a.ini inside %USER%\AppData\Roaming\Everything folder doesn't seem to do anything.
Thanks!

[user123]

I'm using K-Lite Codec Pack, but previews are just thumbnails in Everything and File Explorer. So, yes, QuickLook is a very useful tool since Windows 10 doesn't have video or audio previews in Preview Pane, though QuickLook lags for first 3 seconds on small webm videos..

[Jack66]

EDIT (NEW):

On the GitHub Wiki Page

It states this:

Everything (requires Everything to be installed as a service and not be run as admin).

So if anyone is still having issues, this may help.

EDIT (NEW) - End:

I broke up braitow's post to make it easier to see and copy the path(s).

Close Everything first! (I read somewhere)

In Windows, change:

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alpha_instance=1

CHANGE ABOVE TO BELOW (or add it if it's missing).

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alpha_instance=0

Inside:

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C:\Program Files\Everything 1.5a

Didn't work on this path below:

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%USER%\AppData\Roaming\Everything

QuickLook also does not work for me, with Everything 1.5a.

Is there already something like a standard solution for this issue?

Use the following entry in your Everything-1.5.ini
alpha_instance=0
This will allows QuickLook to find your Everything Windows.
Its works here as I said above.

This worked for me.
I changed "alpha_instance=1" to "alpha_instance=0", in my Everything-1.5a.ini file inside "C:\Program Files\Everything 1.5a" and it just worked. Btw adding "alpha_instance=0" to my Everything-1.5a.ini inside %USER%\AppData\Roaming\Everything folder doesn't seem to do anything.
Thanks!

I guess I could chime in here too since it's been close to a year and a half since I created this thread.

This is what originally worked for me, but now I'm having issues after reinstalling Quick Look, possibly due to the version I'm now using. There is Windows store, .msi and the .zip versions, and can't remember which version I was using.

GitHub Download Page

Differences Between Distributions

GitHub Plugin Page - There MAY be more not here.

I just need to test, just hadn't felt like doing it. But before I removed and reinstalled it, Quick Look was working perfectly in Everything.

[horst.epp]

I'm using K-Lite Codec Pack, but previews are just thumbnails in Everything and File Explorer. So, yes, QuickLook is a very useful tool since Windows 10 doesn't have video or audio previews in Preview Pane, though QuickLook lags for first 3 seconds on small webm videos..

Before I updated my Windows 10 to Windows 11 I had video previews.
They are provided by Windows Media Player.
I have installed the K-Lite Standard Codec pack and this installs additional video codecs also for the Media Player.
Store the following script into a filename.cmd and run it.

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@Echo off
Echo/>>%0
Echo ============================================ >>%0
Echo Computername: %ComputerName% Date: %Date% %Time:~0,6% >>%0
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers" >>%0
More +9 <%0
Pause
goto :EOF

The output is on the screen and also appended to the cmd file.
Show us the output.
You should have a line with the "Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler".
This works fine with Explorer, Everything and other File managers preview.

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Computername: HOME-PC Date: 08.05.2023 13:02: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers
    {13D3C4B8-B179-4ebb-BF62-F704173E7448}    REG_SZ    Windows Contact Preview Handler
    {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}    REG_SZ    Windows TXT Previewer
    {53BEDF0B-4E5B-4183-8DC9-B844344FA104}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows MAPI Preview Handler
    {8a7cae0e-5951-49cb-bf20-ab3fa1e44b01}    REG_SZ    Windows Font previewer
    {92dbad9f-5025-49b0-9078-2d78f935e341}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {a42c2ccb-67d3-46fa-abe6-7d2f3488c7a3}    REG_SZ    Windows RTF Previewer
    {b9815375-5d7f-4ce2-9245-c9d4da436930}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {BFD468D2-D0A0-4bdc-878C-E69C2F5B435D}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {E64164EB-1AE0-4C50-BAEF-A413C2B3A4BC}    REG_SZ    Microsoft 3MF Shell Thumbnail and Preview Handler
    {f8b8412b-dea3-4130-b36c-5e8be73106ac}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {031EE060-67BC-460d-8847-E4A7C5E45A27}    REG_SZ    Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler
    {AD8855FB-F908-4DDF-982C-ADB9DE5FF000}    REG_SZ    Delphi Preview Handler
    {37742665-fa1f-4da6-9c29-59fdfba13fd7}    REG_SZ    BrandsICT Msg Preview Handler
    {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}    REG_SZ    Microsoft PDF Previewer
    {32a6a30d-c68e-4f7a-aa4c-2fa9011b0717}    REG_SZ    Foxit PDF Preview Handler
    {9B68BDF7-95F9-4A1F-851C-27D822F8E3E9}    REG_SZ    PDF-XChange Preview Handler

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[mbloflin@gmail.com]

I have tried unsuccessfully to get 1.5a and QuickLook to work together. Returned to it today and still no luck. Got with ChatGPT and we tried all manner of things. Ultimately, sorry to say, no easy or elegant solution. We did get it working by adding an AHK script to intercept the spacebar, and pass the image to preview on to QuickLook. Even that script needed a bit of troubleshooting to get things working and ability to arrow up and down freely while previewing the images. Since it was intercepting the spacebar command, i had to add a handler exception for typing in the searchbar. It may also have issues with spacebar in other areas of Everything, IDK yet.

I can go into more detail but i'll put enough here for those that run AutoHotKey already. Copy the code between the horizontal lines and put in <YourUser> where appropriate. This code may not work for you or may be buggy so use at your own discretion.

Script to add to AHK default script:
______________________________________________________________
/*
Created: 01/2025
Author: Brad Loflin

Everything + QuickLook Integration Script
=========================================
Setup Instructions:
1. Install Everything (v1.5a) and QuickLook (v3.7.1 or later).
2. Configure Everything:
- Go to Tools > Options > Keyboard.
- Assign "Space" to "File | Preview" (to prevent conflicts).
3. Disable conflicting Space behavior:
- In PowerToys, turn off "File Locksmith" (or reassign its shortcut).
4. Save this script as AutoHotkey.ahk or merge it into an existing script.
5. Ensure AutoHotkey runs this script at login.
6. QuickLook Path:
- Update the path to QuickLook.exe if installed in a custom directory.
- Default: "C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Programs\QuickLook\QuickLook.exe"
7. Test:
- Space opens QuickLook for selected files in Everything.
- Arrow keys refresh QuickLook as you navigate files.
*/

#IfWinActive ahk_class EVERYTHING_(1.5a)

; Spacebar to open QuickLook only when not typing in the search bar
Space::
; Check if focus is on the search bar
ControlGetFocus, focusedControl, A
if (focusedControl = "Edit1") ; "Edit1" is typically the search bar in Everything
{
Send, {Space} ; Insert a normal space if typing in the search bar
Return
}
; Otherwise, trigger QuickLook
Send, ^+c ; Copy the full file path
Sleep, 100 ; Allow clipboard to populate
if (clipboard = "")
{
MsgBox, Error: Clipboard is empty. Please select a file in Everything.
Return
}
Run, "C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Programs\QuickLook\QuickLook.exe" "%clipboard%" ; Launch QuickLook
Return

; Refresh QuickLook after navigating with arrow keys
Up::
Send, {Up} ; Move up in Everything
Send, ^+c ; Copy the new selection's file path
Sleep, 100 ; Allow clipboard to populate
Run, "C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Programs\QuickLook\QuickLook.exe" "%clipboard%" ; Refresh QuickLook
Return

Down::
Send, {Down} ; Move down in Everything
Send, ^+c ; Copy the new selection's file path
Sleep, 100 ; Allow clipboard to populate
Run, "C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Programs\QuickLook\QuickLook.exe" "%clipboard%" ; Refresh QuickLook
Return

#IfWinActive
________________________________________________

[mbloflin@gmail.com]

Looking at it again here, I think the exception should be flipped. Instead of exception for search bar typing, it should be, normal everywhere, but handler if focus is in the results area.

Something to work on another day...

(Windows 10.0.19045 system)

[Jolly]

I have 1.5 and quicklook 3.7.3 working together fine withotu any problems?

I don't think I did anything special other than using NO_ALPHA_INSTANCE