Total Commander descriptions in Everything

[NotNull]

This filter will add the ability in Everything to search for Total Commander (TC) descriptions.
It can also speed up the searching for descriptions in TC itself.
Requires Everything 1.5.0.1405a or later.

Search for TC descriptions.jpg (121.56 KiB) Viewed 2629 times

Everything

Installation

• Download the attached Search Total Commander descriptions FILTER.csv
• In Everything: Menu => Search => Organize Filters
• Click the Import button
• Browse to the downloaded CSV file and import it
• OK
• Done.

Optional:
For better performance and access to descriptions of files that might be off-line, descript.ion files can be content-indexed:

• In Everything, go to Menu => Tools => Options => Indexes => Content
• In the Include only files: field, add
  ;descript.ion
  to the list.
  For example
  *.doc;*.docx;*.pdf;*.txt;*.xls;*.xlsx
  becomes
  *.doc;*.docx;*.pdf;*.txt;*.xls;*.xlsx;descript.ion
• Check the Include only folders: field if all desired folders are included
• OK

How to use
add

tctag:searchword

or

tctag:"search word"

to the search query.
To search for multiple tags:
Match all descriptions:

tctag:searchword1 tctag:searchword2

Match any description :

tctag:searchword1 | tctag:searchword2

Total Commander

(Assuming the use of Everything is already integrated in TC)
This filter can be used in Total Commander too.

Installation
Out of the box, the formulas in the filter are not allowed to be used in external applications.
To allow, follow the steps described here.



How to use

• Open the search dialog (Menu => Commands => Search)
• Enter the search. For example:
  ev: tctag:"search word"

Notes

• Requires Everything 1.5.0.1405a or later.
• Searches are case-insensitive, so tctag:hello will also find descriptions including HELLO
• Diacritics like Umlauts currently need to be specified. So tctag:olfassermul will not find Ölfässermül
• This is a beta version. So if you find any inconsistencies, please report!
• The filter is not (performance) optimized yet. Will do so when no more issues are reported.
• I do have a file manager on my system that wrote descript.ion in codepage 866 ("Russian").
  This filter will not be able to read such a file correctly. (heck, even the filemanager itself can't!)

Search Total Commander descriptions filter

Search Total Commander descriptions FILTER.csv

(593 Bytes) Downloaded 43 times

@void:
When exporting this filter, it will break down in 2 lines. Importing that again breaks the filter.

[tuska]

2NotNull

Thank you!

Is this setting correct (bottom, last image: Value: 1 Hexadecimal)?
 

2026-03-04_ipc_allow_read_access - 1_Total Commander descriptions in Everything.png (197.74 KiB) Viewed 2596 times

[NotNull]

Is this setting correct (bottom, last image: Value: 1 Hexadecimal)?

Yes. The number between () is the decimal value. You can enter either a decimal or a hexadecimal value by selecting the appropriate radiobutton in that dialog.

Are you experiencing issues?

2026-03-04 16_01_47-Registry Editor.jpg (37.37 KiB) Viewed 2594 times

[tuska]

2NotNull
Thank you for the explanation, I understand now!
(The registry is completely unfamiliar territory for me).

Is this setting correct (bottom, last image: Value: 1 Hexadecimal)?

Yes. The number between () is the decimal value.
You can enter either a decimal or a hexadecimal value by selecting the appropriate radiobutton in that dialog.

Are you experiencing issues?

Not with this setting.

[horst.epp]

Thanks for this nice TC addition.
Currently, I'm using Everything indexed ADS stream tags in TC
but the descript.ion is useful to.
There is even a script which syncs decript.ion files between dirs
if they were not copied by accident.

[NotNull]

ADS stream tags in TC

Who or what creates this ADS? (and how)
It's not a feature of TC itself, right? (then I have some more work to do ... )

[horst.epp]

ADS stream tags in TC

Who or what creates this ADS? (and how)
It's not a feature of TC itself, right? (then I have some more work to do ... )

I started using the NTFS_diz TC content plugin
to color files according to the content of the NTFS stream MyComment.

In addition, I have an AHK script which adds the NTFS ADS MyTag to selected files in TC.

My Everything config for these tags is
property_alternate_data_stream_ansi=custom property 0=MyComment;custom property 1=MyTag
Both properties are indexed.

[tuska]

There is even a script
which syncs decript.ion files between dirs
if they were not copied by accident.

Which script are you referring to?

I only know this AHK script:
[Solved] Remind user once the bound file in the descript.ion disappears but the comment still exist

This AHK script can be used to check whether the contents of hidden “descript.ion” files
still match the Total Commander comments on the files.

[horst.epp]

There is even a script
which syncs decript.ion files between dirs
if they were not copied by accident.

Which script are you referring to?

I only know this AHK script:
[Solved] Remind user once the bound file in the descript.ion disappears but the comment still exist

This AHK script can be used to check whether the contents of hidden “descript.ion” files
still match the Total Commander comments on the files.

This one
https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic. ... ts#p393768

[tuska]

This one
https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic. ... ts#p393768

Thanks for letting me know!

[void]

When exporting this filter, it will break down in 2 lines. Importing that again breaks the filter.

Could you please send me the multiline export and your original filters .csv.
I am unable to produce the issue here.

Perhaps there's a new line in your search?
-If so, this will make your export multilined, but that's fine, CSV allows newlines inside quotes.

[Native2904]

Thanks for sharing — a bit like stumbling upon the Blue Mauritius of TC/Everything tricks.

[NotNull]

When exporting this filter, it will break down in 2 lines. Importing that again breaks the filter.

2 Days ago I did a lot of editing and cleanup of test/deprecated filters and now can't reproduce the issue anymore.
So all is good now.
Thanks for investigating the issue (sorry!)

[tuska]

2NotNull

Hi,
I ran a few tests - here are the results:

1. OK: German umlauts (öäüÖÄÜ)
2. OK: Special characters (ß §$%&~#^°á `b ²³{}[]\<|>µ "=")
3. ??: Character that were not found: ' ... APOSTROPHE, U+0027, UTF-16LE: 0x0027
        File: descript.ion - Encoding: UTF-16 LE-BOM
4. OK: Unicode characters
5. OK: Search Total Commander comments in just one line
    
6. ??: Search TC comments in a large number of characters and line breaks
   
   C:\Everything\Bookmarks.csv ... has the following Total Commander comment in German language (in hidden file: descript.ion):
       Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel
       öffnen und bearbeiten.
   

   Code: Select all

   tctag:"Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel"

   Search result: 0 items
   Are the inner quotation marks perhaps causing a problem here?
   1. ALT+SHIFT+F7 (Search in separate process...) > "Find Files" in Total Commander: ...
   2. Search in: C:\Everything
   3. Tab Plugins > ☑ Search in plugins

      Code: Select all

      Plugin	Property 	OP 		Value
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      tc	comment		contains	Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel

   4. Press button "Start search" ...
   5. Search results: C:\Everything\Bookmarks.csv
    
7. OK: Total path length >259 characters
   The decisive factor is the total path length in which the “descript.ion” file is located.
   
   Example:
   Path:

   Code: Select all

   D:\259_Zeichen\Daten\Programme\TotalCommander\TCD_USB-Stick\TC32-64USB\Migration\_Forumsanfragen\Ansichtsmodus_ViewMode\Ansichtsmodus-Rückstellung-auf-Vorgabe_50-50pct\TC32-64USB\Migration\_Forumsanfragen\Ansichtsmodus_ViewMode\

   File names:

   Code: Select all

   Unicode - GRINNING FACE  😀😀😀😀😀 😀😀😀😀😀 😀😀😀😀😀 😀😀😀😀😀 😀😀😀😀😀 😀😀😀😀😀.txt
   descript.ion

   Total Commander - comment: GH ... was found in Everything even though the total path length was 322 characters!
   Please see the image below...

2026-03-07_Total Commander comments in hidden file 'descript.ion' and path length.png (43.11 KiB) Viewed 2459 times

 
Please check.
Thank you.

PS:
Based on initial impressions, searching for Total Commander comments in Everything is quite fast:
Options - 1.5.0.1406a (x64) > Content > Include only files: *.ion; ...

[NotNull]

Thank you for testing tuska!

Are the inner quotation marks perhaps causing a problem here?

Yes, they are. The used [string:value] preprocessor function unexpectedly (by me) removes inner "".
Meaning [string:"hello "quoted" world"] becomes "hello quoted world".
Working on a workaround..

I also found that I over-optimized the regex queries. Will restore an older version that supported "\" in multi-line descriptions correctly.


"Features" in development:
- diacritics-free search (ol finds Öl)
- searching for multiple tags at once (something like tctag:<word1;"word 2"> or tctag:<word1|"word 2">

[tuska]

I also found that I over-optimized the regex queries.
Will restore an older version that supported "\" in multi-line descriptions correctly.

Just to clarify:
Regarding this TC comment...

Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel
öffnen und bearbeiten.

I only used the first line for the search term.
"öffnen und bearbeiten." -> I did not include this in the search..

If I tried to use both lines in the search query, I would see the following in the search box:
tctag:<<Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel>|<öffnen und bearbeiten.>>
OR after manual editing:
tctag:"<<Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel>|<öffnen und bearbeiten.>>"
OR after manual editing:
tctag:"Die Datei "Bookmarks.csv" läßt sich in einem Editor oder in Excel öffnen und bearbeiten."

[NotNull]

The "\" handling is independent of this specific description.
It was a known issue before you posted your findings.

There is a mismatch in multiline descriptions when a textual "\n" occurs. like in "c:\data\new folder"
Admitted, small chance that this happens, but needs fixing anyway (a previous version handled this correctly).

[NotNull]

OK: Total path length >259 characters
The decisive factor is the total path length in which the “descript.ion” file is located.

For my tests I used a folder with path length 283. Descript.ion in that folder can be read without any issues and descriptions are found.
(those are the D:\deep567890\... entries in the screenshot in the opening post)

[tuska]

OK: Total path length >259 characters
The decisive factor is the total path length in which the “descript.ion” file is located.

For my tests I used a folder with path length 283.
Descript.ion in that folder can be read without any issues and descriptions are found.
(those are the D:\deep567890\... entries in the screenshot in the opening post)

Then I count you among the lucky ones who have managed to do so.
I can't do that either when I search for TC comments in Total Commander.

If the descript.ion file is located in a path that has more than 259 characters,
I don't get a file with an TC comment in the EV- or TC search results.