Aliased folders

[Jose Hidalgo]

Hi everybody,

I have a French Windows 11 version.
My "Downloads" folder (%username%\Downloads) is of course localized. Its French name is "Téléchargements".
However, I can't find it with Everything Search by typing "Téléchargements". I have to type "Downloads" which is not convenient.

Same issue occurs with all other "aliased" folders : Pictures (Images), Music (Musique)...

Is there a way around this? If not, here's a feature request: could Everything Search allow to define our own aliases for those localized folders? So that when we type "Téléchargements" the "Downloads" folder also shows in the results, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Thanks for your insights!

[void]

Everything will show your files as they are on disk.



Windows is pulling the localized name from:
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\Desktop.ini -> LocalizedResourceName



Please consider the following filter:

• From the Search menu, click Add to filters....
• Change the Name to: Téléchargements
• Change the Search to: C:\Users\yourusername\downloads\
• Change the Macro to: téléchargements
  (use a shorter macro if desired)
• Click OK.

Searching for:
téléchargements:
is now replaced with:
C:\Users\yourusername\downloads\

Filters can be activated from the Search menu, Filter bar (View -> Filters), right clicking the status bar, filter macro or filter keyboard shortcut.



Please consider removing this localized name and creating a downloads folder physically called: Téléchargements
(not recommended)

From the Start menu, search for: notepad
Open Notepad.
In Notepad, from the File menu, click Open.
Type in the following and press ENTER:
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\Desktop.ini
Add a # in front of the LocalizedResourceName line.
For example, change:
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12345
to:
#LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12345
Save changes and exit Notepad.

Changes are not updated until you restart Windows Explorer.
Exit Windows Explorer and restart a Windows Explorer.

Your downloads folder should now be shown as: Downloads

Create a new folder under %USERPROFILE% called:
Téléchargements

Right click your Downloads folder and click properties.
Click the Location tab.
Click Move.
Change the destination to:
%USERPROFILE%\Téléchargements
Click Select folder
Click OK.
Click Yes to move all files from the old location to the new location.



Do the same for My Documents, Pictures and Music.

[Jose Hidalgo]

Thanks @void for such a great reply! And BTW, congratulations on an amazing piece of software. A must-have, really.

So instead of filtering, your suggestion would be to remove all localized names by commenting all the relevant Desktop.ini files, right?
That means that I'd end up two physical folders for the same use: Downloads & Téléchargements, Pictures & Images, etc.
I may be wrong, but that doesn't look "ideal" at first sight.
So why would it be best to do it that way, instead of just creating filters with Everything Search?

Just trying to understand here

[NotNull]

@void described 2 methods:
1. Make a change in Windows, to show "Downloads" instead of "Telechargement" in Explorer. This way there is no ambiguity: The folder is called Downloads and you should search for Downloads.

2. Make a change in Everything so you can search for telechargement (using a filter) and find the download folder.
(BTW: I would use shell:downloads\ instead of C:\Users\yourusername\downloads\

These are 2 different options, not meant to be used together.. One of them might suit your need better than the other.

[Jose Hidalgo]

Yes, he described two methods. But he also said this:

Please consider removing this localized name and creating a downloads folder physically called: Téléchargements

Which seemed to imply that the second method was to be privileged, for reasons that I don't understand yet.
Hence my message and my question, which remains unanswered.

My problem with the first method is that I always use a custom "Folders, Apps & Shortcuts" filter which is as follows:

Code: Select all

folder: | ext:exe;lnk

I don't want to change that filter every time I want to look for the "Téléchargements" folder. Is there a way around that?

Thank you.

[NotNull]

1. Make a change in Windows, to show "Downloads" instead of "Telechargement" in Explorer. This way there is no ambiguity: The folder is called Downloads and you should search for Downloads.

I see I misread void's reply. It should say:
1. Make a change in Windows, to show "Telechargement" in Explorer as well as in Everything. This way there is no ambiguity: The "downloads" folder is called Telechargement and you should search for Telechargement.

That means that I'd end up two physical folders for the same use: Downloads & Téléchargements

No Downloads folder anymore; only the Téléchargements folder after following these steps.

[Jose Hidalgo]

No Downloads folder anymore; only the Téléchargements folder after following these steps.

OK, thanks. So you mean that when I do this part:

Right click your "Downloads" folder and click properties.
Click the Location tab.
Click Move.
Change the destination to:
%USERPROFILE%\Téléchargements
Click Select folder
Click OK.
Click Yes to move all files from the old location to the new location.

... the "Downloads" folder is going to magically disappear, leaving only the "Téléchargements" folder?

Also, let's say that I do the same operation for all the localized folders. After that, if an app wants to create its own files in "%username%\Documents", will it be automatically directed by Windows to "%username%\Mes documents"? Because otherwise it's going to create that second folder, which would be inconvenient.

[void]

... the "Downloads" folder is going to magically disappear, leaving only the "Téléchargements" folder?

The downloads folder is moved to the Téléchargements folder.
You will not lose any downloads.

Also, let's say that I do the same operation for all the localized folders. After that, if an app wants to create its own files in "%username%\Documents", will it be automatically directed by Windows to "%username%\Mes documents"? Because otherwise it's going to create that second folder, which would be inconvenient.

Yes, moving the downloads folder to Téléchargements is not ideal.
I've updated my OP to mention this is not recommended.
Hopefully your software lets you save to the new folder:

%userprofile%\Téléchargements



An alternative is to create a folder junction for:

%userprofile%\Téléchargements => %userprofile%\Downloads

From the Start menu, search for:
cmd
Run the following command:
mklink /d "%userprofile%\Téléchargements" "%userprofile%\Downloads"

Add C:\users\username\Téléchargements as a folder index under Everything -> Tools -> Options -> Folders.
(where username is your username)
You can optionally exclude C:\users\username\Downloads to avoid duplicates showing up in your results.

[Jose Hidalgo]

Hey guys, back to this topic, sorry for the delay

OK, so I understand all the proposed solutions. None of them are ideal so far :

• Most of them mean messing with Windows, one folder at the time, when the problem only appears within Everything Search (because Everything Search looks for the exact text that you type, not taking into account the fact that localized Windows versions have aliased folders)
• If I create a custom filter within Everything Search, that means I have to manually switch back and forth to that filter whenever looking for "Téléchargements" (downloads), "Images" (pictures) and so on. It's not very convenient for me, because I already have a custom filter that I use 100% of the time, for "Folders, Apps & Shortcuts". The syntax is as follows:

  Code: Select all

  folder: | ext:exe;lnk

  If we could have several active filters at the same time it would be great, but AFAIK that's not possible (and could be complicated to implement).

Why not just add an "Alias" functionality to Everything Search, without messing with the filters?

It could be a simple "Alias list": a text box where we would type all the aliases that we need, e.g.:

Code: Select all

Téléchargements=Downloads
Images=Pictures
Musique=Music
Vidéos=Videos
...

That way, when we start typing "Téléchargements" (ex : "T"), the "Downloads" folder would be added to the results list.
And if we continue typing and it turns out to be another folder (ex: "Test"), the "Downloads" folder would be removed from the results list.

What do you think @void ?

[therube]

(I never would have guessed that the directory names were not actually localized.
But then, similarly, if you rename a users User Account name, the original name is retained on disk, only Windows presents to you the new name.

I can't believe this type of topic never came up before [or at least that I remember, or saw].)


(Vidéos / Videos, should be found either way, depending on your Diacritics setting.)

[void]

To index your

C:\users\username\Downloads

folder as:

C:\users\username\Téléchargements

:

• In Everything 1.5, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the NTFS tab on the left.
• Right click in the NTFS volume list and click Add...
• To the right of Volume name, click Select...
• Select the volume name for your C: drive and click OK.
• Set the Mount path to:
  C:\users\username\Téléchargements
  
  (where username is your username)
• Set the Root to:
  users\username\Downloads
  
  (where username is your username)
• Click OK.
• Click OK.

This can be done in Everything 1.4 via the Everything.ini



Optionally exclude

C:\users\username\Downloads

:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Exclude tab on the left.
• Click Add Folder...
• Select
  C:\users\username\Downloads
  and click OK.
• Click OK.

I will consider an alias list.
Thank you for the suggestion.

[Jose Hidalgo]

Thanks for considering it

So I guess for now, the question is: should I move to 1.5 alpha, or stay with my 1.4.1.1024?
1.5 has been under development for several years now, but I see there's still a lot of stuff to be done before release.

[horst.epp]

1.5 has been under development for several years now, but I see there's still a lot of stuff to be done before release.

None of the entries in this list prevent a lot of users (including myself) to only use version 1.5.
It's better in any way compared to 1.4 and has so many additional helpful features.