Make "Everything" by VoidTools show up first in Windows Search

I use VoidTools Everything search tool instead of Windows' built-in search. On my desktop and laptop, hitting the Windows key and typing "Everything" would make that tool show up first on the Start menu, which means that I could add the Enter key to the mix and quickly open the tool. That has become muscle memory for me when searching.

Ever since a recent Windows update, a new option shows up on the start menu, above Everything: "Make everything bigger" in system settings. This only happens on my desktop, making the process to quickly open the tool different on different computers. I want the "Search Everything" app to show up first, so that it's selected first and hitting enter just opens it.

Alternatively, I could change my muscle memory to type in "Search" (which makes "Search Everything" show up first, for now at least), or add a press of the down arrow to get to the next options down, but I'd really prefer to adjust the search results within Windows if possible. Any ideas?

2 Answers

How to define a Hotkey to open Everything

1. In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Keyboard tab.
3. Choose a hotkey method.
4. Press a new key combination.
5. Click OK.

Definition of hotkey methods

New window - Always show a new Everything search window.

Show window - Show the Everything search window if one exists, otherwise create a new Everything search window.

Toggle window - Hide the Everything search window if it is currently in the foreground, otherwise show the Everything search window if one exists, otherwise create a new Everything search window.

Source: Voidtools

You don't need to run Everything from the Start menu.

Everything will show an icon in the traybar if inOptions > General > UI you enable "Show tray icon". A double-click on the icon will start Everything (with much less muscle action). This also requires the option of "Run in background".

Everything will also add an entry to the context-menu in Explorer. You may right-click any folder and choose "Search Everything..." in order to invoke it on this folder.

Keyboard oriented methods are:

Move the keyboard focus to the traybar with Win+B, where you may select the Everything icon using the arrow keys and execute with Space or Enter.

You may also put an Everything icon on the desktop, right-click it and select Properties, then in the "Shortcut" tab define a keyboard shortcut key for launching it directly.