Using parameters in Everything ini key gives odd results

[EricB]

It is now possible to add the Everything= key to wincmd.ini; you can enter the full path to the everything exe and even add the -startup parameter.
I've been experimenting with this a bit and found some oddities.

First of all, if I use the full path not to everything.exe but everything.cmd (a batch which starts everything with additional parameters), this does not work. I consider this a future wish.

When starting a search from TC and Everything is not yet running, Everything is started with plain defaults. I'd like to use the settings I already have. Since already the -startup parameter is supported in the ini key, I tried adding some more: -admin -config %COMPUTERNAME%.ini -db %COMPUTERNAME%.db

This only works partially. The parameters are picked up, but in an unexpected way. Normally, when Everything is started manually (or using a cmd) with these parameters, it will check Everythings working folder (i.e. its exe location) to check if the parameters can be resolved, so if ini and database can be found, they will be used. What I found out now is that the parameters themselves are picked up, but the Everything working folder is NOT resolved, so a new default ini and database with the mentioned names are made in memory. The working folder that is actually used, is the location that the TC search is started in, e.g. c:\program files.
After shutting down Everything, the ini and database will be written in THAT working folder, which seems very undesirable...

Regards, EricB

[Horst.Epp]

Why don't you use the Everything service ?
There would be nothing to configure in start-up at all.
Also running Everything as Admin is not necessary in this case.

[EricB]

@Horst.Epp: I use Everything fully portable in my Dropbox, so I can run it at several computers the same time. By using the mentioned parameters (and normally the named instance, but this is not yet supported by TC) I keep all settings and databases separate, but in the same folder.

I agree that I could leave out the -admin parameter.

The case I decribed is that Everything is not always running at all machines, because of the long delay that occurs when starting it, due to indexing network folders (NAS). I'm still experimenting with EFU filelists etc to see what works best for my situation.

Regards, EricB

[ghisler(Author)]

TC does not set the current path when launching everything.exe. I didn't notice any negative effect - why would everything.exe need the current path to be set to its exe?

[EricB]

@Ghisler:
I use Everything portable. It resides in a tools folder, but not in TC's subfolder structure. I want the everything ini and database always to be stored in the same folder as the exe. When manually starting up everything.exe with mentioned parameters, the ini and database in the exe folder are picked up and all is well.
However, when everything.exe is not running and is started by TC search (by using the wincmd.ini key

Everything=%COMMANDER_TOOLS%\Taskbar\Everything\Everything.exe -admin -config %COMPUTERNAME%.ini -db %COMPUTERNAME%.db

the odd behaviour I described before is occurring. Ini and database are looked for in the search start folder (e.g. c:\Windows, when doing some file search there), and since they are not present, new default ones are made in memory. After exiting Everything, the search start folder is also where ini and database are then stored. Seems to me this is unintentional behaviour. In this case pickup and store of database and ini should also be in everything exe folder.

I hope this is more clear?

Regards, EricB

[ghisler(Author)]

Maybe it would be better to set the path in -config? Normally passing just the ini name to Windows ini functions makes it look for them in the Windows directory.

[EricB]

Ah yes, that works! I never thought of inserting full path for the -config and -db parameters, since it is not necessary when starting Everything manually or by Everything.cmd. I just assumed it would work also like that in TC.

THX!

Maybe it is a good idea to expand a bit in the help on this subject, like using full paths with these parameters?


Regards, EricB