UseEverythingInstance and Everything options [SOLVED]

[ghisler(Author)]

I have split this thread from the thread TC 11.56 and Everything. because it's about a completely different topic. This new thread discusses the UseEverythingInstance and Everything options in wincmd.ini, while the original thread was about trying to launch Everything in a loop when it was set to run as administrator. Please do not mix up these two threads.

[ghisler(Author)]

Regarding the following report:

In both 32 and 64 bit TC - If I don't do any space calculation after upstart, but instead I Press Alt+F7 and click the unticked the "Everything" box in the Find File dialog I get one UAC prompt, and the message:

Code: Select all

    ---------------------------
    Everything
    ---------------------------
    'Everything' is a search tool and search index for the NTFS file system.

    'Everything' isn't installed! Do you want to download it now?
    ---------------------------
    Ja Nej
    ---------------------------

I then press Nej (No), and then I have to click the "Everything" box one more time to get it ticked - this is unexpected - that I both get the message and I have to click the box one more time

This has been fixed in Total Commander 11.57 RC6. Unfortunately the bugfix wasn't mentioned in the included history.txt by mistake, but you can find it in the online version:

28.04.26 Fixed: When starting Everything.exe via Everything= entry in Wincmd.ini, the launch wasn't correctly detected when Everything was set to run as administrator (32/64)

It would be great if someone could test this.

[cmd4ever]

I have split this thread from the thread TC 11.56 and Everything. because it's about a completely different topic. This new thread discusses the UseEverythingInstance and Everything options in wincmd.ini, while the original thread was about trying to launch Everything in a loop when it was set to run as administrator. Please do not mix up these two threads.

Fair enough.
So now we stick to
Trying to use Everything properly with the dedicated UseEverythingInstance instance. I think this already works.
Trying to launch properly Everything with -instance UseEverythingInstance when this instance is not running.

While we are there:
Please use isFileExists(Everything=) before claiming Everything is not installed.
Please launch Everything with -instance UseEverythingInstance when this instance is not running while preventing the launch loop seen in the previous thread.

Merci.

[tuska]

UseEverythingInstance=
Specified which Instance TC is supposed to use.
That is mandatory for me since there is no such thing as "main" instances in my setup.

No.
Not for me.

You can also use the "unnamed instance" [as your desired instance] as by default Everything uses the "unnamed instance".

2cmd4ever

Basically, a distinction is made between the main instance and additional sub-instances.

Multiple Instances
... By default there is only one instance of Everything. ...

Named instances
... By default Everything uses the unnamed instance.

The term "main instance" that I use to better distinguish between Everything instances
corresponds to the "unnamed instance", which is the default setting.

No "mandatory" settings are required in Total Commander for the "unnamed instance".

[cmd4ever]

2cmd4ever

Basically, a distinction is made between the main instance and additional sub-instances.

Multiple Instances
... By default there is only one instance of Everything. ...

Named instances
... By default Everything uses the unnamed instance.


The term "main instance" that I use to better distinguish between Everything instances
corresponds to the "unnamed instance", which is the default setting.

No "mandatory" settings are required in Total Commander for the "unnamed instance".

"No "mandatory" settings are required in Total Commander for the "unnamed instance"." hmmm how do you tell where Everything.exe is without Everything=?

The unnamed/main instance uses everything.db which is the default instance if you never specified the instance name. It doesn't mean it is the main instance at all.

unnamed instance is an instance (call it default if unnamed)
named instance are instances too and they have their own dedicated properties just as the unnamed instance has its own dedicated properties.

If everything was first launch with - instance A then the so called main instance as you define it doesn't even exists. A is the main.

I'm not interested in this debate. If you don't want to use instances, it's up to you. Just leave UseEverythingInstance blank and be done with it.

Proper way to handle this
If UseEverythingInstance= is blank (your case) than TC look for an everything process that was launched without -instance.
if none are running (some may run with -instance, they must be excluded form the instances to interact with TC)
then TC launch Everything from Everything= without -instance UseEverythingInstance=
as simple as that.

Can we quit debating on how to use instances and just make sure TC uses Everything with the instance specified by the user (UseEverythingInstance=) including when UseEverythingInstance= is blank to please tuska.

[tuska]

...
I'm not interested in this debate.
...

Me neither anymore.

I have come to the conclusion that your statement "That is mandatory..." is not accurate.
Furthermore, I have already outlined my perspective above and tried to back up all my statements with facts.

For me, the matter is closed at this point.

I wish you the best of luck in realizing your wishes.

[cmd4ever]

Furthermore, I have already outlined my perspective above and tried to back up all my statements with facts.

Facts?
How TC is supposed to know where Everything.exe is without Everything= in the ini file?
I would love to hear your fact.

[ghisler(Author)]

How TC is supposed to know where Everything.exe is without Everything= in the ini file?
I would love to hear your fact.

When the user installs everything with the option to run as a service and at startup, there is no need to launch Everything manually. That's how I'm using it myself. There is also a portable method where you put Everything in the Total Commander directory, e.g. to use Total Commander with Everything from a USB flash drive. This is documented in the help:

Everything=Everything.exe -startup
Set location of Everything.exe to run when user checks "Everything" checkbox while Everything isn't running yet. Without this option, Everything.exe will be searched in the Total Commander folder. Note: When specifying parameters pointing to a file, like -config, you need to specify the name including full path. Otherwise Everything will not find the file.

[cmd4ever]

How TC is supposed to know where Everything.exe is without Everything= in the ini file?
I would love to hear your fact.

When the user installs everything with the option to run as a service and at startup, there is no need to launch Everything manually. That's how I'm using it myself. There is also a portable method where you put Everything in the Total Commander directory, e.g. to use Total Commander with Everything from a USB flash drive. This is documented in the help:

Everything=Everything.exe -startup
Set location of Everything.exe to run when user checks "Everything" checkbox while Everything isn't running yet. Without this option, Everything.exe will be searched in the Total Commander folder. Note: When specifying parameters pointing to a file, like -config, you need to specify the name including full path. Otherwise Everything will not find the file.

Thanks, and I know.
Some users, like certain contributors to this thread runs the exe installer blindly with no options. This is convenient for TC especially when a single instance is running as a service. So TC do not have to bother with instances or even to launch Everything. Easy peasy.

Fun starts when the Everything - Instance "UseEverythingInstance" is not running and Everything.exe is not installed in the default directory.
Which is also a normal situation: Users are free to install everything anywhere they wants and run them with any instances they want. When you chose to interface with Everything it's nice to have the same consideration.

I'm sure you are. I will test the latest release to see how it behaves with everything= and UseEverythingInstance=
Condition 1: Everything isn't running.
Condition 2: everything= isn't blank
Condition 3: UseEverythingInstance= isn't blank

Objective: TC launch the Everything.exe specified by everything= with - Instance UseEverythingInstance= only once and use it just like it would use the service.

[ghisler(Author)]

Condition 1: You will get an error that Everything isn't installed, even if it is. It tells the user that Total Commander couldn't contact it.
Condition 2: This should launch everything 1.4.x final just fine, and Total Commander should find it.
Condition 3: This needs to be set to 1.5a to use the 1.5.x alpha version. Alternatively, the alpha needs to be set to run as a normal instance.

[cmd4ever]

Condition 3: This needs to be set to 1.5a to use the 1.5.x alpha version. Alternatively, the alpha needs to be set to run as a normal instance.

eh what? UseEverythingInstance= was never meant to tell which version of everything is running.
It is meant to tell TC what instance of everything it should use (OR launch if not running)

If we want TC to use/launch the 1.5a version of Everything then Everything= should point to the EXE of the 1.5a version.

If we want to use a specific instance of Everything we just have to tell which one in UseEverythingInstance=

Now I'm starting to think someone got confuse with the term Instance.

A) OS definition: Instance - A process running in memory. You can have concurrent running instances of the same process.
B) Everything definition: Instance - a named/dedicated settings (ini file) and dedicated indexes (.DB file) which of course could have a single or multiple OS instances using those specifics configuration/settings/indexes.

2ghisler(Author) What type of instance you think we are talking about A) or B)?

I can tell you I'm all about B) from the very beginning of this story. Assuming it is clear we need A) running with proper B) parameters. AND Both can be achieve by TC in a very simple matter.
Everything= aka OS aka A) instance -> tells TC where the EXE is located (be it v1.5a if you want to test with version 1.5A)
UseEverythingInstance= aka Everything -Instance aka B) instance -> tells TC what instance (B) to use

Sequence of operations
1. When TC starts (if user check any Everything box), TC creates a list of the Everyting OS instances (A) that are running
2. Check if one of those was launched with the commandline -Instance UseEverythingInstance.String (B)
3. if yes just use this one to make your API calls
4. if not Launch Everything.string -Instance UseEverythingInstance.string, take note of this process handle, use this handle when TC needs the Everything API.

What am I missing here?

[ghisler(Author)]

eh what? UseEverythingInstance= was never meant to tell which version of everything is running.

I don't know how you could misinterpret my answer that much. It's exactly what I said. If you are running 1.5a unmodified, then it has a different instance, and you need to set
UseEverythingInstance=1.5a
to use the alpha instance.

The idea of the Everything author seems to be that people could run Everything 1.4.x and 1.5.x alpha in parallel.

When launching Everything 1.5.x alpha, there is no need to pass -instance to it, it will use instance name 1.5a by default.

[cmd4ever]

eh what? UseEverythingInstance= was never meant to tell which version of everything is running.

I don't know how you could misinterpret my answer that much. It's exactly what I said. If you are running 1.5a unmodified, then it has a different instance, and you need to set
UseEverythingInstance=1.5a
to use the alpha instance.

The idea of the Everything author seems to be that people could run Everything 1.4.x and 1.5.x alpha in parallel.

When launching Everything 1.5.x alpha, there is no need to pass -instance to it, it will use instance name 1.5a by default.

OMG no offense and I'm sorry to say that, but you maybe are Master of TC but you don't understand how Everything works.

Maybe I put too many words and you do not take the time to read them. This discussion will go nowhere until you take the time to understand how Everything -instance works. Until then, TC-Everything will still work for 99% of the people who doesn't understand why Everything has a -Instance option.

Forget TC for a moment. Everything was always multi version friendly and this has nothing to do with -instance. Actually you didn't even have to understand or know the existence of -Instance commandline.

Put one version in a folder and another version in another folder (the beauty of portable tools)
(...)\Version A)\Everything.exe
(...)\Version B)\Everything.exe

Run (...)\Version A)\Everything.exe and you have a Version A in memory (running with default (...)\Version A)\everything.ini and everything.db
then
Run (...)\Version B)\Everything.exe and you have a Version B in memory (running with default (...)\Version B)\everything.ini and everything.db
But windows perfectly functional.

Now if you want different configurations of the same version running. You use -Instance so you can tweak how each instance of the SAME .EXE behave in memory.

In my case I have 3 instances of 1.4.x
One for Media Player
One for OS system files

And recently One for TC. That I'm having a really hard time to use like Everything was meant to because you don't seams to understand how Everything -Instance works.

so one last time then I give up.

Everything= tels where the EXE meant to be used by TC is (Can point to any Everything version you want)
UseEverythingInstance= is not called UseEverythingVersion for a reason its is to specify which Everything -Instance to work with the EXE above. Otherwise what is the point to have this option if you can launch Everything= with all the parameters you want?

Now if the Everything API call specs changes from one version to another. That is a totally different subject.

TC is a blackbox to me. I have no clue how you sort the multiple Everything.EXE processes that are already running in memory.
But I suspect you don't and I also suspect you don't even look at what commandine they were launched with. Which explains why TC randomly use/fail to use the proper Everthing.EXE process (when more then one Everything.exe processes are running at the time I launch TC.)

Sigh.

ChatGPT understands how it works too. Maybe the AI way will help you to get it. Focus on the BOLD:

In Voidtools’ Everything (everything.exe), the -instance parameter is used to separate multiple running instances of Everything so they don’t conflict with each other.

What -instance A means

When you run:

everything.exe -instance A

you’re telling Everything:

“Run this as a distinct instance named ‘A’, with its own settings, database, and IPC channel.”

Why this exists

By default, Everything is designed to run as a single instance. If you try to launch it again, it just focuses the already-running window.

Using -instance overrides that behavior so you can run multiple independent copies at the same time.

What changes per instance

Each instance (like A, B, etc.) gets its own:

Settings/configuration
Index/database (optional, depending on config)
Window/session
IPC (inter-process communication) namespace

So:

everything.exe -instance A
everything.exe -instance B

→ gives you two completely separate Everything environments.

Typical use cases
Running different indexes (e.g., one for local drives, one for network drives)
Testing different configurations
Keeping work/personal searches isolated
Debugging or development setups

Do you see testing different version above? Because if you want to run/test two different versions then you just run two different EXE not two different -instances. Each EXE from different locations will have their own space. That's also why it could get tricky if you don't know which one TC should deal with. ie TC must do a minimum due diligence to handle Everything.exe Processes (already running or launch by TC) correctly.

Everything= and UseEverythingInstance= tells you all you need to know for your due diligence, as long as you agree to update your understanding of what those two parameters mean.

I spent way more energy than I wish for such a simple matter. If I failed again to make it stick to you. The workaround is also simple.
I will give up on counting on a broken TC-Everything integration and just use them separately.

[AntonyD]

You have described everything well in the interaction of these two programs. With one exception.
Apparently, you haven't even tried to start using the latest version 1.5 of the utility.
And that's why you probably don't know that during its development, the MAIN instance was forcibly made as an instance named "1.5a"!
https://i.ibb.co/vCHy8Mwz/2026-05-03-190320.png
by following the link highlighted for the name, you will get to the general topic of describing named instances.

After such a decision on the other side, MrGhisler decided to add a parameter - which (and this is where the magic of misunderstanding
begins) will work to select this PARTICULAR instance at the time of using this particular alpha version in development. ONLY this one.
Thus, in all the supporting materials, it was basically always about explaining how to use this parameter to reconnect the interaction
of these two programs that was lost for a while. So only UseEverythingInstance=1.5a we can find among all help files/forum's topics.
Although the very essence of instances in the utility has been supported since version 1.4. BUT the main difference is that in that version
the main instance is unnamed by default! And vice versa for version 1.5a - there it is named by default!

And this is exactly what has been a stumbling block so far. Because already during all this time, there was an atmosphere of understanding
that this parameter ONLY must be treated as a parameter that works to support the ALPHA version of the utility being developed. And dot.
And what and how will happen later - when it becomes a release - it seems that no one thought about this in terms of the presence
of this parameter in the Total settings.

Therefore, your assumptions that this parameter should be used more intelligently now are more than correct, but I'm afraid
not many people will agree to change the logic...
But if anything, I would vote in favor of this change, which is already needed right now, to adjust the logic for processing
these parameters in the right direction.

[Horst.Epp]

2AntonyD
When Everything 1.5 leaves the Alpha status there will be no instance name by default.
Some users will still use instances to have several versions running in parallel.
For example one for local filee and one for networks.
The TC parameters are sufficient to work in this case
and there is no real need to continue this thread which becomes more and more useless.