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I have a bunch of programs that can run without installing (LINQPad, Reflector, Foobar 2000 and so on) - which is nice and makes them very portable.

I keep them here:

c:\admin\utils\

However, when you hit the Start icon in the bottom left and start typing "Foobar" in the quick-search nothing appears because (quite obviously) it isn't searching c:\admin\utils immediately. It searches Documents and Music and even Outlook and other places. Is there a way to add my C:\Admin folder to that list of initial search destinations?

I'm not after a hack like "add shortcuts to the apps in Documents"!

I've tried adding the folder to my PATH environment variable, just in case, but that didn't work.

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2 Answers 2

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  • In the start menu, in the search box, type in "indexing", and in the search results that come up, select "Indexing Options".
  • In the dialog that comes up, click "Modify"
  • In the "Change Selected Locations" box (the top half), plus open the C: drive, then place a check on the "admin" folder (or on "utils" under it depending which you want exactly).

It may take a little while, for it to update the index and reflect the change, but I believe this should do it.

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    This is the correct way to do it.
    – The How-To Geek
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:44
  • OK, that sounds more like it thanks - I'll up one and mark as answer in a few days when it's done it's thing and indexed it so I can see it in all its working glory :)
    – Josh Comley
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:47
  • Hell it did it a lot quicker than I thought! Great, thanks.
    – Josh Comley
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:47
  • Cool! I'm surprised too that it added it so fast... good to know. :)
    – eidylon
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:51
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  • Right click on Computer on the desktop (or in the start menu, right pane) and click properties.
  • In the window that comes up, on the left side, click "Advanced System Settings"
  • A "System Properties" window should pop up, on the 'Advanced' tab, click "Environment Variables" at the bottom.
  • In the top section, under "Environment variables for " look for a variable named "PATH"
  • If "PATH" exists, double-click it, or if it doesn't, then click "New..." and enter PATH for the name
  • In the value box, go to the start of the string, and add "c:\admin\utils\;" to the value (without the quotes, with the semi-colon)

Now you should be able to run any of your executables from the start menu or the address bar or the command prompt.

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  • I already explicitly mentioned that I'd tried the PATH environment variable! This is all great if you know the name of the EXE by heart, but I'd really like it to show search results of that folder in the quick-search results list
    – Josh Comley
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:33
  • Oops; sorry, i missed the last line of your post... apologize about that. I have another possibility, which I think should work. ... I'll post it as a separate answer.
    – eidylon
    Aug 13, 2009 at 14:39

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