Setting up search on Windows, supported by the Everything (voidtools) software

This page provides information about enabling faster search in Find Any File on volumes that are mounted from Windows file servers.

Note: This feature requires a Pro license and FAF version 2.5.

Note: To find out your server's network address (you'll need that below), go to Finder, type cmd-shift-C to see all your volumes, select the mounted network volume and type cmd-I to open the Info window. Look for "Server:", which shows smb://xxx.local/VOLNAME or afp://xxx.local/VOLNAME. The address is that the part between "//" and the next "/" - in this example it would be "xxx.local". You can also use the IP address instead, such as "192.168.1.102".

Set up Everything on Windows

Get the program from the website at voidtools.com. The current version (1.4.x) works, but you can also install the alpha version 1.5. Both work with FAF.

Please also consider donating some money to David Carpenter, the developer of this fine program.

• Set up indexing. Make sure you let Everything index the folder(s) that you share on the network.
• Set up the HTTP server. Do not set up an access password because FAF can't handle that, yet (let me know if you require this feature). Assign a custom port number, e.g. 8021.
• Verify that it works from the Mac. In a web browser window on your Mac, open the server's address with the given port, e.g. "http://xxx.local:8021". This should show a page where you can enter file names to search for. Make sure the search works, by looking for a name that you know to be on the shared volume(s).

Set up Find Any File

Mount all of the server's network volumes that you want to be able to search.

Open FAF's File Server Settings from the Find Any File menu.

Set the server's Type to "Windows Everything HTTP" and also enter the port number that you had assigned on the server.

Select the server's row so that its mounted volumes appear in the lower panel.

For each of the volumes, set the Path on Host to where that share is located on the Windows side, in the exact format that it also appears when searching for files in the web browser.

Example:

If you have shared D:\Videos on the server, and if a file xyz.mp4 is located on the server at D:\Videos\2023\xyz.mp4, the search in the web browser would show that very same path. Now, in FAF's Server Settings you'll enter D:\Videos into the "Path on Host" field. Make sure you get the case right, too, and make sure you type "\" and not "/".

Once that's all set, perform a search on a server volume, ideally for the same name you found via the web browser. FAF should display it within a second or two.

Troubleshooting

This can only work if you have a Pro license installed (check the About window).

Make sure that you can find a file by name in the web browser when visiting Everything's http search page.

If you can't find the same file in FAF when searching on the volume, then the "Path on Host" may be incorrect. Double check that.

As a last resort, enable debug logging in FAF with this Terminal command:

defaults write org.tempel.findanyfile debug -int 1

Perform a search and then view the log file (see Help menu).

A typical successfuly search log via Everything looks like this (searching for "Name contains mark2"):

Search #5 on:
    /Volumes/VM-Win-Users
Considering Everything http server…
vthttp #5: http://win-2mjgbp1krn9.local:8021?j=1&path_column=1&size_column=1&date_modified_column=1&sort=path&q=%22C:%5CUsers%5C%22%20%22mark2%22
vthttp #5 reported 5 items and FAF matched 5 of them

If that doesn't help, contact me (see below) and include the log file as well as screenshots of your File Server Settings and Find window with the failed search.