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<begin rant>

I really hate the way Search Results works in Windows 7.

You get something like this:

Enter image description here

...and, wanting to see the full path (why doesn't it show you that automatically, either by making that column wide enough by default or by showing a tooltip of the path when you hover?), I click where I estimate the invisible vertical line is (which worked in previous versions of Windows - why did they fix something that wasn't broken?!?), and that causes the file to open (opening a new instance of Visual Studio, which I definitely did not want). Change for change's sake is a "female dog" (no offense, Lassie)!

Even if you right-click the item and select Properties → tab General → Location only shows a truncated version of a long file path.

What were they thinking?!?

</rant over>

So how can I view the full path in these search results?

Peter Mortensen
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B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven
  • 304

5 Answers5

54

The sort of view you're using just seems like a waste of space to me. Why not switch to Details view instead? That's what I use and I just add a path column when required.

To add a path column:

  1. Right click the column header, select More...

    right-click context menu for folder detail column headers

  2. Scroll down and check path.

    more options for columns in folder detail

Bob Stein
  • 1,483
Karan
  • 57,289
16

I finally figured out that there are "Folder", "Folder path" and "Path" fields available.

Right-mouse-click over the "Folder" column heading to change columns that are displayed in the results and click "More..." at the menu bottom.

Scroll through available fields and check "Path" to activate it. Then uncheck the original "Folder" column.

DO NOT check the "Folder Path" column, because it will tell you the Path of the containing folder, in a similar way to the "Folder" column!

sergiol
  • 519
HateWindowsMetro
  • 161
3

If it is just a single file, you can right click the file and open path location. Then, in the new location, click the explorer bar once and it will show the full path. However, that may become tedious if there are several files you want to check from the search results.

EDIT: Also, whenever I hover over the shortened path, it does display a tool tip of the full location. It only worked for me whenever my cursor was over the actual path text, ie C:\...\foo\...\bar. It did not work when I just hovered over the file in general.

Josh
  • 252
1

You can pull out the complete folder path for the entire list in "search results" by dragging the column for folder path to the right. Drag the heading "Folder path".

Peter Mortensen
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Roy Wiklander
  • 11
0

To permanently set the search results to Detailed, and to replace the Folder column with Path, you can modify the registry. I referenced the answers here: https://www.tenforums.com/customization/126155-customize-file-explorer-search-default-columns.html

Note, this only changes the defaults for "Generic" search results. There are other templates for folders like Music, Pictures, etc, you can reference the above link to tinker with those.

To change the Generic defaults, apply the below reg settings. The key things are the LogicalViewMode:1 (for Details view), and ItemPathDisplay in the ColumnList value.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Fixes search results defaults to Content view.
;Sets Details view as default search results view for Generic folders.


[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]


[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]


;Generic Search Results
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell{7fde1a1e-8b31-49a5-93b8-6be14cfa4943}]
"LogicalViewMode"=dword:00000001
"Mode"=dword:00000004


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes{7fde1a1e-8b31-49a5-93b8-6be14cfa4943}\TopViews]


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes{7fde1a1e-8b31-49a5-93b8-6be14cfa4943}\TopViews{4804caf0-de08-42ec-b811-52350e94c01e}]
"ColumnList"="prop:0System.ItemNameDisplay;0System.DateModified;0System.ItemTypeText;0System.Size;0System.ItemPathDisplay;1System.Search.Rank;1System.DateCreated;1System.Author;1System.Keywords;1System.Title"
"LogicalViewMode"=dword:00000001


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes{7fde1a1e-8b31-49a5-93b8-6be14cfa4943}\TopViews{bdbe736f-34f5-4829-abe8-b550e65146c4}]
"ColumnList"="prop:0System.ItemNameDisplay;0System.DateModified;0System.ItemTypeText;0System.Size;0System.ItemPathDisplay;1System.Search.Rank;1System.DateCreated;1System.Author;1System.Keywords;1System.Title"
"LogicalViewMode"=dword:00000001
UnionP
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