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Powershell Wrapper for VoidTools Everything with SDK3

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Everything3 PowerShell Wrapper

German Translation / Deutsche Übersetzung

A powerful and user-friendly PowerShell wrapper for the Everything Search Engine (Version 1.5+). This module utilizes the Everything3_x64.dll from the Everything SDK to enable extremely fast file searches directly from the PowerShell console.

Tested with:

Release notes and discussion: voidtools forum

Table of Contents

Features

  • Fast Connection: Easy connection and disconnection from the Everything instance
  • Powerful Search: Support for complex queries, regex, case sensitivity, and more
  • Property Retrieval: Retrieve metadata such as size, creation date, and attributes
  • Simple Handling: Convenient wrapper function Find-Files for everyday searches
  • Connection Testing: Built-in function to test connection and display diagnostic information
  • VSCode Compatibility: Automatic handling of VSCode-specific DLL loading issues

Requirements

  • PowerShell 7.0 or higher (the module uses PowerShell 7 syntax such as ??; Windows PowerShell 5.1 is not supported). PowerShell 7.6.6 or newer is recommended (security fixes; 7.4 and 7.5 reach end of support on 2026-11-10)
  • Everything 1.5 (tested with 1.5.0.1424b) must be installed and running in the same Windows session as the caller. According to the 1.5.0.1424b changelog, IPC connections from other sessions are not accepted (measured as SYSTEM in session 0: the connection is established, but the first search fails with error 0xE0000003, "disconnected"). The old beta instance 1.5a no longer exists after the 1.5.0.1424b installer; the module connects to the default instance
  • The Everything3_x64.dll (from the official Everything SDK) must be located in the same directory as the module

Quick Start

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/gitnol/PowerEverything3.git

  2. Import the module into your PowerShell session:

    Import-Module .\Everything3-PowerShell-Wrapper.psd1 -Verbose

  3. Test the connection:

    Test-EverythingConnection

  4. Find files:

    Find-Files -Pattern "*.pdf" -MaxResults 10

Functions

Function Description
Find-Files A simple wrapper function for quick file searches
Search-Everything Performs detailed searches with all available options
Connect-Everything Establishes a connection to the Everything client
Disconnect-Everything Disconnects from the Everything client
Test-EverythingConnection Verifies the connection to the Everything instance and displays status information

Usage Examples

Simple Searches with Find-Files

Search for PDF and DOCX files:

Find-Files -Pattern "*" -Extensions @("pdf", "docx") -MaxResults 10

Search for files with properties (size, date):

Find-Files -Pattern "invoice*" -IncludeProperties -MaxResults 5

Regex search for image files with date pattern:

Find-Files -Pattern "regex:^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}.*\.(jpg|png)$" -Verbose -MaxResults 10
# or
Find-Files -Pattern '^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}.*\.(jpg|png)$' -Regex -Verbose -MaxResults 10

Advanced Searches with Search-Everything

Find the 5 largest files over 100 MB and sort by size:

# Manually establish connection
$client = Connect-Everything

# Execute search and sort by size in descending order
Search-Everything -Client $client -Query "size:>100mb" -MaxResults 5 -Properties "Size" -SortBy @{Property = "Size"; Descending = $true}

# Disconnect
Disconnect-Everything -Client $client

Find all files modified in the last 7 days:

$client = Connect-Everything
Search-Everything -Client $client -Query "dm:last7days" -MaxResults 10 -Properties "DateModified"
Disconnect-Everything -Client $client

Find empty files:

Find-Files -Pattern "size:0" -MaxResults 20

All Results and Existence Check

-MaxResults 0 returns all results. The Exists property is only filled when -CheckExists is set – a Test-Path per result is expensive (Everything results come from the index and are usually current anyway).

$client = Connect-Everything

# all ZIP files larger than 100 MB below a folder, with size and modification date
$zips = Search-Everything -Client $client -Query 'file: ext:zip size:>100mb "D:\Data\"' -MaxResults 0 -Properties Size, DateModified
$zips | Select-Object FullPath, @{ n = 'SizeMB'; e = { [math]::Round($_.Properties['Size'] / 1MB) } }

# paging: results 101-200, sorted by name
Search-Everything -Client $client -Query 'ext:pdf' -Offset 100 -MaxResults 100 -SortBy @{ Property = 'Name' }

# verify that each result still exists on disk (slower)
Search-Everything -Client $client -Query 'ext:iso' -MaxResults 50 -CheckExists | Where-Object { -not $_.Exists }

Disconnect-Everything -Client $client

Text properties (Name, Path, Extension, Type) are returned as full strings. Size is $null when Everything does not know it (e.g. folders).

Search Syntax Notes

Measured against Everything 1.5.0.1423b and 1.5.0.1424b:

  • Round brackets do not group: * (ext:pdf) finds nothing. Use < > for grouping, e.g. <ext:pdf|ext:docx>
  • Several extensions: ext:pdf;docx, not ext:pdf|docx (that means ext:pdf OR "name contains docx"). Find-Files -Extensions builds the correct form for you
  • Long paths only: Everything indexes long paths. An 8.3 short path such as C:\Users\NAME~1.X\... (e.g. from $env:TEMP) finds nothing
  • Folder count: "C:\Folder" counts the folder itself, "C:\Folder\" does not – an empty folder gives 1 hit without and 0 with the trailing backslash

Practical Example: Archives Left Next to Their Extracted Folder

Examples/Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 is a complete file-server clean-up script built on this module. It finds archives (zip, 7z, rar, iso, tar.gz, …) for which a folder with the same name already exists in the same location – i.e. archives that were extracted and then kept.

  • Searches via the Everything index in seconds; falls back to a parallel file-system scan if Everything is not available or a path is not indexed
  • -AllShares searches all data shares of the server (skips system shares, DFS roots and nested shares)
  • Resolves the owners of the extracted folders via ADSI/LDAP (no ActiveDirectory module/RSAT needed)
  • Writes a CSV and optionally sends one mail per owner; paths in mails are converted to \\server\share\...
  • Owners that cannot be mailed (deleted/disabled accounts, no mail address, BUILTIN\Administrators) end up in one summary mail to the helpdesk
  • Content check: compares every archive with its extracted folder and tells whether the archive is a redundant copy (identical – it can be deleted) or the folder has been worked on since (changed, with new/missing/changed files)
    • level 1, always on: file list, sizes and timestamps from the archive directory – nothing is extracted, takes about a second per archive
    • level 2, -CheckContentCrc: additionally compares the CRC32 of every file (reads all files – slow, only on request)
    • ZIP is always checked; 7z, rar, iso, tar.gz etc. only if 7z.exe (+ 7z.dll) is found ($SevenZip, default %ProgramFiles%\7-Zip), otherwise N/A
    • handles old ZIP file names in the DOS code page, the 1-hour daylight-saving offset of ZIP timestamps and their 2-second resolution; system files such as Thumbs.db are ignored
  • Never deletes anything
cd .\Examples
Copy-Item .\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.config.example.ps1 .\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.config.ps1   # then adjust

# dry run on the whole server: CSV only
.\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 -AllShares -SearchMode Everything

# test: all mails go to $DebugTo, at most 3
.\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 -AllShares -SendMail -MaxMails 3

# production: mails to the owners
.\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 -AllShares -SearchMode Everything -SendMail -Live

# your own PC: all local fixed disks, with CRC content check
.\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 -Path ((Get-CimInstance Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter 'DriveType=3').DeviceID | ForEach-Object { $_ + '\' }) -SearchMode Everything -CheckContentCrc

With -SearchMode Everything, paths that are not in the Everything index are skipped with a warning (summary at the end of phase 1); with -SearchMode Auto they are scanned.

Run it as administrator on the file server itself (needed for Get-Acl and Get-SmbShare). See the comment-based help (Get-Help .\Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1 -Full) for all parameters. Your real *.config.ps1, CSV and log files are excluded via .gitignore.

AI Agent Skill

skills/everything-search/SKILL.md is a skill for AI coding agents (for example Claude Code). It teaches the module's usage and the search-syntax pitfalls measured against Everything 1.5 (round brackets do not group, ext:a;b instead of ext:a|b, long paths instead of 8.3 short paths). To use it, copy the folder skills/everything-search to ~/.claude/skills/ (or into the .claude/skills/ folder of a project) and point <path-to-repo> in it to your clone.

VSCode Considerations

The module includes automatic workarounds for VSCode-specific issues when loading native DLLs:

  • Automatic DLL Loading: The Everything3_x64.dll is explicitly loaded via Kernel32::LoadLibrary()
  • PATH Handling: The module directory is automatically added to the PATH
  • Error Handling: Robust handling of VSCode-specific parameter binding issues

These measures ensure that the module functions correctly in both the regular PowerShell console and VSCode.

Changelog

SDK 3.0.1.12

  • Updated Everything3_x64.dll to SDK 3.0.1.12 (multiple sessions support, improved waiting on busy pipes). Tested against Everything 1.5.0.1423b and 1.5.0.1424b
  • Everything 1.5.0.1424b removes the old beta instance 1.5a: Connect-Everything -InstanceName '1.5a' now fails with "pipe not found", the default instance works. According to the vendor changelog, IPC connections are now only accepted from clients in the same session

AI agent skill

  • New: skills/everything-search – skill for AI coding agents (usage of the module, verified search-syntax pitfalls, requirements)

Find-Files -Extensions fix

  • Fixed: Find-Files -Extensions returned nothing on Everything 1.5 because the query was built as (ext:a|ext:b) and Everything does not treat round brackets as grouping. It now builds ext:a;b, and leading dots (.pdf) are accepted (reported in issue #1)

Archive example: content check and index fix

  • New: content check archive ↔ extracted folder (CSV columns Content/ContentDetails, column "Content" in mails); level 1 always, level 2 with -CheckContentCrc; formats other than ZIP via 7-Zip if available
  • Fixed: an empty but indexed folder was reported as "not in the Everything index" (the index check now counts the folder itself)
  • Changed: with -SearchMode Everything a path that is not indexed no longer aborts the whole run – it is skipped with a warning and listed at the end of phase 1

SDK 3.0.0.9, fixes and archive example

  • Updated Everything3_x64.dll to SDK 3.0.0.9 (more robust pipe connection when Everything is busy, crash and memory-corruption fixes in the SDK – see the SDK changelog)
  • Fixed: P/Invoke signatures used uint for SIZE_T parameters/return values (index, count, buffer size) – now UIntPtr (64-bit on x64), as declared in Everything3.h
  • Fixed: text properties (Name, Path, Extension, Type) only returned their first character (Everything3_GetResultPropertyTextW was declared without CharSet.Unicode)
  • Fixed: the property Name and sorting by Name were silently ignored (property ID 0 was treated as "unknown")
  • Fixed: $error (automatic variable) was overwritten in error handling
  • New: -MaxResults 0 returns all results; -Offset for paging is passed correctly
  • New: -CheckExists – Exists is only checked on request ($null otherwise). Behaviour change: previously Test-Path ran for every result
  • Faster: results are collected in a list instead of += (5,000 results: 6.3 s → 0.5 s)
  • Size is $null instead of 18446744073709551615 when unknown (e.g. folders)
  • Loading the module no longer writes to the console (messages moved to -Verbose)
  • New example: Examples/Find-ArchivesWithExtractedFolder.ps1
  • Requirements corrected: PowerShell 7.0+

License & Disclaimer

MIT

This project is provided without any warranty. Use at your own risk.

This project is not affiliated with VoidTools. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. This is a pure research and development project.

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Powershell Wrapper for VoidTools Everything with SDK3

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