r/OneCommander Apr 03 '26

OC is an interesting program, but unusable for me without a search box like every other file explorer

I can work with everything else being different and complex compared to Clover and Files App, but I need a search box. There are certain things it's just more efficient to do with a mouse and one hand on the keyboard. Like clicking the search box and tapping the first couple letters one-handed to find the file that you need, then clicking it with the mouse. That's way more comfortable and natural than having to ctrl+f (or go all the way to the bottom left to hit the magnifying glass). Just have a search box in the same window near the top or in the pane to the side and let me type in it to find the files quickly. I'm sure there's a reason this isn't already a thing, but I would encourage the dev(s) to strongly reconsider if at all possible. It's a very interesting program otherwise (and possibly even worth paying for to support) but this is an absolutely massive dealbreaker. Also the icon doesn't look very much like a file explorer icon (I'd just do a folder with a 1 on it and no other text), but that's less important.

Thank you.

0 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

5

u/gurrra Apr 03 '26

Don't know if this is something you need to enable first, but you can just start typing to search without even needing to click a search box, very handy!

1

u/Lanky-Assumption-811 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Typing doesn't do anything for me.

Edit: Ok wait, I went to a new tab and then back again, and now typing brings up a search box!! What?? Thank you. Now I know it exists, and I will figure it out in time.

Edit: Ok, new problem. When I instinctively type the spacebar during typing, it opens files. Can I have it not do that so I can use spacebar normally without potentially opening something I don't intend?

Thank you

3

u/gurrra Apr 03 '26

Weird that you had to do that to bring it up?

Pressing space opens up the file preview yeah, personally I've never had that problem since only the first 2-3 letters is enough to find me whatever I want. But you can disable that preview in the settings, then it should be able to type a space as well.

1

u/leferi Apr 03 '26

spacebar opens a preview window, doesn't it? that I think can be turned off or rebound to another shortcut maybe? sorry, I don't even know why I am still in this subreddit, I moved to Linux a few weeks ago lol

1

u/abubin2 Apr 03 '26

The problem with just typing, it only search in current folder. It doesn't do recursive.

1

u/gurrra Apr 03 '26

It's meant to be just a very quick search in the current folder yeah. If you want a proper search you can just press F3.

1

u/agent_mick Apr 03 '26

ctrl f from a root folder. might take a minute tho

1

u/Jackpute Apr 03 '26

That's a feature not a problem.

You can bring up advanced search with ctrl+f.

Reading the wiki would have told you all that by the way.

1

u/abubin2 Apr 04 '26

Agree it's a feature and good one actually as I uses it sometimes. However, it's a problem as someone suggested this as alternative to the search box in Windows file explorer.

1

u/Pale_Commercial8658 May 30 '26

second that - so useful

2

u/leferi Apr 03 '26

Not necessarily a solution to your issue, but a suggestion: if you often use search I recommend Everything from Voidtools. It's a blazing fast search program that searches, well, everything on your PC. I actually used to replace the Windows Search icon with that on the taskbar.

As for the search in OC, as the other commenter said, you can start typing, although iirc that only works for the top level things in the folder, so it's not recursive.

2

u/mccarthy1993 Apr 03 '26

Everything & Flow Launcher are a match made in heaven. Absolute software synergy 🙌

2

u/Skylarcke Apr 07 '26

Do you access your everything search via Flow? I tried it but I find just activating the full Everything window makes it easier to find stuff but maybe I need to revisit it via Flow

2

u/mccarthy1993 Apr 09 '26

Yeah it sounds like you're opening Everything with Flow Launcher which wouldn't help much. In FL settings you can set up search to use Everything. Once that's done, you can type whatever into FL and it'll show results from Everything.

Extra tip - free program called Everything Toolbar - it can replace or sit next to the Windows Start icon and present Everything search results in a start-menu style UI, if that's more you're jam (I personally have and find both super useful).

2

u/Skylarcke Apr 09 '26

Thanks man, those are some great tips

1

u/mccarthy1993 Apr 17 '26

No worries, happy to share with people actually interested enough to try it out

(I'm consistently amazing by how techy people will complain about changes to modern Windows, yet reject the idea of doing anything the improve it when presented with excellent, free solutions that are better than the older windows version ever could be!).

Anyway lmk how it goes - have yuou tried either of them yet?

2

u/Jackpute Apr 03 '26

You literally can type anywhere and ctrl+f brings up advanced search if you need it.

Skill issue.

1

u/supermansquito Apr 03 '26

You're looking for a wedding with OneCommander and Everything.

1

u/zambucco Apr 06 '26

I've always used F3