TraySearch

TraySearch is a Windows tool that facilitates quick access to your files, whether they're on the local drive, a removable device or a mapped network drive. It runs in the systray and can be brought up to the screen with Win+Z, regardless of the environment you're currently working in.

It's not wrapped in a setup kit but packed in a single executable .jar file that requires Java Runtime Environment to work properly. User configuration is saved within this file. After launch, TraySearch creates an icon in the systray.

To bring it up to the center of the screen, you can either use the Win+Z key combination or double-click the tray icon. It displays an empty search bar where it's necessary to write the full path to a file in order to open it.

For example, if you want to access the "Softpedia" file which lies in the "Softpedia files" directory of drive D:, then you have to write the "D:\Softpedia files\Softpedia.png" route. On the bright side, TraySearch lists all files from the current path while you're typing, so you don't actually have to remember the full path of the files. Also, you can use the mouse to click an entry in the list and open the folder or file in the associated application.

Frequently visited files can be quickly accessed by creating shortcuts. To do this, right-click the file to open the context menu and add a shortcut with any name. From this point on, you'll be able to access the file by just writing the name, with no path required.

The context menu also contains options for opening or editing the file in the associated program, visiting its location in Windows Explorer, copying the file path to the clipboard (regular or as a C string) as well as for deleting or modifying shortcuts you've made.

If you forget the shortcuts you've created, you can ask TraySearch to list all of them by writing * in the search bar or by clicking the arrow icon on the rightmost of the search bar. The utility can also try to autocomplete the word you're typing if you press Tab.

Lastly, TraySearch has an integrated calculator that shows results in real time. Unfortunately, the types of supported operations are unclear. During our evaluation, we've noticed that, besides the standard calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, it offers support for the pi and e constants as well as square root and trigonometrical functions (like sine, cosine).

Taking everything into account, TraySearch can be a useful tool for those who usually waste too much time looking for files on their computers. The only downside we can think of is that instructions aren't available in the downloaded package.

The quick launcher needs a bit of configuration to set up the shortcuts but it's all straightforward. It's small sized, shows search results instantly, worked smoothly on Windows 10 in our tests, and had minimal impact on the computer's performance.