Windows 7: Disable automatic search function
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Each character entry in Windows 7 Explorer starts the automatic search function. We'll show you how to disable it.
Navigate instead of searching in Windows 7 when entering a key
In most versions of Windows Explorer, entering one or more characters causes Explorer to jump directly to the next file in the folder whose file name begins with this character or string. Thanks to this convention, you can navigate quickly through folders that contain a lot of files - such as music or document collections. With Windows 7, however, each character entry starts the automatic search. You can switch this off with the following steps - they are also illustrated individually in the picture gallery below:
- Open the "Folder Options" in the Explorer menu via "Tools"
- Click here on the tab "View"
- Under "Advanced Settings" change the first entry "Enter automatically in search field" to "Select entered element in the view"
- With a click on "OK" you can navigate through the folder as usual by entering characters without starting the automatic search
- If you would like to search a folder, simply press [F3] or the key combination [Ctrl] + [F] before entering the characters.
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When you press a key, the corresponding letter is automatically written in the search window.
This starts the instant search. All files whose names contain the character "o" are now gradually displayed in the Explorer window.
You can permanently deactivate this automatic search for all folders. To do this, navigate to "Folder Options" via "Tools". Here are three small steps:
1. Activate the "View" tab. 2. Change the setting "Enter automatically in search field" to "Select entered element in view". 3. Then click on "Apply to folder" and confirm with "OK".
As of now, entering the "o" character causes the Explorer window to jump to the first file that begins with an "o".
