Adding additional windows search keywords to a single shortcut or executable

Question

We have an executable file with an installer which generates shortcuts in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs directory.

The name of the software is formatted FOO-Bar. We want users to be able to locate the executable in Windows search by typing FOO Bar or just Bar, but this does not seem to work due to the hyphen in the name. The hyphen cannot be removed due to specific style guidelines.

Is there a way to inform windows search that the executable or shortcut can be found by the other forms of the title? I know something similar is done with Visual Studio Code, where you can locate the same short cut with the search code, vscode, or vs code.

Answer 1

Is there a way to inform windows search that the executable or shortcut can be found by the other forms of the title? I know something similar is done with Visual Studio Code, where you can locate the same short cut with the search code, vscode, or vs code.

vs code works like this because the actual application is called Code.exe but it is in a folder called Microsoft VS Code - both "vscode" and "vs code" work as searches simply because they contain the word "code".

Other than that you would need to specify the version of Windows, because in Windows 11 at least this is how it already works.

e.g.

I have a shortcut called Foo-Bar

I search for "Foo Bar"

I search for "Bar"

Also using the comments for the short-cut works, so perhaps this will work for you? Try adding comments to the shortcut with "Foo Bar" etc.

Searching for the comment "Bat"

Even just searching for the hyphen itself works...

Answer 2

Well, stating the obvious : create two shortcuts, one to match your style guide, one to match your requirement.