Ask HN: What algorithm does the windows start menu search uses?

1 pointLelouBil2 comments

Windows' start menu search famously doesn't show the best match at first for any search query, so what algorithm does it uses to rank the filenames based on the query ?

My latest example is :

Typing "St" top result is "Steam"

Typing "Ste" top result is "SteamVR"

Typing "Stea" top result is "Steam" again

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URL completion in some browsers is similar.

My guess is that it might remember which completions you have chosen in the past

So for example

- You may have typed “St” several times in the past and chosen “Steam”

- You may have typed “Ste” in the past and chosen SteamVR.

And that combined with which is the “real” default that it would highlight would then make it a bit confusing.

But it can also be helpful in some ways.

Oh, It could totally be doing that.

I agree it could be useful in some cases but personally I want my search to be predictable more than anything else !

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