Windows – How to show a file count in Windows Explorer

Method 2 of this KB article explains how to enable searching files of unknown type: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;309173

To configure Windows XP to search all files no matter what the file type, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP and then turn on the Index file types with unknown extensions option.

If you use this method, Windows XP searches all file types for the text that you specify. This can affect the performance of the search functionality. To do this:

1. Click Start, and then click Search (or point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders).
2. Click Change preferences, and then click With Indexing Service (for faster local searches).
   • This particular step is optional; personally, I don't enable this setting.
3. Click Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced). Note that you do not have to turn on the Index service.
4. On the toolbar, click Show/Hide Console Tree.
5. In the left pane, right-click Indexing Service on Local Machine, and then click Properties.
6. On the Generation tab, click to select the Index files with unknown extensions check box, and then click OK.
7. Close the Indexing Service console.

This behaviour is caused by this folder being a special one. Special folders in Windows are definied by desktop.ini located in the folder, they are also invisible from Explorer.

You can enable showing of AutomaticDestinations and CustomDestinations by deleting contents of %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\desktop.ini in Notepad (back it up beforehand).

Take note that, if you're using a language version of Windows other than English the folder name will revert to Recent in Explorer as well - the name is localized on non-English versions.

This might also break the functionality of Recent items overall so you shouldn't keep it without it's desktop.ini.

There is one article on Microsoft's site regarding dekstop.ini, but it's mostly used internally by Explorer/other pieces of Windows.