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I've installed the Winbox4Mac application from here. It is a Windows application packaged to run with Wine.

It appears to look for all the world like any other valid (albeit non-codesigned) application bundle, and I can run it directly from the Finder like any other application once I've accepted the Gatekeeper prompt. However, no matter what I do, Spotlight will always preference anything else (especially web search) over it for Top Hit:

screenshot of spotlight preferring a web search over an application

To my knowledge, no other application on my computer shares this behaviour. I've tried:

  • renaming the application and waiting for Spotlight to reindex it (no effect)
  • verifying that Spotlight doesn't demote non-signed applications from Top Hit (it doesn't)
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    Because you haven't indicated this, have you tried typing in WinBox and choosing the application a few times? Spotlight should learn to use the application if you do this.
    – Ezekiel
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 2:04
  • @EzekielElin I tried this just now at least ten times, no change unfortunately.
    – andonuts
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 4:47

1 Answer 1

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What the..

It's a regression in Spotlight.
It worked correctly on Mojave; since the upgrade to Catalina & Monterey the sorting is messed up and it doesn't learn from user choices.
It always gives web results as first (Apple.... I have a browser for that.. 😐) and dismisses local results to 4th-10th position .

The app DeepL, that I usually open every 15 minutes or so, was always a top hit because of the frequency of use. Now, after the macOS update, it never makes it to the first choices.

But...

.. DeepL Uninstall, that of course I never hit, always shows as a first choice on Spotlight, no matter how many hundreds of times I've opened DeepL via Command+Space.
Seriously Apple, what's the logic in that? It's a regression of past behaviour.

Workaround

Add a tag to the file/app you want to prioritise; whatever tag.
This will bump the result a little.

At least, it managed to select the application instead of its installer.
Doesn't solve the bug but hopefully it mitigates the issue.

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