Is there a way to display the number of files that exist within a folder in Windows Explorer without first opening it? A visual indicator of sorts...

Well okay, maybe it just feels like countless hours! J  Though adding up all the time our entire staff spends likely equates to countless hours in the end...  Searching for a specific file isn't usually the issue, on those occasions, standard search options work pretty well.  Our problem has been when we're looking through our project folder structure for documents/files when we're unaware of file names or even if a file yet exists.  

What we'd like is a visual indicator that shows how many files are contained within a folder before it's opened; similar to the way my android phone shows how many unopened texts or calls I've missed next to the icon on the home screen.  This would prevent opening folders only to find that no files are contained there.  We'd feel most comfortable with a solution offered by Microsoft but if you can suggest a good option from another source, we may have to consider it. 

Thanks for any additional help you can offer!

Do you want to search for files by name? If so, the number of files in a folder is irrelevant. I highly recommend the free Search Everything at https://www.voidtools.com/

You mean like this:

Just hover the mouse over the folder and the info label should pop up.

Thank you for responding!  This helps when folders are empty but when subfolders and files are contained within the target folder, only a portion of the data is noted in the label (typically subfolder names, not file names), followed by an ellipses to indicate that there is more. 

I'm hoping to find a way to display the number of files within the target folder so that when searching, folders without contents can be completely ignored.  If you have any suggestions for that, I'd be grateful for your help!

You mean like this:

Just hover the mouse over the folder and the info label should pop up.

No, there isn't.