How to Enable or Disable Indexing in Windows 10

Indexing searches on Windows 10 computers may cause slower performance. Boot high y excessive memory usage RAMThis problem is especially true when search indexing is underway.

The main goal of search indexing is to search all folders for changes in file locations and provide faster access.

While this works well on newer devices, it can cause serious performance issues on others.

This performance depends on several factors, such as processor speed, hard drive capacity, selected folders and the files they contain, and changes made since the last indexing process.

You can also read: Windows 10 Search Engine Not Working. Causes, Solutions and Alternatives

How to enable or disable indexing in Windows 10 (preliminary information)

Users indirectly tell Windows Search which locations should be indexed by marking them as desirable. When you mark a folder as an indexed location, a notice is sent to Windows Search to update the index if the contents of the folder have changed.

You can also manage your computer's indexing by removing or adding indexed locations, rebuilding indexes, and specifying the types of files to be deleted. Note that Encrypted files are not automatically indexedThis ensures that protected information is not accidentally accessed or mistakenly made public.

Indexing doesn't necessarily change the files, it just creates a virtual index of the contents of your computer. This is how desktop search works to quickly find folders and files.

Simply browse the created index and then go directly to the folder that contains your search query. This feature is very easy and effective to use and can be adapted to all versions of Windows.

How to activate indexing

To index a specific file in Windows 10, write "indexing" from the Start menu. The first result is the Indexing Options tab of the Control Panel. By default, you will notice that few folders are added. Only the selected folders and their subfolders will be indexed in My PC.

To add a folder to index, click the Change button and Select the folder you want to index. For example, index the Dropbox folder. To do this:

• Check the box next to the Dropbox folder.
• You will see that the folder immediately appears in the list; click OK.
• Windows 10 will immediately begin indexing the new folder.
• A message will appear "indexed items."
• You will then see a message saying that indexing speed has been reduced due to user activity.

Windows 10 knows that indexing is not dependent on the performance of the computer, so more resources are used when the computer is idle than when it is running. When you manually start the process, the pause button at the bottom of the window is activated, indicating that indexing is continuing.

Let's say you need more options to customize indexing to your needs. In that case, you can also click the Advanced button, which will open the advanced settings window.

Other details

This window contains several options for determining how the system indexes the most frequently used resources. Among other things, encrypted files can be indexed here. can index encrypted files, among other thingsThis is necessary if you are moving multiple files at once or if Windows searches give inaccurate results.

By default, the index database is located at “C:ProgramData/Microsoft/Search”, but you can easily change it here as well. Alternatively, in Windows 10 the EDB database is located at “C:ProgramData/Microsoft/Search/Data/Applications/Windows”.

If you want to make sure your index remains safe at all times, it's worth moving it to a separate drive. In case the main unit is damaged.

Search indexing in Windows and how to disable it

It's a good idea to turn off Windows indexing if you don't use it often or if you use a different search program. Turning off indexing doesn't completely disable Windows Search, it just slows it down a bit. There are three options for indexing in Windows Search:

1. Remove folders from indexing to reduce There search
2. Disable content deindexing
3. Completely disable indexing in Windows

1. Remove folders from indexing

Limiting the number of indexed folders can sometimes be enough to reduce the load. Remember that Windows indexes several folders by default, including Downloads, Desktop and Documents.

Since folders like Downloads contain many moving files, the indexing process tests the processing capacity of the system and needs to work harder to load the folder.

Turning off search indexing also turns off the prompt to turn on search indexing for fast results. Disabling this feature frees up system resources that the operating system uses to maintain and build the index.

To disable search indexing, you must first disable the service called “WSearch”. Before doing so, Make sure your account has administrator privilegesFollow these steps to disable search indexing in Windows 10:

• Press the Windows + X key combination on your keyboard to open the main menu. You can also right-click the Start menu. In the menu that opens, Select Computer Management.
• When the Computer Management tool is open, expand the Services and Applications/Services tree on the left.
• On the right, You will see a list of installed services. Find the Windows Search service.
• Open the properties window service by double-clicking the “Windows Search” line. If the service has a status of “Running”, click Stop and wait until its status changes to “Stopped”.
• Use the drop-down list to change the startup type from “Automatic (pending startup)” to “Disabled”.
• Apply and click OK.

2. Disable content indexing

You can also check that Windows Search can index file properties, not just their contents on the selected drives. Of course, scanning file contents takes longer, so if you don't need this feature, disable it.

Follow the steps below on your Windows 10 device To disable content indexing:

• Open the file explorer
• Click the right mouse button on a drive, such as the local drive (C:). Select “Properties” from the context menu.
• If it does not open automatically, click on the General tab.
• Disable the option “Allow indexing of the contents of files on this drive, except file attributes.”
• Confirm attribute changes checking “Apply changes to drives, subdirectories, and files” and clicking OK.

This process may take some time. Depending on the size of your disk, it may take a few minutes or longer. Also You may see an error message “Access Denied”«. (Access is denied). (Access is denied). In this case, it is recommended that you select “Ignore all” so that Windows will automatically ignore future access denial errors.

3. Completely disable indexing in Windows

The last option is to completely disable Windows search indexing. Disabling this feature causes indexing processes to not run, which reduces memory usage and improves overall performanceTo do this, follow our step-by-step instructions:

• Press the Windows key.
• Type «services.msc».
• Press the Enter key to open the Windows Services Manager.
• Search in Windows Search and Open the Services option from the List.
• Services are automatically categorized, so scroll down the page to find them more quickly.
• Click the right mouse button in Windows Search.
• In the options, select Properties.
• Change the startup type to "Off."
• In working order, select “Stop”.
• Select “Apply” and then click “OK.”

However, it is possible to continue searching without indexing, which means the search may take longer.

Setting up indexed locations

By default, the Windows Search service only indexes certain locations. These locations include:

• Main menu: All menu items are indexed for quick searching.
• Offline Files: All offline files and folders are indexed for fast searching.
• Windows: All system files are indexed for fast searches.
• User: All user folders on the computer are indexed for quick searching.

The quickest way to index a folder is to add it to your profile folders, such as Photos or Documents. Although folders containing app data are stored in user profiles, they are excluded from indexing by default.

Since you do not want to index files or folders associated with application data, this setting is preferable in most cases.

The Indexing Options Dialog Box provides a complete view of indexing on your computer, including the number of indexed items and the current indexing status. The current indexed location is displayed under Content Locations.

You can add and remove indexed locations by following these steps:

• In the search box on the taskbar, write Indexing Options and press Enter.
• Or, if you use the search function in File Explorer, Select Advanced Options and then Change indexed locations.
• Select a location and click edit.
• In the Indexed Locations dialog box, Click Show All to show default and hidden locations.
• Use the suggested options to select the locations you want to index. Or uncheck the boxes for the locations you no longer want to index.
• Click ok To save the changes.
• Places that can be indexed include hard drives, offline files folders, and removable media.

When you expand a node, you will see an open triangle to the left of the location name. For example, a local hard drive (C:) can be expanded to select a folder on the drive C:.Some system folders are excluded from indexing.

If indexing is enabled for the entire system disk, these system folders are automatically excluded. Note, however, that you do not want to index the entire disk. You can also expand the location of a drive and select folders individually.

Exclude or include files by their type

You can configure Windows Search to index names, contents, and properties of folders and files. Windows Search Windows determines which types of folders and files have priority when indexing them based on their length.

Windows Search uses this information; it automatically recognizes file extensions and types and helps index them. Additionally, a file filter is assigned to each file extension.

The filter determines whether and how files with a particular extension are indexed. There are two general parameters for files to be included in the index:

• Indexing properties: Ensures that only file properties are indexed.
• Index file properties and content: ensures that file properties and contents can be indexed when indexing is enabled.

Alternatively, you can specify the file types that the Windows Search service will include or exclude when indexing by following these steps:

• In the search bar on the toolbar, write Indexing Options and press Enter. Alternatively, when using the search function in File Explorer, you can select Advanced and then change the indexing items.
• Click Advanced.
• On the Indexing Options tab, select the Index encrypted files check box if you want to enable searching for encrypted index files.
• If you want to improve the system's ability to index non-English characters, select the Treat similar words with diacritics as different words box.
• Please note that unchecking the second and third steps service indices will be completely rebuilt Windows Search.
• Each filter and file extension association is located on the File Types tab. If a file extension is selected, the Windows Search Service will consider these file types when indexing. If a file extension is not specified, All files of this type will be deleted during indexing.
• Remove or select file extensions as needed. Windows Search can register a new filter when new applications are installed and customize the file extensions associated with the filters used.
• So if for some reason the filter and support is not available, it is needed for a particular file extension. Enter the file extension in the text box and click Add.
• Click on the file extension and select Index File and File Contents Properties or Index Only Properties if you want to change how files with specific extensions are indexed. Remember that you should only change the indexing characteristics if you are sure that the chosen configuration will work.
• Save the settings by clicking click OK.

Troubleshooting indexing issues

The Windows Search Service must be running for fast and efficient searching. The service must also be running to index files. If you think there is a problem with the indexing or search processes, check with your Windows Service Manager.Test the status of the Windows Search Service. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Type “Show local services” in the taskbar search box.
• Press the enter key.
• Check that the Windows Search Service appears as “asset» in the Services window. If it doesn't work
• Click the right mouse button in Windows Search.
• Click the start button
• If you suspect there is an indexing issue while the service is running:
• Click the right mouse button.
• Select Restart.

Other common indexing issues include incorrect indexing settings, fragmented indexes, and insufficient file space. One indication of faulty indexing is that Search results do not match expectations or new documents are not indexed correctly.

A problem with the index configuration manifests itself when the Windows Search service returns file errors in the event logs, which causes search errors.

If there is not enough space in the index, the Windows Search Service event log displays the message “New Document Indexing Failed.” Despite your best efforts, it may happen that the indexing function does not produce the expected results when searching for a file. Fortunately, there are several ways to solve this problem:

1. Make sure the network location is indexed.

Suppose you are having trouble locating data on a network drive. In this case, you first need to make sure that the network location is indexed.

To do this on Windows 10:

• Open File Explorer.
• Right-click the network drive you want to use for indexing.
• In the context menu that appears, select Properties.

This will display the properties for the connected Windows drives. Make sure the Allow indexing of files on this drive box is checked. This box is located on the General tab.

2. Check the network drive search options

Let's assume that indexing of the connected network drive continues and Windows has been able to complete the indexing process. The next step is to check the network drive search settings. To do this:

• Double click on the drive mapped network in File Manager.
• Select the View tab in File Explorer.
• Click on the Preferences icon.
• Then click on Change folder
• Then Click on Search Options.

Once you have completed these steps, the Folder Options dialog box will appear. Click the Search tab and several search boxes will appear.

The first checkbox disables indexing; the other three control the indexing process and the files to be indexed. You can select compressed files (for example, ZIP and RAR archives), contents of system files and folders (including system folders).

3. Managing indexing on the server

The above settings refer to client-side indexing; Windows Server normally does its own indexing on the server side.

When server-side disk indexing is enabled, Windows 10 clients They should be able to find the shared content on a mounted network drive, regardless of whether the client has indexed the content on the server side.

If you want to enable server-side indexing, you need to do the following:

• Access the server desktop.
• Click the right mouse button on the volume you want to control and select Properties from the context menu.
• The volume properties window will open.
• On the General tab of the properties page, There is a box you can check to index files.

4. Check the status of search in Windows

Regardless of whether you are indexing at the client or server level, the Windows Search Service must be optimally configured for indexing to work.

You can check the status of the tab «Windows Search Service» by opening the Services Manager and running «services.msc» in the symbol of the systemFor this to work, the search service must have a status of “Up and Running”.

5. Check the settings

If you have tried everything but indexing is still not working properly, there is another option you can use:

• Go to configuration.
• Click Search.
• Next, click on the search box.
• A window will open with the indexing extension and indexing template you are using. It is also best to make sure that you do not delete any important folders (e.g. photos, documents).
• If you swipe to the bottom of the screen, you will find a link to enable indexing; click on it.

The troubleshooter will automatically detect and fix any indexing issues.

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