Preface#
Windows Search, it's hard to describe in a few words...
You say it's useless, but it's actually quite useful; you say it's useful, but the search speed is painfully slow, and it can't find what you want.
In this article, I will tell you why my Windows search is so useful and how to configure it.
Indexing#
Wait, what is indexing?
Let's make an analogy here. Your computer is like a book, and indexing is like the bookmarks inside the book.
If I want to find a sentence in this book and there happens to be a bookmark for that sentence, I can quickly find it.
On the other hand, if there are no bookmarks, it might take me hours to find that sentence.
Search indexing works the same way. It speeds up the search process and improves the search experience by assigning unique tags to each file and storing them.
Steps#
Set Indexing Mode#
First, let's open the Settings in Windows and navigate to "Privacy & Security" -> "Search Windows".
Then we can see the indexing status, indexing mode, exclusion items, and so on.
If you are using Windows 10, you can directly enter the "Search" category on the first-level page of "Settings".
By default, most people have the indexing mode set to "Classic", which only indexes the desktop, music, pictures, and documents folders.
Let's change it to "Enhanced".
Exclude Folders from Indexing#
Windows Search provides an exclusion feature that allows you to exclude certain folders based on your needs.
For example, sometimes you may find DLL files or cached images of apps like QQ appearing in the search results.
In this case, we need to set up the excluded folders.
You can only set one folder as an exclusion item at a time, so it may take some time to complete the exclusion process.
Rebuild the Index#
After everything is set, we can rebuild the index. This will delete the previous index created by Windows on your computer and rebuild it from scratch.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Advanced Indexing Options". In the opened window, choose "Advanced".
In another pop-up window, select "Delete and rebuild index".
After selecting, Windows will prompt you with a confirmation dialog. Click "OK".
Wait for a few seconds, and Windows will automatically start building the index.
Wait a few minutes, and then you should be able to experience the perfect Windows Search through the search button / search box in the taskbar.
Notes#
It is important to note that when you set the indexing mode to "Enhanced", Windows will index all files (except for excluded folders), which can be tens of thousands of files.
This may cause Windows updates to fail with error code 0x800707e7.
Therefore, before each update, it is recommended to rebuild the index as a precaution. When Windows starts building the index, restart your computer immediately. This way, the update should not encounter any major issues.
If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment!