What Does Windows Search Do?

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The Windows Search Service is possibly one of the most used functions on your computer.

It indexes content, it caches property, and then it provides search results for files, emails, and plenty of other content.

Every modern version of Windows has the Windows Search Service—from Windows XP to the current Windows 10.

What is the purpose of Windows Search?

In Windows Vista and later, Windows Search is integrated into all Windows Explorer windows for instant access to search. This enables users to quickly search for files and items by file name, properties, and full-text contents.

Is it OK to disable Windows Search?

If you really don’t use Windows Search at all, you can disable indexing completely by turning off the Windows Search service. This will stop the indexing of all files. On the right-hand side of the “Services” window, find the “Windows Search” entry and double-click it.

What is Windows Search Windows 10?

A quick way to get to your files in your Windows 10 PC is by using Cortana’s search feature. Sure, you can use File Explorer and go browse through multiple folders, but searching will probably be faster. Cortana can search your PC and the web from the taskbar to find help, apps, files, and settings.

How do I disable Windows Search?

If you want to disable Windows Search permanently then follow these steps:

In Windows 8, go to your Start Screen. In Windows 10 just enter the Start Menu.
Type msc into the search bar.
Now the services dialog box will open up.
In the list, look for Windows Search, right-click and choose Properties.

Is disabling Windows Search bad?

If you really don’t use Windows Search much, you can disable indexing completely by turning off the Windows Search service. On the right-hand side of the “Services” window, find the “Windows Search” entry and double-click it. In the “Startup type” drop-down menu, select the “Disabled” option.

Why is Windows Search Not Working?

To do that, right-click the taskbar and then click “Task Manager.” Once the task manager has been opened, find the Cortana process under the Processes tab, and click on the “End task” button. The above action will restart the Cortana process, and you might as well solve the start menu search problem.

How do you permanently disable SuperFetch and Windows search?

Open the Start Menu, search for services, then launch the Services app. Alternatively, open the Run prompt by pressing Windows key + R, then type services.msc and click OK. Step 2: Disable the SuperFetch service. Scroll down until you see Superfetch, right-click on it, and click Stop.

How do I stop Windows from searching in command prompt?

Disable Search Indexing in Windows 10 using Command Prompt

Open an elevated command prompt.
Type the following commands: sc stop “WSearch” sc config “WSearch” start= disabled. The first command will stop the service. The second command will disable it.

Should I turn off indexing?

To turn off indexing on a drive, go ahead and open My Computer or Computer and right-click on your local drive (C, D, etc) and choose Properties. Unfortunately, every file in the file system has an attribute that tells Windows whether or not it should be indexed, so this has to to be updated for all files.

How do I search Windows 10 without Cortana?

Here’s how to stop Windows 10 search from showing web results.

Note: In order to disable web results in search, you also have to disable Cortana.
Select the search box in Windows 10’s taskbar.
Click the notebook icon in the left pane.
Click Settings.
Toggle “Cortana can give you suggestions . . .

How do I find shortcuts in Windows 10?

You can click the “Task View” button on the taskbar to open it, or you can use these keyboard shortcuts:

Windows+Tab: This opens the new Task View interface, and it stays open—you can release the keys.
Alt+Tab: This isn’t a new keyboard shortcut, and it works just like you’d expect it to.

How do I turn on Windows Search?

To enable Windows search service, follow these steps:

a. Click on start, go to control panel.
b. Open administrative tools, right click on services and click on run as administrator.
c. Scroll down for Windows search service, check if it is started.
d. If no, then right click on the service and click on start.

Should I disable Superfetch Windows 10?

To disable superfetch, you have to click on start and type in services.msc. Scroll down till you see Superfetch and double-click on it. By default, Windows 7/8/10 is supposed to disable prefetch and superfetch automatically if it detects a SSD drive, but this wasn’t the case on my Windows 10 PC.

How do I disable Microsoft Windows Search protocol host?

Uncheck all the locations and press Apply. This will turn indexing off; you might get slow results but at least you will be able to search when needed. Press Windows + R, type “services.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter. Locate the process “Windows Search”, right-click it and select “Properties”.

What is indexing Windows 10?

Just like previous versions of Windows, Windows 10 has a search indexing service that creates an index of all files on your Windows 10 computer similar to a database index that greatly improves lookup speed. This is done for performance reasons as indexing files does impact performance.

Is indexing bad for SSD?

Yes, an SSD can boot up fast, but hibernation allows you to save all your open programs and documents without using any power. In fact, if anything, SSDs make hibernation better. Indexing builds a list of the files on your drive and looks inside your documents so you can perform instant full-text search.

How long does it take to rebuild Index Windows 10?

Click OK button to let Windows 10 start the rebuilding the search index. Windows 10 might take up to a couple of hours to complete the whole process, but should be done in a couple of minutes in most cases.

How do I stop indexing?

To turn off indexing, open the Indexing Options Control Panel window (if you just type “index” in the Start button search box, you’ll see that choice at the top of the start menu), click “Modify” and remove locations being indexed and file types, too.

How do I fix windows search?

Set startup options and restart Windows Search

Hit the Windows Key + R shortcut on your keyboard to open the Run window.
Type services.msc into the Run field.
Click OK.
Right-click Windows Search.
Click Properties.
Click the dropdown menu next to Startup type:.

How do I fix windows search bar not working?

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time, type in control and press Enter. 2) View by Small icons, then click Troubleshooting.

Restart your computer.
Restart Cortana / Search process.
Modify Windows Search service.
Restore indexing services.
Run the built-in troubleshooter.

When your Start menu or Cortana functions are not working properly, you can try fixing the problem, using PowerShell. Simply follow the steps below: Launch Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard. Click File, then select Run New Task from the drop-down list.

Should I allow files to be indexed?

To disable indexing in Windows, right click on your SSD and select “Properties” from the list of options. Here under the “General” tab, uncheck the check box for “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties.” Now click on the “Ok” button to save changes.

What is Microsoft Windows Search indexer?

searchindexer.exe is built-in Windows service that handles indexing of your documents for the Windows Search, which sparks up the file search engine built into the Windows that powers all of the processes from Windows Explorer to Start Menu search box, including the Libraries feature too.

How do I turn off Superfetch in Windows 10?

Disable from Services

Hold the Windows Key, while pressing “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
Type “services.msc“, then press “Enter“.
The Services window displays. Find “Superfetch” in the list.
Right-click “Superfetch“, then select “Properties“.
Select the “Stop” button if you wish to stop the service.

What does indexing do in Windows?

Indexing Service (originally called Index Server) was a Windows service that maintained an index of most of the files on a computer to improve searching performance on PCs and corporate computer networks. It updated indexes without user intervention.

How do I start indexing?

Click Start, Run, type services.msc then press enter or click OK. Scroll to the “Indexing Service” in the right-hand pane and double-click it. Change the Startup type to Manual or Disable and Apply.

What is hard drive indexing?

The indexing feature was designed to speed up Windows search. Basically, it indexes all files and folders on your hard drive, so that the indexes can be used to find files and folders more quickly when the need arises. This causes your hard drive to start making noises and slows everything down.

How do I open Windows Search properties?

Type Services.msc in the Run dialog box, and then click OK. In the Services window, scroll to find the Windows Search service, right-click it, and then click Properties. In Windows Search Properties, on the General tab, check that the Service status is Running, and if it’s not, click Start.

How do I install a Windows search service?

To enable the Windows Search service in Windows Server 2012, follow these steps:

Start Server Manager.
Click Manage, and then click Add Roles and Features.
On the Before You Begin page, click Next.
On the Installation Type page, select Role-based or Feature-based Installation, and then click Next.

How do I enable Windows Search in Outlook?

In Outlook click on File and then then click on Options. In the Outlook Options window click on Search and then under Sources click on the tab Indexing Options. In the Indexing Options window click on Advance. Under Index Settings click on Rebuild.

Photo in the article by “State.gov” https://2009-2017.state.gov/globalequality/releases/259029.htm