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Chapter 6: Mastering Windows Explorer and Searching Your Computer

Indexing Your Computer for Faster Searches

In addition to performing searches, the Windows Search service is also responsible

for indexing your computer. You tell the Windows Search service about locations

that should be indexed by designating them as searched locations. Once you’ve des-

ignated a folder as an indexed location, the Windows Search service is notified that it

needs to update the related index whenever you modify the contents of the folder.

You can manage the indexing of your computer’s files and folders in several ways.

You can:

• Add or remove indexed locations.

• Specify file types to include or exclude.

• Optimize file properties for indexing.

• Rebuild indexes if you suspect problems.

The sections that follow discuss these indexing options.

Adding or Removing Indexed Locations

The Windows Search services indexes the following locations by default:

Microsoft Office Outlook

This means that if you installed Microsoft Office Outlook, your mail saved on

your computer will be indexed for fast searching.

Offline files

This means that if you configured offline files, as discussed in Chapter 11, all

offline file folders will be indexed for fast searching.

Figure 6-26. Saving the search parameters as a search folder

Indexing Your Computer for Faster Searches

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Start menu

This means that the Start menu and all related menu options are indexed for fast

searching.

Users

This means that your personal folders and the personal folders of others who log

on to your computer are indexed for fast searching.

Your computer includes personal folders for the default user profile.

These personal folders, saved in the %SystemDrive%\Users\Default

folder, are excluded from indexing by default. This is the desired set-

ting in most cases, as you don’t want to index folders or files associ-

ated with the default user.

You can add or remove indexed locations by completing the following steps:

1. If you have a Windows Explorer window showing search results, click Search

Tools on the menu bar and then select “Modify index locations.” Otherwise,

click Start and then click Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click System and

Maintenance and then click Indexing Options.

2. As shown in Figure 6-27, the Indexing Options dialog box provides an overview

of indexing on your computer, which includes the total number of items indexed

and the current indexing state. The currently indexed locations are listed under

Included Locations.

Figure 6-27. Reviewing the current search locations