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Chapter 6: Mastering Windows Explorer and Searching Your Computer

Although additional properties can be useful, sometimes you won’t want this infor-

mation to be saved with a file. For example, if you are publishing a file to a web site

or sending a file to someone as an attachment, you might not want this additional,

possibly sensitive information to be associated with the file. You can remove

extended properties from a file by completing the following steps:

1. Right-click the file and then select Properties.

2. In the Properties dialog box, click the Details tab.

3. Click the Remove Properties and Personal Information link.

4. In the Remove Properties dialog box, select “Create a copy with all possible

properties removed” to create a clean copy of the file.

5. When you click OK, the copy is created with the same filename as the previ-

ously selected file, and the suffix – Copy is added.

Resolving Indexing Problems

In order for you to perform searches, the Windows Search service must be running.

It must also be running to index files. If you suspect you are experiencing a problem

with searching or indexing, you should check the status of the Windows Search ser-

vice. For details on how to work with and troubleshoot services, see Chapter 20.

Other problems you may experience with searching and indexing have to do with:

Corrupt indexes

An indicator of a corrupt index is when your searches do not return the expected

results or new documents are not being indexed properly.

Improper index settings

An indicator of improper index settings is when your searches fail or the Win-

dows Search service generates bad file errors in the event logs.

Index location running out of space

An indicator of the index location running out of space is when indexing of new

documents fails and there are out-of-disk-space reports in the event logs for the

Windows Search service.

The Windows Search service does a good job of correcting some problems with

indexes automatically. For other types of problems, you’ll find error reports in the

form of Windows events in the system event logs. You can correct most problems

with searching and indexing 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 Main-

tenance and then click Indexing Options.

2. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced to display the Advanced

Options dialog box shown in Figure 6-29.

Indexing Your Computer for Faster Searches

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3. If you suspect your computer’s indexes are corrupt, click Rebuild. Windows

Vista rebuilds the indexes on your computer by stopping, clearing out indexes,

and then starting the Windows Search service. Indexes are similarly rebuilt

whenever you restart your computer.

4. If you suspect improper index settings are causing problems, click Restore

Defaults to restore the default indexing settings.

5. By default, the Windows Search service creates indexes in the %SystemDrive%\

ProgramData\Microsoft folder. If the %SystemDrive% folder is low on disk space

or if you want to try to balance the workload onto other hard disk drives, you

may want to change the index location. To do this, click Select New on the

Index Location panel. In the Browse for Folder dialog box, select the disk drive

and folder in which the index should be stored and then click OK. The next time

you restart your computer or the Window Search service, indexes will be cre-

ated in the new location.

6. Click OK. In the Indexing Options dialog box, you can track the status of re-

indexing files by watching the number of indexed items increase. The indexing

status should also, but will not always, list Indexing in Progress.