W/o program, how to Windows 10 Search Fast (minutes not hours)

Hello @sunny123,

Have a look at this => Search in File Explorer in Windows 10

Also, have a look at the Related Tutorials at the BOTTOM of the Tutorial [ there are quite a few ], as they may also help to narrow down the search results and times.

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BTW, you also have another thread similar to this. It will be confusing because members who have replied to your problem in either thread will NOT know what advice you have already been given, what you have already been asked to perform, what you have performed, and what the results were!

I would also put a link to this thread in the other thread, and vice versa. This way, members who are willing to help you can also refer to this thread to see what has, and what hasn't, been performed.

i hope this helps.

You can speed up searches by making sure that your indexing options match what you want to search.

Control panel, Indexing options
Create an Indexing Options Shortcut - TenForumsTutorials

Add or Remove Locations for Search Index - TenForumsTutorials

And you can prevent re-indexing slowing down i.e. allowing it to proceed whether you are using the computer or not.

Enable or Disable Indexer Backoff - TenForumsTutorials

Denis

Windows 10 File Search is slow (often hours).

Hi, let's start by taking a simple case- a data disk. Let's call it D:

If D: is not fully indexed, then searching D: starting by opening D: in file explorer will be slow (dreaded green progress bar).
If it is fully indexed, search will be near enough instant.

Now consider your system disk. Even with enhanced indexing (in Settings) starting a search from e.g. C: or This PC again is slow as some elements are not indexed. Only if everything below the point at which file explorer is open is indexed is the search instant.

I tried an experiment on this PC and indexed all of C: - the number of indexed items rose from something like 13000 to 400,000. As you might expect, search was then instant.
I progressively eliminated folders comprising the O/S, checking each time how fast search was starting from C: -instant.
I reduced the number if indexed items to a little more than 13000 by continuing that.

Result: I can open file explorer at C: and perform a content search - the result is instant. I had never seen that before.

The one thing I don't know is exactly what the difference in what was being indexed was.
Search indexing and windows search is something for which MS has, all too understandably, got a bad reputation.

I'm afraid I don't understand the rest of your question given the way it's expressed. I don't know exactly where your reference to CMD fits in.

Are you trying to start the search from a command prompt, or after a search is complete, use a command prompt to write the search results to a file, or what? Too confusing for me- sorry.

2. file properties such as comments

If a file has a comment field e.g. aardvark then search syntax

comments:aardvark

will find it.

hdmi said:

Trying to match your indexing options to what you want to search compares best to trying to match roads to a square shaped wheel: it's just another uphill battle. So then, here's how a round wheel looks like.

If the OP's indexing options do not provide for the folder paths that are to be searched then searches will be slow.

Denis

I use both. Windows search provides content indexing.

I don't use Everything because I use a free 3rd party tool that uses lower resources than that and doesn't hang on to USB drives making them hard to remove.

Discussing 3rd party tools has nothing to do with the question asked, but that's what any question about Windows search ends up with.

I still have no idea what parts of the original question mean. And no response from the poster, suggesting it's not worth posting anything more.

I think the OP won't post again until after we're all tucked up for the night.

By the way, the OP also has a thread on a related issue - How to redirect Windows 10 File Search Result to Text File? (w/o CMD)

I don't want to jump the gun on either thread but, for this one, I do wonder if network searching is involved.

See you,
Denis