Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows  

If that is occurring because you have disabled search indexing and you are searching using file explorer, then you would need to use a free 3rd party tool instead for your searches.

These give 'instant' find-as-you-type results, potentially across all your disks/partitions, but unlike Windows search indexing do not do file content indexing'.

E.g.
Locate32 (which I prefer)
Everything by Voidtools (which more know of, but I find uses more resources)
Ultrasearch

Note: there is no performance overhead arising from Windows search indexing on a normally working PC.
So you could remove the nag by enabling Windows search indexing, but only specify it to index e.g. 1 folder, if that's really what you wanted to do. (see Indexing Options in the Control Panel).

You may also wish to consider the implication of disabling search indexing for searching Settings.

Have you tried an in-place upgrade repair install which keeps all progs and data and most settings?

dalchina said:

Locate32 (which I prefer)Everything by Voidtools (which more know of, but I find uses more resources)Ultrasearch

I have been using Everything for many years now... amazingly fast and efficient freeware.

I read @dalchina 's post... which references the above quoted softwares.

Here is a LINK to a G-SEARCH | locate32 vs everything vs ultrasearch | which may prove helpful... and of course the search terms can be modified to your particular interest or need.

This LINK to techalertsupport.com comments offers some valuable insights.

Hope this proves helpful.

~ Alan

ab1kenobee said:

I have been using Everything for many years now... amazingly fast and efficient freeware.

I read @dalchina 's post... which references the above quoted softwares.

Here is a LINK to a G-SEARCH | locate32 vs everything vs ultrasearch | which may prove helpful... and of course the search terms can be modified to your particular interest or need.

This LINK to techalertsupport.com comments offers some valuable insights.

Hope this proves helpful.

~ Alan

Installed Everything, It seems to be good to find random hard to find of hidden files but for general search I wish I could easily set it the search specific folders.

NGT said:

Ok, I Disabled Search Indexing, now how do I delete all the files that it created to make it work faster?

Thanks

Hello NGT,

There's nothing to delete. When the Index is disabled, Windows just won't use it when you perform a search.

Using the Index will actually make searches faster. However, if the Index has not been updated yet, your search results may not be accurate.

Not using the Index will always give you accurate search results, but at the price of performance.

It just depends on what is more important to you.

Ok, I Disabled Search Indexing, now how do I delete all the files that it created to make it work faster?

Windows search indexing does not slow Windows- unless perhaps something else is amiss e.g. file system issues on your disk. It backs off (stops doing anything) if it is still indexing if there's very little activity.

However it does have disadvantages- say you have a folder on drive D: indexed. You have explorer open at D: and search for something in that folder. The search will be very very slow...as Windows searches unindexed D: - it's not clever enough to try indexed locations first.

A difference between Windows search and the utility programs is that Windows search includes context indexing of text-based files.

for general search I wish I could easily set it the search specific folders.

Perhaps this is what you're looking for: