Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows

Brink · 09 Feb 2022

steve108 said:

I C . Once initial indexing finishes, it only rarely runs if you add/delete files. It's one of my most often used Windows functions - use it almost every time I use my PC, but I understand it may not be everyone's cup of tea

Thanks for the prompt reply mate.

FrankW · 25 Feb 2022

Could not type in the search box bar desktop and the Search panel was empty (black), when I checked my task manager I found that Win Search was suspended but Indexing was still running, after killing it and rebooting I was able to use Search again. Also tried SFC, to stop/restart Windows Search in Services and running "C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe" all to no avail. At the same time my internet connection was very bad (DNS issues) and it appears that this caused Search to hang? This is a first for this version of W10, I had indexing issues with much older versions.

centen · 29 Apr 2022

I now get the "Search indexing was turned off" warning in search:

Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows-search.png

This started happening after the March or April 2022 Windows updates.

Any way to remove it? The guide mentions turning off online/Bing search, but it's already off on my end, it's been off for a long time.

Brink · 29 Apr 2022

centen said:

I now get the "Search indexing was turned off" warning in search:

This started happening after the March or April 2022 Windows updates.

Any way to remove it? The guide mentions turning off online/Bing search, but it's already off on my end, it's been off for a long time.

I'm afraid that's part of having Search Indexing disabled.

cmart6 · 12 Jul 2023

Brink, I tried both methods of shutting down Windows search because it may be causing blue screen crashes. Could not disable in Services because Stop and Disable are grayed out. I ran the command you gave for elevated command prompt but that didn't work either. What about a regedit?

Brink · 12 Jul 2023

cmart6 said:

Brink, I tried both methods of shutting down Windows search because it may be causing blue screen crashes. Could not disable in Services because Stop and Disable are grayed out. I ran the command you gave for elevated command prompt but that didn't work either. What about a regedit?

Interesting. Does it allow you to disable after a restart?

cmart6 · 13 Jul 2023

Brink said:

Interesting. Does it allow you to disable after a restart?

Windows Services still does not allow shutting down search.

Brink · 13 Jul 2023

cmart6 said:

Windows Services still does not allow shutting down search.

Odd. You might try in Safe Mode in case something running in normal mode is blocking it.

Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10

cmart6 · 14 Jul 2023

Brink said:

Odd. You might try in Safe Mode in case something running in normal mode is blocking it.

Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10

Brink this is a good idea which I'll try. I read through the bewildering options for starting in Safe Mode but could not find a simple methodology to do it.

Brink · 14 Jul 2023

cmart6 said:

Brink this is a good idea which I'll try. I read through the bewildering options for starting in Safe Mode but could not find a simple methodology to do it.

If you like, adding and using the context menu below can make it easy to boot to Safe Mode and back to normal mode.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html