Windows Search only indexes a few locations by default (see screenshot below); all others have to be included specifically in the index. To edit the settings just start typing “indexing options” or “search” in the Start Menu search box and click the relevant result:
1. Disable/Updating Indexing In Windows
There you can see the currently indexed locations and modify them as required:
You can also change advanced indexing options if required:
2. Excluding folder from Indexing
Exclude particular folder from indexing by clicking right click. Then go to Advance options and click on indexing option
3. How To Disable Indexing In Windows 10
Finally, if you’re finding that the indexing service is taking up too many resources or is more trouble than it’s worth, you can disable it completely. To do this, you’ll need to open up the Windows services applet, double-click on the Windows Search service, click Stop and finally change the Startup type to Disabled. This will prevent the indexing service from running in the future.
The Windows 10 Search is a much faster way to access those hard-to-find files. By querying a small database rather than sifting through thousands of files, Windows Search can greatly reduce the time it takes to find your files. But don’t expect it to work perfectly out of the box. Be sure to add your frequently accessed folders yourself and remember to rebuild the index as your first troubleshooting step if you notice it not performing well.
Add folder for indexing in Windows
By default, you’ll see that not too many folders are added. On my computer, only a few folders (and their subfolders) are indexed.
To add a folder to the index, click on the Modify button then select the folder you’d like to be indexed. In my example below, I’d like to index my Dropbox folder. To do this, I simply select the checkbox next to the Dropbox folder and it immediately appears in the Summary.
I then click OK and Windows 10 will immediately start indexing the new folder. You will notice the “items indexed” increment and you will also be notified that Indexing speed is reduced to user activity. Since Windows 10 knows that indexing does affect computer performance, it consumes more resources when the computer is idle vs. when you are using it.
You will also see the Pause button at the bottom of the windows is now enabled, which indicates that indexing is running. This allows you to temporarily pause indexing.
If you need further options to tweak indexing, you can also click on the Advanced button, which will bring up the Advanced Options window. In this window, you have numerous options. Here you can tell Windows Search to index encrypted files and even do some troubleshooting and rebuild the entire index all together. This is necessary sometimes when you are adding and removing lots of files at once or notice that Windows Search is displaying inaccurate results.
By default, your indexing database is located in C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearch but you can easily change it here as well.
You can see the EDB database on my Windows 10 computer is located at C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearchDataApplicationsWindows. As of now, it’s indexed around 2,500 files and is 64MB in size.
If you need to ensure your index stays intact at all times, it might not be a bad idea to locate the index on a separate drive in case your main drive gets corrupted somehow.
