Questions tagged [windows-search]

Windows Search is the functionality built into the Windows OS for finding files, folders and programs on a PC or in connected storage.

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264 votes
10 answers
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Why is Google so much faster than a hard-drive search?

When I search a file on my HD in Windows 7 or Windows XP it takes some minutes to finish the process. If I fill in a search term in Google, the answer is on my screen in milliseconds How is it ...
Arne's user avatar
  • 1,787
254 votes
13 answers
832k views

How to search inside files on Windows 7?

In Windows XP we can search for files that contain a defined keyword (inside all files types). Windows 7 can look inside files for a keyword, but only for text files. (*.doc, *.txt, *.inf, ...), not (...
user avatar
148 votes
3 answers
46k views

Windows 10 Search not loading, showing blank window

The Search menu on my Windows 10 suddenly stopped working. When I click the Search icon or type something in the Start menu, it just shows a blank search window. I've tried rebuilding the index, SFC /...
Jim's user avatar
  • 1,275
94 votes
8 answers
161k views

How to search for only folders in Windows 7 instead of folders AND files

I've had some issues with the new search function in Windows 7. The Search in Windows XP was packed with so many more options. The only option I can access now are Date Modified and Size. Any ...
sshow's user avatar
  • 1,336
71 votes
6 answers
303k views

Correct way to disable indexing in Windows 7

What's the best way to disable indexing in Windows 7? All of the articles that I've found online instruct me to access services.msc and disable the Windows Search service. However, even after I did ...
user avatar
71 votes
5 answers
51k views

How do I view the full path in search results?

<begin rant> I really hate the way Search Results works in Windows 7. You get something like this: ...and, wanting to see the full path (why doesn't it show you that automatically, either by ...
B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven's user avatar
56 votes
8 answers
138k views

How to search inside PDFs with Windows Search?

I'd like to use Windows Search for searching through multiple PDFs in one go, but I see that in the Indexing Options' Advanced Options screen, PDF files don't have a registered IFilter: What is an ...
Louis Waweru's user avatar
  • 24.6k
53 votes
5 answers
120k views

Can I force full speed to the indexing service of Windows?

On windows 7 there's 'pause' and there's 'indexing speed is reduced due to user activity' but what if one wants full speed during desktop activity?
j riv's user avatar
  • 2,566
41 votes
8 answers
77k views

Block/Remove "Web"/Bing Search from Windows 10

Is there a way to keep Windows 10 searches local and stop Bing results/searches? Windows 8 has "Search Settings" => "Use Bing to Search Online". Windows 10 has Bing Cra...er... results included and ...
WernerCD's user avatar
  • 4,323
34 votes
7 answers
101k views

Windows 7 search for file with a special character in the file name?

I'm trying to find files in Windows 7 that have a parenthesis in the file name. However, when I type ( or *(* or "(" or *"("* I get either nothing or every file. Microsoft's "advanced query syntax"...
Matias Nino's user avatar
  • 1,656
32 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is there a way to show all Windows 8 Modern UI search results on one page?

There are three search tabs: Apps, Settings, Files. I currently have to mouse click or navigate down to reach Settings and Files, as Apps is searched by default. Is there a way to get all search ...
MarkovCh1's user avatar
  • 654
31 votes
19 answers
20k views

What search utilities can search by file name in Windows 7? [closed]

I've just installed Windows 7 64-bit and have found that it's file search really really sucks. What is a good alternative that I can load on my system to do file searching? Note: I don't care about ...
30 votes
3 answers
6k views

How to stop Windows Search from auto excluding repository folders?

Windows search indexer is adding most paths to repository folders (both .git and .svn) to the exclusion list. I can remove them manually of course, but each time i rebuild the index - they are re-...
klepp0906's user avatar
  • 1,055
29 votes
4 answers
23k views

Windows 10 search results appear in wrong language

I just upgraded to Windows 10 from a German Windows 7 installation. I switched my display language to English (United States) and my region to English (United Kingdom). Now whenever I search for some ...
Toizi's user avatar
  • 399
28 votes
3 answers
141k views

can I use CMD to search for files in windows?

I want a command to search for a file in a directory and all sub directories in windows using the command line. I saw all the available commands but I couldn't find any suitable command to do this ...
Wael Dalloul's user avatar
28 votes
9 answers
35k views

Windows 10 Settings not indexed

In Windows 10, when I search from the Start Menu or Settings, only Control Panel results appear, but not the new Windows 10 settings. For example, if I type "update", the search results are "Update ...
Edward Brey's user avatar
  • 1,965
28 votes
5 answers
58k views

Windows 7 Index Search does not work in Google Drive folder

I recently installed Google Drive on my Windows 7 laptop and began syncing all my files a few days ago. All was well until I needed to search for some documents in my local copy of Google Drive using ...
Joel's user avatar
  • 721
26 votes
2 answers
23k views

Some Windows 10 UWP icons not displaying on search, or in settings

Some, but not all, icons for UWP apps are not displaying in search or settings. They do, however, display on the start menu when not searching. Icons for all non UWP apps display correctly, every time....
Nathan Upchurch's user avatar
26 votes
6 answers
7k views

Automatically Disable Windows 7 From Indexing .svn metadata

There is a known issue with SVN repositories and the windows indexing service fighting over .svn metadata files. Here for more details. How can we set it up so there are automatically no problems ...
James Van Boxtel's user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
35k views

How to remove "Trending searches" in Windows 10 search?

In Windows 10, this is how my search looks: How to remove the "Trending searches"? It is annoying. I'm using 22H2 version of Windows 10.
Random Person's user avatar
21 votes
6 answers
40k views

How can I force Windows 7 to REindex a folder?

I asked Windows 7 to index my entire "Media" folder. After it was done it'd find anything in there, no problem. Then I reorganized it a bit and moved some folders around, and now it doesn't find ...
Claudiu's user avatar
  • 1,756
21 votes
1 answer
14k views

Exclude directories from Windows Search by wildcard

Search Indexing is interfering with our build process, and I would like to exclude all instances of our dev directories from the indexer (we have a trunk and branches setup). I could exclude the whole ...
mskfisher's user avatar
  • 1,063
18 votes
4 answers
17k views

Windows 8.1 search charm slow, with explorer.exe CPU usage at 100%

Since upgrading to Windows 8.1 this weekend, the Search feature became pretty useless. When I start typing, it sends my CPU usage to 100% (Task Manager shows Windows Explorer as the main offender), ...
vgru's user avatar
  • 1,146
18 votes
3 answers
7k views

How to get rid of Windows 10 search web results triggered from the start menu

I am trying to disable Windows 10 start menu search web results on Windows 10 professional v2004 slow ring preview release build 19033.1. Here is a list of things that do not work for me: [DISABLE ...
NotGaeL's user avatar
  • 567
17 votes
8 answers
29k views

Trouble trying to use Windows Search to search for file with a question mark in the content

It seems that Windows Search is having trouble when I specify a question mark character as the content that I'm searching for within my files. I've tried: content:? content:"?" content:"\?" content:\...
jpierson's user avatar
  • 317
17 votes
5 answers
115k views

Windows Server 2012 R2 - search by file content not working

I can't find any .txt, .php, .cs, .html, etc files using the 'search by file content' option in the searchbar in Windows Server 2012 R2. I can't find the File Service Role. I can't find the Windows ...
user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
12k views

How to change the browser used for web results in Windows 10 Search

When I search for things in Windows 10, the (web) results open up in Microsoft Edge with the Bing search engine. I want the results to open in my default browser, Firefox, in my default search engine, ...
turnip's user avatar
  • 361
16 votes
8 answers
22k views

How to search for a folder from the Windows 8 Start screen

In Windows 7, if you press the Windows key and type the name of a folder, and the folder shows up among the Start menu search results. In Windows 8, if you do the same thing, no folders are listed. ...
Edward Brey's user avatar
  • 1,965
15 votes
6 answers
35k views

Windows 7: Search indexing is stuck

When I open Indexing Options, it says: 4,317 items indexed Indexing in progress. Search results might not be complete during this time. It's stuck at 4,317 though; no more items have been ...
Ricket's user avatar
  • 1,566
15 votes
5 answers
50k views

Incorrect permissions on Windows Search directories

I installed many new programs and they don't appear in Windows Search. Also search does not show new mail and files. I ran Search and Indexing Troubleshooter and it found "Incorrect permissions on ...
datafile4's user avatar
  • 161
14 votes
3 answers
33k views

Why can I not see LocalLow and Local when I type in %AppData% into the Windows 7 Start Button Search, and how can I fix this issue?

I typed %AppData% into the search box in Windows 7 that I get when when I click the Start Button. For some reason, all I see is the Roaming folder, even though I have confirmed that LocalLow and Local ...
superuser's user avatar
  • 3,508
13 votes
2 answers
14k views

What adjustments should be done for a SSD?

I have recently upgraded my desktop PC and installed a SSD as system drive. I read somewhere that these drives "don't like" being written on too much and that one needs to enable/disable certain OS ...
ahmd1's user avatar
  • 1,102
13 votes
10 answers
20k views

How can I make Windows 10 search my settings/control panel items?

Last night I fiddled around with some settings, and now Windows 10 refuses to search my settings. If I search "Settings" it returns a result, if I search Notepad and Chrome - it works fine. But if I ...
Jack's user avatar
  • 369
13 votes
2 answers
19k views

How can I see the available Windows Search Filters?

I've often wondered how to use Windows Search Filters. The available documentation is extremely limited, but its potential uses are quite large. When I type something, the only search filters I see ...
Abel's user avatar
  • 1,463
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why does Windows 8 application search no longer match substrings?

When I first installed Windows 8, I could start an app by hitting the Windows key once to bring up the Start screen, and then typing a substring of the app's name. At some point since then, the "...
Rich's user avatar
  • 2,290
13 votes
3 answers
3k views

Can I change the order of the search results in the Windows 7 start menu?

Is it possible to change the sort order of the search results in the Windows 7 start menu? I'd like to either have them completely unsorted by the type of result they are or have files appear before ...
Helephant's user avatar
  • 233
12 votes
3 answers
30k views

Advanced search in windows 7 for only folder names

My folder structure is like this: 70-515\Chapter01\Lesson1-Exercise1-Completed-CS 70-515\Chapter01\Lesson1-Exercise1-Completed-VB I want to search and delete all VB folders(including files inside ...
Iman's user avatar
  • 529
12 votes
1 answer
10k views

Start Menu search is very slow in Windows 8.1

Not sure what is causing this and was wondering if anyone else had this problem with any way to fix it? It takes about 2-5 seconds after hitting the windows key and starting to type for the search bar ...
sprinklestereo's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
48k views

how can I do a Windows file search by file owner

I want to find a particular Excel file created by a past employee. All I know for sure is the file format (Excel 1997-2003) and the file owner's name. How can I search for this file on a Windows ...
Rory's user avatar
  • 334
12 votes
4 answers
9k views

Command line tool to search phrases in large number of pdf files

I'm using Opensuse 10.3 and like to know command line tools to search phrases in large number of pdf files inside a directory. In Windows XP the Explorer search allows this but is too slow. Is there ...
iceman's user avatar
  • 2,452
12 votes
4 answers
31k views

Windows 7 search does not return results from indexed folders

I am experiencing this issue over and over again and I just cannot seem to find the answer. It doesn't make sense, but search simply does not return results from folders that certainly have these ...
Lou's user avatar
  • 323
12 votes
1 answer
5k views

Windows 10 search does not find documents by default

When I search for my documents in Windows 10, I press Windows or Windows+S and start typing. For documents not placed in my user profile the result does not show up unless I explicitly press the Find ...
Suma's user avatar
  • 1,465
12 votes
5 answers
13k views

Windows 10 is not finding all my applications

I am having an odd issue with Windows 10 and it seems to have started about a month ago. When opening an application, I usually just click in the Cortana search bar and type a few letters of the ...
Icemanind's user avatar
  • 499
11 votes
3 answers
4k views

Why does Windows 7 repeatedly re-index my system?

Windows uses an index to perform fast searches through the Windows Explorer interface. On my Windows 7 system, I want to be able to search using the interface in the upper-right hand corner of the ...
user276198's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
14k views

Searching for Extensionless Files in Windows 7

I cannot for the life of me figure out a way to have Windows 7 Explorer search for files with no extension. In XP it was nice and simple: just search for files named *. but in 7, that does not work ...
Synetech's user avatar
  • 68.8k
10 votes
7 answers
9k views

Windows Search Not Indexing Contents of Text Files With .SQL Extension

I'm having trouble getting Windows Search to index the contents of a text file that have a .sql extension. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Background: I use a program at work called Navicat ...
Ben McCormack's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
17k views

Windows 10 Start Menu and Search not working

This is a problem I've ran into on multiple machines now. The Windows 10 Start Menu and/or Search (Cortana) stops working even after restarting the computer.
Easton James Harvey's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
35k views

How do I get Windows 10 to index mapped network drives?

I have three network drives (S:, U: and Z:) mapped to a Synology NAS. They are all online and read/write accessible. Without installing additional software or making the files available offline, how ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 6,138
10 votes
2 answers
11k views

Can I do a "one-time" file content search in Windows Server 2008 without adding the folder to the index?

Can I search for files which contain a specific string in a folder if that folder is not in the search index? So, lets say folder 'textFiles' is not in the index. I navigate to this folder in Windows ...
G-.'s user avatar
  • 753
10 votes
3 answers
16k views

Quickly access recently opened files in Windows 10?

In Windows 7 it was as easy as typing in the Start menu ("Search programs" input) the name of a recently opened file. This funcionality seems absent in Windows 10. I've checked that "Show recently ...
leonbloy's user avatar
  • 675

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