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Search Indexing in Windows - FAQ - Microsoft Support

The document explains the indexing process in Windows, which catalogs files and content on a PC to enable faster search results. It details how indexing works, what information is indexed, and which applications utilize the index for improved performance. Additionally, it covers storage space used by the index, language support, and options for customizing indexing settings.

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12 views5 pages

Search Indexing in Windows - FAQ - Microsoft Support

The document explains the indexing process in Windows, which catalogs files and content on a PC to enable faster search results. It details how indexing works, what information is indexed, and which applications utilize the index for improved performance. Additionally, it covers storage space used by the index, language support, and options for customizing indexing settings.

Uploaded by

AMANUALE D
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Indexing the contents of your PC helps you get faster results when you're searching it for files
and other things. Learn how it works.

What is indexing?
Indexing is the process of looking at files, email messages, and other content on your PC and
cataloging their information, such as the words and metadata in them. When you search your
PC after indexing, it looks at an index of terms to find results faster.

When you first run indexing, it can take up to a couple hours to complete. After that, indexing
will run in the background on your PC as you use it, only re-indexing updated data.

How does indexing make my searches faster?


Much like having an index in a book, having a digital index allows your PC and apps to find
content faster by looking for terms or common properties such as the date a file was created.
A fully built index can return the correct music files for the search term "Beethoven" in a
fraction of a second, versus the minutes it could take without an index.

×
What information is indexed?
Was this information helpful? Yes No
By default, all the properties of your files are indexed, including file names and full file paths.
For files with text, their contents are indexed to allow you to search for words within the files.

Apps you install may also add their own information to the index to speed up searching. For
example, Outlook adds all emails synced to your machine to the index by default and uses the
index for searching within the app.

Which apps use the index?


Many of the built-in apps on your PC use the index in some way. File Explorer uses it to access
and track changes to your files. Microsoft Edge uses it to provide browser history results in the
address bar. Outlook uses it to search your email when running in offline mode.

Why does indexing automatically run on my PC at all


times?
Your Windows PC is constantly tracking changes to files and updating the index with the latest
information. To do this, it opens recently changed files, looks at the changes, and stores the
new information in the index.

Where is the index information stored?


All data gathered from indexing is stored locally on your PC. None of it is sent to any other
computer or to Microsoft. However, apps you install on your PC may be able to read the data
in the index, so be careful with what you install and make sure you trust the source.

How much space is used by the index?


A rule of thumb is that the index will be less than 10 percent of the size of the indexed files.
For example, if you have 100 MB of text files, the index for those files will be less than 10 MB.

The index can take up a larger percentage if you have lots of very small files (<4 KB) or if
you're indexing computer code. In both cases, the index size will increase dramatically in
proportion to the
Wassize
thisofinformation
the files. If you have lots of small files and need to save space on
helpful?
×
your PC, consider removing the location of those files from indexing by going to the Indexing
Options control panel page and selecting Modify.

What languages can be indexed?


All language packs installed with Windows include the information for indexing content in that
language. If you have files or other content in a language that isn't installed on your PC, the
index will try to make it searchable, but that isn't always possible.

To install more language packs to make sure the language is searchable on your PC, go to
Settings > Time & Language  > Language, and then select Add a language.

Which file types can be indexed?


For a list of file types that can be indexed, go to the Indexing Options control panel page and
select Advanced > File Types.

Can I change how much of a file's information is


indexed?
Yes. There are two options for how much of a file to index: either properties only, or properties
and content. For properties only, indexing will not look at the contents of the file or make the
contents searchable. You'll still be able to search by file name—just not file contents.

Choosing not to index the contents of files can reduce the size of the index, but it makes files
harder to find in some cases.

To choose an option for each file type, go to the Indexing Options control panel page and
select Advanced > File Types.

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