Windows 10: Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 10

How to: Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 10

How to Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 10


Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

Starting with Windows 10 build 18267, Microsoft added a new Enhanced Mode feature to improve search indexing that enables Windows to search all your folders and drives, instead of limiting search (Classic) to your documents, pictures, videos, and desktop by default.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer for all users in Windows 10.

*Warning You must be signed in as an administrator to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer.

*Warning Turning on Enhanced mode for search indexer may reduce your battery life and increase CPU consumption.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Settings
• Option Two: Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Registry Editor

OPTION ONE [/i] Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Settings
1. Open Settings (Win+I), and click/tap on the Cortana icon.

*note You will need to click/tap on the Search icon instead starting with Windows 10 version 1903.

2. Do step 3 (off) or step 4 (on) below for what you would like to do.


3. Turn Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer
A) Click/tap on Searching Windows on the left side. (see screenshot below)

B) Select (dot) Classic under Find My Files on the right side, and go to step 5.





4. Turn On Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on Searching Windows on the left side. (see screenshot below)

B) Select (dot) Enhanced under Find My Files on the right side.

C) A one-time indexing process (aka: rebuild) will now begin. When the indexing is complete, you’ll be able to find all your files almost instantly when you use Windows Search.

*note It will take about 15 minutes for search to begin returning these additional files in results. If you have lots of files, it may take longer. Make sure you plug in before you start, indexing is a resource-intensive activity.

D) Go to step 5.





5. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.






OPTION TWO [/i] Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Registry Editor
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit, and press Enter to open Registry Editor.

2. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

3. Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gather\Windows\SystemIndex




4. step 3)

5. step 3)

*note After you have done steps 4 and 5 once, you will not have to do them again to be able to do step 6 at any time afterwards.

6. Do step 7 (off) or step 8 (on) below for what you would like to do.
*note The .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below. This is the same location in step 3.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gather\Windows\SystemIndex

EnableFindMyFiles DWORD

0 = Classic
1 = Enhanced
7. To Turn Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 9 below.

Set_Find_My_Files_to_Classic_for_search_indexer.reg

Download

8. To Turn On Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 10 below.

Set_Find_My_Files_to_Enhanced_for_search_indexer.reg

Download
9. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

10. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

11. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

12. Either Restart the computer to apply.

13. If you like, you can delete the downloaded .reg file.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows
• How to Create an Indexing Options Shortcut in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Indexer Backoff in Windows
• How to Reset and Rebuild Search Index in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Locations for Search Index in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Excluded Folders for Search Indexer in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Modifying Indexed Locations in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Advanced Indexing Options in Windows
• How to Add or Remove File Types for Search Index in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Indexing Contents and Properties of Files on a Drive in Windows
• How to Turn On or Off to Index Encrypted Files in Windows 10
• How to Change Storage Location of Search Index in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Indexing when on Battery Power in Windows
• How to Turn On or Off Search Indexer Respect Device Power Mode Settings in Windows 10

:)

 

Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 10  

Hello @Brink

It's been a while, any reg tweak or anything to tweak this enhanced search by default discovered so far?

Also, I disabled Defender completely by NTLite still everytime I boot, I get this notification immideately.



any trick to stop this?

P.S: I use ESET & ESET firewall is always on so that's a false reporting for ESET.

 

Add or Remove Excluded Folders for Search Indexer in Indexed Locations

Hello Mattie, *Smile

Enhanced mode can help make sure everything is included in the search index, but you could also manually add the new location of your Documents folder to be included in the index.

Add or Remove Search Index Locations in Windows 10 | Tutorials

Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 10 | Tutorials

 

Windows 10 search not indexing Outlook 2013, no search results

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in using Windows 10.

Let's diagnose the issue by referring to the following suggestion and check if that helps you.

First of all, I would suggest you to check if the
Windows Search Service is running in Automatic mode under the list of Windows services. You can follow the steps to check and start the
Windows Search again:

• Press Windows+R keys to open Run. Type “servces.msc” without quotes and hit
  Enter.
• From the list of services, locate the Windows Search Support Service
  and Windows Search Service.
• Right click on the Windows Search Service
  and then click on Properties.
• Check if the service is running. If not, start the service and change the
  Startup type to Automatic.
• Follow the same steps to start the Bluetooth service
  and change the startup type to Automatic.

You can also try the following suggestion.

Run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter. Follow the steps mentioned below.

• Press “Windows key + W”.
• Type “Troubleshooting” without quotes in the Search box and hit enter.
• Select “View all” option from the left panel.
• Select “Search and Indexing”.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.

Hope this information helps you. Please do let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Windows 10 indexing / search

Hi Erik,

System conflict is one of the possible reasons why the index built will not function properly. We suggest running the Search and Indexing troubleshooter by following these steps to resolve your issue:

• Open Control Panel.
• In the search box, type troubleshooting.
• Click on Troubleshooting.
• Click on View all.
• Select Search and Indexing and select the proper scenario that you are experiencing on indexing and click
  Next for the troubleshooting to begin.

Update us with the outcome so we can provide you further assistance.

 

Search Indexing was Turned Off

When searching on Start Menu, it says Search Indexing was Turned Off. When I click on Turn On Indexing, I get Indexing is not running. There's no option to start indexing, and troubleshoot search and indexing doesn't turn it on.





Please let me know what steps I can take to troubleshoot and resolve, and I will follow steps and post results of steps.