Windows 10: Searching for files and programs unreliable

Hi, it's a myth - or should be unless sthg is wrong- that disabling Windows search indexing will make a significant speed difference. Indexing is done in the background and backs off (stops) at the slightest activity. When indexing is complete, only changes to documents or files in regions specified to be indexed (in Indexing Options) need additional indexing.

If you disable indexing, some things will be slower- e.g. searching Settings, searching in file explorer in regions specified to be indexed.

I like Locate32 - older, but unlike Ultrasearch, which is generally similar, includes case sensitive search. Freeware.
Everything by Void tools has a service running, and I found used more resources.
These index all files and folders by default, once, then update either periodically or on-the-fly. They don't index content, unlike Windows search which can index files with text content.

 

True the Everything uses some resources, but its VERY Little ....

 

It may be possible if the NVMe drivers are built into the installation image. The thing is, I'm not even sure that would work. My laptop has 4 drive bays, two for M.2 drives and the other two for SATA drives. I tried installing to a SATA drive and it still failed, I can't remember if I got further but I know it didn't work because I'm using Windows 10. After a week of failed attempts I decided to stick with Windows 10 and just get the job done. Windows 10 is obviously an unfinished product, and I just hope in a year or so W10 will resemble W7.

My only fear is that Microsoft might try to push yet another major version way before Windows 10 is even finished, much like Vista and Windows 8. Microsoft release a major revision roughly every 3 years, but Windows 7, which was released in 2009 (over 7 years ago), remains the most popular desktop OS today by a large margin. Heck, some people still use XP! It seems their proposed 3-year product life cycle is ambitiously unrealistic. Most people are very happy today with Windows 7 and will remain so for another 7 years as long as their machines are able to run the OS. My desktop PC, which I built in 2009, has been well looked after and is still lean, clean and shiny. It runs as smooth as it did on day one, and why shouldn't it? When I bought it I installed Windows 7, it still has Windows 7 on it, so there is no reason it shouldn't work exactly as it did on the first day. It may not be the latest and greatest, but there is no need to upgrade.

Another thing to consider is that OS usage statistics show today there are more devices running a mobile OS than a desktop OS. That is a clear indication that a small underpowered mobile device satisfies most people's computing needs, which may include instant messaging, email, video streaming, photos, etc. Microsoft trying to push a new version of Windows every 3 years isn't going to change that.

Lastly, the fact that Windows 7 remains the most popular desktop OS in the history of computing is evidence that Microsoft got something right there. Sure, it had its share of quirks and idiosyncrasies, but it was headed in the right direction. All Microsoft had to do was keep going in that direction, but instead they made their usual disastrous U-turn and released Windows 8. In the meantime, people continued to use Windows 7, but I guess Microsoft continued to push in the direction of Windows 8 and released Windows 10. And people still continued to use Windows 7! The only reason quite a lot of people are now using Windows 10 is that it was delivered to their machines via Windows Update, or that they were unable to install Windows 7 on their newer machines (my case). Windows XP and Windows 7, the most popular desktop OSs ever, have a two things in common: a familiar and widely accepted UI, and stability. That's all people want.

 

YES you should because:

1) It constantly accesses your drives which uses resources, causes drive seek noise and keeps your disk access LEDs flashing which is very irritating.
2) It doesn't find your sh*t even if it's right there in front of you.
3) It's garbage.
4) Once you start using Everything you'll never ever again use Windows search and you'll wonder how you've managed without it all these years. As a general rule, it's best to disable anything you don't use.

The best way to disable indexing is to stop and disable the Windows Search service, if you don't know how to do that I'll post instructions. When you disable this service, you still can use the old-fashioned file-by-file windows search.

You should not use a search system whose index is incomplete. With Everything, if the index ever becomes corrupted, you just close Everything, delete the file Everything.db and run Everything again, and it's done. Everything doesn't need to constantly index your drives, it relies on different mechanism to do its job. If you are interested, the Everything website tells you how it all works.

It's funny Microsoft expect people to use Bing and Cortana when Windows Search can't manage to even find a file on a local drive...

 

Windows search does not
"constantly access your drives which uses resources, causes drive seek noise and keeps your disk access LEDs flashing which is very irritating"

unless there's something wrong.

Once indexing is complete it stops indexing, and then responds to additions and changes when the PC is idle.

That said, I normally prefer a 3rd party solution, and not Everything (and if you use that, you need 1.4beta to get the better GUI features others possess),

Certain useful searches e.g. in Settings will be slow if you turn it off.

 

The beta version of Everything is very stable, at least it works exactly as expected and I've not had any problems for the longest time.

Windows Search may not be a resource hog but it does take longer to build its index, longer than Everything, Ultrasearch, etc, which rely on existing MFT indexes.

 

Locate32 does all Everything does, as far as I know - I've used it for some years. Ultrasearch probably has the most developed GUI.

 

I was aware of Ultrasearch which, like Everything, uses the MFT as its index. The difference is that it seems to work with UAC enabled whereas everything needs to either run as Administrator or use a background service, which admittedly is not very neat.

I've just tested Locate32 and it's also pretty sweet. It doesn't work to my liking out of the box but it's very configurable and I quickly got it to work like Everything. I've only played with it for a few minutes though so I haven't explored it's full potential. It works with UAC on too, which I'm liking. Does it use the MFT or does it build its own separate index? Also, do you know if it can do RegEx to? Cheers