Windows 10: Windows 11 Windows Search not searching or Indexing PDFs

Brand new Dell XPS laptop with Windows 11. It will not search text within PDF files. From looking on the internet seems like there are lots of problems Windows Search in Windows 11 which did not exist in Windows 10. Including not searching/indexing contents of PDF files, which is critical for me. Has ANYONE been able to search within PDF files on Windows 11?Please don't suggest re-indexing, have done 6 or 7 times. And, yes indexing settings are set to index contents of PDF files.

:)

 

Vista Windows Search indexing...

This is taken from a discussion started in this thread and is now a new thread.

Mussels, who is invited to this discussion if he wishes to do so, claimed that his experience Windows Search causes "chugging" even though by default it only scans a single location of C:\Users. Although, once you install Outlook 2007 it will scan your e-mail as well.

There are the facts that Windows Search uses lower disk I/O and priority when you use your computer. It's similar to the defrag in Windows Vista, which does work quite well I might add.





Even when I added a new source to index, my entire D:\ volume of a 320GB HDD nearly full, I did notice the disk reading but no drop in performance, even for the CPU.





There is a lot of misconception it seems of what the Windows Search indexing does and does not do. I have it running enabled, now on an entire volume as well.

So the question would be, is this "chugging" merely an imagined drop in performance or just someone not used to a hard drive actively reading.

What does everyone else here think? Please keep this a friendly discussion/debate. *Big Grin

 

Windows Search not indexing PDF files if using Adobe Reader


I thought I'd post this as an issue I came across today.

I noticed that the contents of PDF files were not showing up in Searches from File Explorer (and I guess Cortana).

I should be able to type in a word from a PDF file and, as long as the PDF file is in an indexed location, this should appear in search results.

It turns out that this is a problem which occurs when Adobe Reader is installed, apparently affecting x64 versions of Windows.

The search "iFilter" for PDFs gets broken, so the search doesn't index them. When looking in Indexing Options | Advanced | File Types, the entry for .pdf says "Registered iFilter is not found".

This seems to be the relevant page on Adobe's Knowledge base:
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/p...0-install.html

Note that it says it's fixed in Adobe Reader 11.04, but I'm using a later version of Adobe Reader and still had the problem in Windows 10 x64.

 

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.