Vista search and file indexing

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 Despite asking questions in another board in the Lounge about Windows Search, I am still struggling to get Search to work right on my wife’s Vista PC. I wanted to find quickly where her Outlook .pst file was, searched and didn’t find it. So I Googled to find out where it should have been and went to that folder – sure enough there it was. So I started a search in that very folder and it still didn’t find it. So in Advanced Search I got it to include non-indexed, hidden and system files, and then it did find it. A similar thing happened searching for something else I knew was there.

It turns out when I looked at the Properties in the folders concerned, and the Advanced button, that the folders concerned were not indexed. OK, so I changed that and it asked me if I wanted to change it just for that folder or for subfolders too. I opted for subfolders too. So far, so good.

But when I go to look at drive C: it already has a tick in the box to index the drive, so why weren’t those folders indexed?  And the tick box for the drive as a whole is in a different place from the one for a folder. It is already ticked, so how do I now get it to apply that to all the subfolders. I certainly don’t want to go through folder by folder looking to see whether they are indexed or not.

(I’m tempted to ask also why searching in Vista has to be so non-user-friendly when I knew how to find things in XP, but I don’t seriously expect an answer to that!)

Ian

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Have you also turned on the system hidden files, as that is where you will find it.

C:Users”user”AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook (This is from a Windows 7 machine, but I think it is the same.)

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Have you also turned on the system hidden files, as that is where you will find it.

C:Users”user”AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook (This is from a Windows 7 machine, but I think it is the same.)

Thanks for the swift reply Dave.

I did find it in the end, but its Properties did not say it was a system file (if I remember right) and the problem I think was that the folder was definitely not set for indexing. My main question really is to ask how to make sure that all folders will be indexed without going through them one by one, so that Search can find things in them. (And to gripe a little that Search in Vista seems to be so much more confusing than it was in XP.)

Ian

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I know nothing about indexing a PST file. I hope some Outlook expert will chime in and help.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I know nothing about indexing a PST file. I hope some Outlook expert will chime in and help.

Dave

I’m obviously not making myself clear here. The point is that the folder in which the .pst file resides was not set for indexing, so Search didn’t find it. I have now set the option to index that folder, and now Search does find it. But what I am concerned to do is make sure that every folder on the C: drive is set to be indexed so that Search can find everything.

Ian

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I’m obviously not making myself clear here. The point is that the folder in which the .pst file resides was not set for indexing, so Search didn’t find it. I have now set the option to index that folder, and now Search does find it. But what I am concerned to do is make sure that every folder on the C: drive is set to be indexed so that Search can find everything.

Change the search indexing options. Start then search for “change search indexing”. Use “change how Windows searches”. Use the Modify button to set the folders you want to include. Then use the Advanced button and the File types tab to make sure that the all the file types you want are included. Last on the Index settings tab of Advanced delete and rebuild the index.

Joe

--Joe

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Change the search indexing options. Start then search for “change search indexing”. Use “change how Windows searches”. Use the Modify button to set the folders you want to include. Then use the Advanced button and the File types tab to make sure that the all the file types you want are included. Last on the Index settings tab of Advanced delete and rebuild the index.

Joe

Are you sure? I am sitting at my wife’s Vista machine at the moment, I typed “change search indexing” in the Start Search box and all that came up were two of her emails, one of which contained a reference to indexing her book, and the other of which was an Office Watch email that I had forwarded to her some 18 months ago for another reason, and which also made reference to the Vista Search facilities, and so contained those words in some combination or other.
Maybe the Catch 22 is that I can’t find “change how Windows searches” using the search box until I change how Windows searches?
Ian
Edited to add – after playing around a bit more I realised that it was not enough just to type what you suggested in the box, but I also had to click the Search everywhere option. I think I have now got it set to index everything. Time will tell I suppose. Thanks.
(PS – I still hate Vista. Nothing works the way it used to!)

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Hey Ian,
Here is a link to a page concerning indexing and searching.
I didnt read all of it but I think it may be of help.
Another thing that I have learned with all things Windows is that turning a feature off and then on will generaly reset it.
A reset sould cause your system to delete the old index when turned off and to reindex itself when turned back on.
I know for a fact that it works with system restore.
I realize that isnt the greatest option due to the time and system responsiveness issues it creates, but I thought I would
put it out there.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69564-index-enable-disable.html

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Vista Search function always drove me bananas. I found the free app called ‘Everything’ that solved, well, everything. It is fast, does not have to run an indexer–it is just a great little program.

http://www.voidtools.com/

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