The Next Version of Windows 10 Will Finally Fix Start Menu File Search

[Desperado]

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Today, Windows 10’s Start menu only searches for files in your libraries and on your desktop. In the next version of Windows, it will search everywhere on your PC. This uses the existing Windows search index.

This change is coming in Windows 10’s next update, codenamed 19H1 and scheduled for release around April 2019. It’s available today to Windows Insiders—in other words, beta testers—as part of Insider preview build 18267.

The Problem Today

 

Windows 10’s Start menu will search the entire Internet thanks to Bing, but it refuses to search through most locations on your PC. Instead, it only searches for files in your libraries (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) and on your Desktop.

Want to find a file in another folder on your PC? Too bad—the “Best match” is performing a Bing web search for the name of your file.

What’s Improving

In the next version of Windows 10, you’ll be able to tell the Start menu to search your entire hard drive. This uses the Windows search indexer, which has been around for a long time but is ignored by the Start menu on Windows 10—for some reason.

To turn this feature on, you’ll head to Settings > Cortana > Searching Windows. Under Find My Files, Select “Enhanced (Recommended)” and the Start menu search—also known as Cortana—will search your entire PC.

 

 

Microsoft says that selecting the “Enhanced” option will “begin the one-time indexing process. 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.”

After the indexing process is complete, you can search from the Start menu and find files anywhere on your PC almost instantly. Windows will keep the search index updated automatically in the background.

 

 

If you don’t want to search specific folders, you can click the “Add an excluded folder” option here and exclude specific folders. For example, you might want to exclude a folder containing sensitive files you don’t want appearing in search. You might also want to exclude a folder containing files that frequently change if you don’t want Windows wasting time indexing them.

The “Advanced Search Indexer Settings” option at the bottom of this screen opens the existing Indexing Options desktop utility.

 

 

Maybe Microsoft is finally paying attention to what Windows users want. The next release will also let you uninstall more built-in apps and make your PC faster through better Spectre patches.

How You Can Find Your Files on Windows 10 Today

Windows still has a search feature that lets you find files, but Microsoft just hides it. Until the update arrives, we recommend heading to File Explorer and using its advanced search features if you truly need to search for files.

Even just searching through the search box in File Explorer will find files that the Start menu won’t. However, it’s very slow by default, as Windows will carefully search your entire PC.

 

 

To speed up searches, you can enable the search index. To find these options, just search the start menu for “Indexing” and launch the “Indexing Options” shortcut.

 

 

To have Windows index additional locations, click the “Modify” button and check whichever locations you want. For example, you could have Windows index your entire C drive by checking the C option here. Click “OK,” and Windows will begin indexing your new locations.

Search will be much faster in File Explorer. However, even if you choose to index locations, the Start menu search feature will continue ignoring them—until the next Windows 10 update.

 

 

Windows 10’s Start menu search may be pretty bad, but the File Explorer has lots of useful options. While searching for something, you can click the “Search” tab on the ribbon at the top of the window to find many useful advanced search options. For example, you can search specific folders, search by date modified, specify file sizes, and otherwise refine your search.

You can also type advanced search operators directly into the search box here. You can even save searches, which gives you virtual “folders” you can double-click to perform a search in the future quickly.

 

 

You can also just skip the built-in Windows search and use something better, like Everything. Unlike Windows 10’s Start menu search today, it searches through everything on your PC. It provides a quick, minimal interface and has near-instant search thanks to a speedy indexing process.

 

 

Chris Hoffman - October 25, 2018, 6:40am EDT
How-To Geek

[shorty6100]

I've turned off indexing since XP. I don't usually have a lot of files on my PC, but on the rare occasion I have used Everything from Voidtools.

 

[dhjohns]

I must say the new search feature in 19H1 is instantaneous once you have it set to search, and index your whole computer.  I have multiple drives, and partitions, and it finds the files in an instant, and without issues.

[straycat19]

Indexing files is a security violation and we have never allowed it in any version of windows and I have never used it at home on any of my systems.  I have 8 NAS units and I don't need software to tell me where my files are at, I know exactly where I store everything.  If you setup a good file structure then you will always be able to find what you want.

[debebee]

Most power users turn off search service on install so it is not a big issue here.

Use EVERYTHING or any 3rd party utility instead 

[Pete 12]

Everything is the best software !

It saves your SSD also and will give it a longer lifetime.............

[debebee]

Constant scanning and updating the windows search database will tax your SSD..

 

Everything can be configured to exclude your SSDs

[SPECTRUM]

4 hours ago, teodz1984 said:

Constant scanning and updating the windows search database will tax your SSD..

 

Everything can be configured to exclude your SSDs

 

no, because is being readed, not being writed.

[IronY-Man]

Everything is everything you need to avoid indexing and lazy search in Windows !

[vibranium]

8 hours ago, SPECTRUM said:

 

no, because is being readed, not being writed. 

 

The index will be cached and re-cached so in the normal configuration the SSD will be affected.

[debebee]

4. Disable Disk Indexing

Disk indexing is for shortening the time to access files on hard disk drive. But SSD itself has a much shorter response time than HDD, which is about 0.1 ms. Thus there’s no need to enable disk indexing for SSD, it’ll only shorten the lifespan of SDD for nothing.

 

https://www.disk-partition.com/kb/tips-ssd-optimization-windows7-2.html

 

With SSD drives they are so fast that you really do not need to be indexed. In truth you will not see any speed increase by indexing a SSD.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294861-32-ssds-indexing

Unless It is Microsoft's intent to wear down your hardware fatster to promote sales of new hardware..

[SPECTRUM]

6 hours ago, vibranium said:

 

The index will be cached and re-cached so in the normal configuration the SSD will be affected.

 

no, because modern Windows versions such as 8.x or 10 does not store cache/pagefile or related things in SSDs.

[dcs18]

2 minutes ago, SPECTRUM said:

6 hours ago, vibranium said:

The index will be cached and re-cached so in the normal configuration the SSD will be affected.

no, because modern Windows versions such as 8.x or 10 does not store cache/pagefile or related things in SSDs.

Not true — I can post a screenshot from my Windows 8.1 Pro . . . . . . of the pagefile (and swapfile) on the SSD drive (but, you'll probably dismiss it off, as fake.)

[SPECTRUM]

8 hours ago, dcs18 said:

Not true — I can post a screenshot from my Windows 8.1 Pro . . . . . . of the pagefile (and swapfile) on the SSD drive (but, you'll probably dismiss it off, as fake.)

 

yes, but is not used unless you are out of RAM.

[dcs18]

2 hours ago, SPECTRUM said:

11 hours ago, dcs18 said:

11 hours ago, SPECTRUM said:

no, because modern Windows versions such as 8.x or 10 does not store cache/pagefile or related things in SSDs.

Not true — I can post a screenshot from my Windows 8.1 Pro . . . . . . of the pagefile (and swapfile) on the SSD drive (but, you'll probably dismiss it off, as fake.)

yes, but is not used unless you are out of RAM.

Well, my response was purely to your claim that Windows versions such as 8.x or 10 does not store pagefile . . . . . on SSDs — whether one runs out of RAM or not . . . . . is a totally different matter altogether unrelated to the point in question.