Making Windows 7 Search Work Better

Accessing Indexing Options

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the Search box, type “index“.

   

3. Search opens.
4. Select “Change how Windows searches”.

   

5. This opens the Indexing Options dialog box. As you can see the portable hard drive, Drive F, is not listed.

   

6. To resolve this problem, select the Modify button.

   

7. The Indexed locations dialog box opens.
8. In the top section of the dialog box called Change selected locations, you’ll note that the Local Drive (F:) is not registered. This is the portable hard drive.

   

9. Check the box for Local Drive (F:)

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10. Click the Ok button.
11. The Indexing Options window re-opens displaying the missing drive in the registered list.

    

12. Click the Close button.
13. All the drives are now registered for Search.

Excluding a Folder from Search

Suppose you want to remove a folder or add an un-registered folder from Search’s Index, here’s how to do it.

1. Open the Indexing Options window as described previously.
2. Click the Modify button.
3. The top section of the window changes. The top section is labelled “Change selected locations“. It contains a scroll list of all selected locations.
4. In the Summary of selected locations (lower section of the Indexed locations window), scroll down to select any listed location.
5. Windows Live Mail is chosen. Actually it doesn’t matter as any one will allow you to perform the next step.The illustration below shows you the sequence to follow.

   

6. As you scroll up or down you’ll see folder boxes checked or unchecked.

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7. In this window you can select or de-select a location you don’t want indexed.
8. In the example below I’ve deselected Downloads.
9. This folder will no longer be on Windows Index and its contents cannot be found when using Search.

   

10. Click the Ok button.
11. The Indexed Windows dialog box reopens. Click the Close button.
12. Back in the Indexing options window, click the Close button to complete the task.