Rebuilding the Search Index
You may occasionally find yourself wanting to rebuild the search index (e.g., if it's very large and you remove a big chunk of indexes, or if it gets corrupt). To rebuild the search index, follow these steps:
- In the Search box, type "index" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Windows displays the Indexing Options dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. The Indexing Options dialog box.
- Click the Advanced button. Windows displays the Advanced Options dialog box.
- Make sure the Index Settings tab is displayed. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2. The Index Settings tab of the Advanced Options dialog box.
- Click the Rebuild button. Windows asks you if you are sure you want to perform the action.
- Click OK to start the rebuild.
- Close any open dialog boxes.
The work involved in rebuilding a search index is done behind the scenes and could take a while to complete. While Windows is rebuilding, you can work with other programs just fine, but you won't be able to do a search and get any meaningful results.
Author Bio
Barry Dysert
Barry has been a computer professional for over 35 years, working in different positions such as technical team leader, project manager, and software developer. He is currently a software engineer with an emphasis on developing custom applications under Microsoft Windows. When not working with Windows or writing Tips, Barry is an amateur writer. His first non-fiction book is titled "A Chronological Commentary of Revelation." Learn more about Barry...
Controlling the Display of System Icons in the Notification Area
A sometimes-overlooked area of Windows customization is the notification area. This tip explains how you can control the ...
Discover More
Creating an Auto Playlist
Auto Playlists are a nice feature of Windows Media Player. Once set up, as more media gets added to your library the auto ...
Discover More
Adjusting the Size of an Event Log
Event logs are used to store information about what goes on, behind the scenes, on your system. Whether you want to ...
Discover More
Specifying a Copy Schedule in Robocopy
There are a few ways to set up a copy schedule in Robocopy by using its options. This tip explains how.
Discover More
Adding Locations to the Search Index
You can fine-tune Indexed Searches by adding locations to the search index. This tip tells you how.
Discover More
What are the Limits on File Names?
It's good to know what the limits are when naming files, although in most cases the limits are sufficiently high that ...
Discover More
This tip (12936) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Comments