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...
Configuring Windows to Do Backups on a Schedule
Performing regular backups of your system offers you peace of mind because you don't have to worry about data loss in the ...
Discover More
Deleting a Saved Search
Windows Explorer has a good search utility built into it. As you use it, you may wish to delete a previously saved search ...
Discover More
Using the Snipping Tool
Being able to capture portions of the screen can come in handy for a wide variety of reasons. The Windows snipping tool ...
Discover More
Seeing which Files are Compressed
Compressed files can make it easier to store a lot of information on a hard drive. However, compressed files aren't that ...
Discover More
Assigning a Picture to a Folder
Windows allows you to customize many aspects of its user interface. One thing you can modify is how a folder's icon ...
Discover More
Understanding and Using File Attributes
Every file has several attributes associated with it. These attributes can be turned on or off in a couple of ways and ...
Discover More
This tip (12936) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Comments