---
title: "I fixed Windows Search without installing another search app"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/ee6e0e0e-35b6-46ee-b581-bfeb009a5917
source_url: "https://www.makeuseof.com/i-fixed-windows-search-without-installing-another-search-app/"
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/technology/stack/bf7ba824-0025-419b-8f5d-40d645a4f580
summary: "This article covers practical steps to fix and improve Windows Search performance by configuring the search index. It explains the difference between Classic and Enhanced search modes, how to add custom indexed folders, and how to trim an oversized index for better results."
tags: "windows-search, indexing, troubleshooting, windows-settings, performance, search-optimization"
key_entities: "Manuviraj Godara (person), MakeUseOf (organization), Windows Search (technology), Windows (technology), Search Index (concept), Outlook (technology), Enhanced Search (concept)"
classification: "tutorial"
content_hash: "sha256:513d226163811e5e6511aa4a463d011d396214623785654936c12a61b284576f"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 1572
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# I fixed Windows Search without installing another search app

By  Manuviraj Godara Published May 15, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT Manuviraj is a tech enthusiast who covers Windows, macOS, and retrocomputing. Drawn to both the logic and the creativity of technology, he’s especially interested in how people interact with tech and the internet every day. He holds an English Literature degree. His fascination with tech grew alongside a love for speculative worlds: cyberpunk and sci-fi literature shaped the way he thinks about the future of machines and humans sharing space. Outside the screen, Manuviraj’s world runs on two wheels and good sound. He’s into motorcycling, constantly exploring new music, and tinkering with digital tools just to see what they’re capable of. Whether he’s breaking down complex software topics or diving into niche corners of tech culture, he’s driven by the same thing: figuring out how things work, and how they could work better. You can also read his work on his Substack. Sign in to your MakeUseOf account If you're a long-time Windows user, you probably know how inconsistent Windows Search is. It often shows unrelated results, mixes in irrelevant web results, or takes forever to track down what you're looking for. The only thing it's consistent at is reading my mind and showing the exact setting I'm looking for when I type in something vague like "storage." Most users simply skip Windows Search and opt for third-party search apps . But before you jump ship, why not make a few tweaks that'll make Windows Search significantly better . Windows probably didn't index the files you're looking for Choose the search mode that makes sense for you Close A common culprit for slow and inaccurate searches is an improperly configured Windows Search index database. By default, Windows Search is set to Classic mode, which only indexes your user folders like Documents, Pictures, Desktop, etc. This ensures that the index size isn't too big and doesn't take up a lot of space. It also means that anything not in these indexed folders will take much longer to populate, as Windows doesn't have an immediate location of what you're looking for. You can fix this by manually adding locations you want Windows Search to index while Classic search is enabled. Open Settings -> Privacy & security , and then click on Customize search locations , under Classic . You can then click the Modify button to add partitions and folders that you want Windows Search to index. You'll need administrative privileges to make these changes. Alternatively, you can consider enabling Enhanced search, which indexes your entire PC. You can do this by going to Settings -> Privacy & security -> Search . The initial indexing does take a lot of time, but you'll notice Windows Search will find files located in custom folders much faster once it's done. You may notice increased CPU and disk usage, and decreased battery life after enabling Enhanced search. You may need to trim the index The number of indexed items and the total size of the index, both play a role Open the Settings app on your computer, and go to Privacy & security -> Search . You'll see a number listed under Indexed in the top right corner of the screen: this is the number of indexed files on your computer. For most of you, this number will be less than 400000, which is good. However, anything more than that and Windows Search performance begins to dip, and the indexer's compression becomes less effective. You can do two things to fix a large search index. If you're using Enhanced search, exclude any unnecessary folders from being indexed. You can remove large media libraries that you don't want indexed, game installation folders, and other related stuff. Maybe switch to Classic mode if you mostly look for stuff that's stored in your user folders; you can always add custom folders later on. Also, clean up your Outlook mailboxes or at least change the synchronization time interval to a shorter time period, because the Indexer indexes Outlook mailboxes by default. Defragment the index Defragmenting the index can reduce its overall size. You can check the size of the index by navigating to: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows and checking the file size (via Properties -> Size on disk ) of the Windows.edb (Windows 10), or Windows.db (Windows 11) file. To defragment the index, open an elevated instance of Windows Command Prompt, and execute the following commands in order: Sc config wsearch start=disabled Net stop wsearch (Windows 10) EsentUtl.exe /d %AllUsersProfile%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb (Windows 11) EsentUtl.exe /d %AllUsersProfile%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.db Sc config wsearch start=delayed-auto Net start wsearch Make Windows Search more intuitive You can search for files by content, and make search faster Often we don't remember filenames but have a vague memory of what they contain, especially when it comes to documents. Windows' Indexer can index file contents too, making it much easier to find files by searching for what's in them . Windows does enable indexing for file contents and properties for some file types by default, but not all of them. To enable indexing of file contents for recognized file types, go to Settings -> Privacy & security -> Search -> Advanced indexing options . Click Advanced in the dialog box, then switch to the file types tab to see a list of recognized file types and how they're indexed. You can select the file type, then select the Index properties and file contents radio button. This only works for text-based files. Once you make changes to the index (except defragmentation), it's best to rebuild it. Rebuilding the index takes several hours, but it ensures that the changes you made actually come into effect. Make Windows Search work for you Just like Windows itself, Windows Search can actually be a decent tool if you configure it properly. In addition to optimizing the indexing settings, learn how to use the various search filters so you can use the tool better. These tweaks made Windows Search usable for me, but if it still annoys the living daylights out of you, well, there are always third-party Windows Search replacements you can download. Close