[SOLVED] Search index is off, but turned on in services?

[ShangWang]

Hi all,

I have the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-53 and am using a WD_Black NVMe SSD. After a windows cumulative update last night I went to search something in windows and it appears I had indexing off: https://prnt.sc/1skmxig

However, it is enabled in services: https://prnt.sc/1skn03n

I restarted the service, no use. I have not had this SSD installed with an OS for very long, I am 100% sure I have no bloatware/adware/malware or any kind of app that is interfering with the service.

The search speed is fairly fast either way and I don't search for items that often so I could care less, but I am not sure why this is happening.

Is this nothing to worry about?

 

[rgd1101]

you can turn on/off on index for specific folder

control panel - Index Options

 

[ShangWang]

you can turn on/off on index for specific folder

I don't remember changing the indexing for specific folders and this never happened before unless I changed it manually.

 

[ShangWang]

you can turn on/off on index for specific folder

control panel - Index Options

Never mind looks like the troubleshooter in indexing options fixed it!
I heard that system restore and search indexing will put some wear on a SSD but in general I don't think it's a big deal.

What's your input on turning them on?

 

[Colif]

whats more important to you? finding your files faster or having the ssd maybe last a little longer?
System restore is handy in case windows update goes bad or a driver update doesn't work as its meant to create a restore point before either of those things. I have used it before to reverse driver installs that didn't work as planned.

most people will replace their ssd due its size long before it stops working from system restore using it. If that has a great effect. I don't think it creates restore points on a schedule, just when they needed. So its unlikely to be doing that much compared to normal use of windows.

 

[ShangWang]

whats more important to you? finding your files faster or having the ssd maybe last a little longer?
System restore is handy in case windows update goes bad or a driver update doesn't work as its meant to create a restore point before either of those things. I have used it before to reverse driver installs that didn't work as planned.

most people will replace their ssd due its size long before it stops working from system restore using it. If that has a great effect. I don't think it creates restore points on a schedule, just when they needed. So its unlikely to be doing that much compared to normal use of windows.

Life span, but I don't know how much and when search index will put "wear" on the SSD but do you recommend disabling it?

 

[Colif]

as far as i can tell, it doesn't do much at all. It might run once to set up the index but as new items are created on PC they are added to index. So I doubt it does much at all.

I have it on as I prefer to not wait for PC to find things if it can know where they are before hand.

i don't think you would gain much turning it off even long term.

 

[Colif]

is it an ssd or nvme? if nvme, they turn off when not being used. So even less wear
My boot drive is an NVME, HD sentinel tells me its age is 145 days
My hdd is same age as the NVME but according to HD Sentinel its age is 240 days
Both installed on same day.

Sata ssd can't turn off like NVME can, its a feature of PCIe

 

[ShangWang]

is it an ssd or nvme? if nvme, they turn off when not being used. So even less wear
My boot drive is an NVME, HD sentinel tells me its age is 145 days
My hdd is same age as the NVME but according to HD Sentinel its age is 240 days
Both installed on same day.

Sata ssd can't turn off like NVME can, its a feature of PCIe

NVMe as mentioned, I think I'll just keep it on if it doesn't take up too many resources.

 

[rgd1101]

don't worry about life span. instead. do regular backup.

 

[Colif]

it most likely only runs after you install something big, like a windows update, as it has to sort the indexed items so it knows where the newest versions are. So once every 6 months on win 10, and once a year on win 11.

Its an incidental feature of windows.

 

[ShangWang]

is it an ssd or nvme? if nvme, they turn off when not being used. So even less wear
My boot drive is an NVME, HD sentinel tells me its age is 145 days
My hdd is same age as the NVME but according to HD Sentinel its age is 240 days
Both installed on same day.

Sata ssd can't turn off like NVME can, its a feature of PCIe

I decided to disable windows search in services, I really don't need indexing. https://prnt.sc/1smead3

However my individual NVMe SSD still has indexing checked.
As long as the service is disabled does this not matter/leave anything behind?

 

[Colif]

the index itself wouldn't be very big. it doesn't need to be.

How much space is used by the index?

A rule of thumb is that the index will be less than 10 percent of the size of the indexed files. For example, if you have 100 MB of text files, the index for those files will be less than 10 MB.


The index can take up a larger percentage if you have lots of very small files (<4 KB) or if you're indexing computer code. In both cases, the index size will increase dramatically in proportion to the size of the files. If you have lots of small files and need to save space on your PC, consider removing the location of those files from indexing by going to the Indexing Options control panel page and selecting Modify.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...s-10-faq-da061c83-af6b-095c-0f7a-4dfecda4d15a

On a 1tb hdd, i don't think i notice the amount of space used.
Its your choice but I don't really bother stopping any windows service, you can go mad and want to stop everything but a lot of them are there to make windows more responsive TO You so you are shooting self in foot trying to reduce what windows is doing FOR you.

 

[ShangWang]

the index itself wouldn't be very big. it doesn't need to be.


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...s-10-faq-da061c83-af6b-095c-0f7a-4dfecda4d15a

On a 1tb hdd, i don't think i notice the amount of space used.
Its your choice but I don't really bother stopping any windows service, you can go mad and want to stop everything but a lot of them are there to make windows more responsive TO You so you are shooting self in foot trying to reduce what windows is doing FOR you.

Thank you for letting me know about index file size!

That's true, but the windows search service only really speeds up the search process as far as I'm concerned, and I believe disabling indexing can save some performance. I can still look for files fairly quick so no issues here.

 

[ShangWang]

the index itself wouldn't be very big. it doesn't need to be.


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...s-10-faq-da061c83-af6b-095c-0f7a-4dfecda4d15a

On a 1tb hdd, i don't think i notice the amount of space used.
Its your choice but I don't really bother stopping any windows service, you can go mad and want to stop everything but a lot of them are there to make windows more responsive TO You so you are shooting self in foot trying to reduce what windows is doing FOR you.

One more thing, so if you were to uncheck the box to "allow files to be indexed" I'm assuming that all index files will be deleted.

However if you don't check the box and just disable the service whatever index files that were created will just sit in the SSD and no further index files are created correct?

 

[Colif]

One more thing, so if you were to uncheck the box to "allow files to be indexed" I'm assuming that all index files will be deleted.

However if you don't check the box and just disable the service whatever index files that were created will just sit in the SSD and no further index files are created correct?

I suspect what happens is if you untick the option, it won't make the index any bigger. DIsabling service probably has same outcome. I don't think either would remove the index that exists now. It just won't change it any more.

 

[ShangWang]

I suspect what happens is if you untick the option, it won't make the index any bigger. DIsabling service probably has same outcome. I don't think either would remove the index that exists now. It just won't change it any more.

I see, but I think unchecking the box would likely remove the index files because I remember it took a while to do it and disabling the service will likely just not make it bigger.
I'll just leave the service disabled in case I want to use indexing again.