Question Suggestions for an alternative Windows 11 file explorer that can search network shares ?

[barleysinger]

I want an alternative to the standard Win 11 File Explorer that can search for files that are out on our network.

I use the search feature in Explorer in Windows 7 all the time and it does this fine. I need it. I have brain injury (I was dead too long) and that makes it hard to find things on our local network but it doesn't work at all in Windows 11. Win 11 relies entirely on indexing and it cannot index a network share.

As I understand it for this to work OK in Win 11 you also have to be be running a Windows Server PC (go buy a second PC and OS) or have those drives on a managed RAID or NAS system that handles all that. So Microsoft gutted a major feature and dramatically increased the price of being able to search for your own files.

My Droid does this fine.
Our ancient half dead Win 7 Pro system does this fine.
My brand new 32GB Win 7 Pro PC can't.

 

[Eximo]

Add or Remove Search Index Locations in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove locations to be excluded or included in the search index in Windows 11. Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content. The search index only includes your selected...

www.elevenforum.com

Yes, including network locations.

If that still doesn't work. You could conceivably find a file system OS that handles what you want, run it in a virtual machine on your existing hardware and that file system doesn't have to be Windows based.

 

[USAFRet]

I use the search feature in Explorer in Windows 7 all the time and it does this fine. I need it. I have brain injury (I was dead too long) and that makes it hard to find things on our local network but it doesn't work at all in Windows 11. Win 11 relies entirely on indexing and it cannot index a network share.

Via mapped drive letters, I can search volumes on my NAS directly in File Explorer.
Win 11 Pro, QNAP NAS w/ Linux based OS.