Windows 7: Slow Search in Windows 7

uidl7526 · 24 Nov 2011

Hi guys,

My company is just rolling out Windows 7 and we get claims from the users that the search process in Windows 7 is much slower than in Windows XP.

Users cannot add additional locations to the Search Index because we have disabled this through group policies.
The D:\ drive for example is not indexed, but why is searching taking 3x longer on Windows 7 than Windows XP?

Corazon · 24 Nov 2011

I can only guess, but two probable reasons:

The large size of the C:\Windows\winsxs folder is causing searches to take longer than in XP, which would (on average) have a considerably lower count of files and folders on the C: drive.
Since the Windows 7 systems are newly installed, it takes a few days for everything to be completely indexed until search can take full advantage of said indexing.

uidl7526 · 25 Nov 2011

My C:\Windows\winsxs folder is 7,80 GB in size.
My Windows Client is installed for 1 month already. The index should already be created. But searching in unindexed locations still takes very long.

PS: our C:\ drive is not fully indexed. Only these locations are included in the index:
- Internet Explorer History
- Offline Files
- Start Menu
- Users

uidl7526 · 28 Nov 2011

Gentlemen, did Windows XP search automatically inside documents?
Because Windows 7 seems to do so.
Might that be the reason why searching is so slow?

uidl7526 · 22 Dec 2011

Hi guys, we didn't find any solution for this, so we included the location to the index

So, I will mark this thread as solved (by workaround).

Merry Christmas !

Qdos · 22 Dec 2011

I use a third party utility and disable Windows own search and indexing.

By comparison search results are literally always instant...

Everything Search Engine

Windows 7: Slow Search in Windows 7

Slow Search in Windows 7 problems?