Searches Folder in Windows 7

There is a windows folder called Searches that has two subfolders - Everywhere and Indexed Locations which contain literally hundereds of thousands of files. I want to delete these folders, or at least empty them. I found an old forum post which suggested that the files were shortcuts and could be deleted through file manager. Well I tried that. From within the searches folder I picked the first listed file in "Everywhere" and deleted it using the delete key. Well....what happened surprised me - the actual file was deleted. Obviously I must have done something wrong. What I'd like to do is 1) empty the searches folders and 2) turn off the function that saves stuff to this folder. Can anyone help? Thanks Windows 7 Pro with 64 bit OS

I want to make it a habit to clear any type of activity tracking from my PC - I even go as far as not having my regular applications keep a "recently opened or saved" list. If I want to open a file, I'll find it and open it. So I clear internet and windows "recent" files folders. Just recently I discovered the "Searches" folder, and there are literally over five hundred thousand files listed. I thought these were supposed to be shortcuts....

I found the following link in this forum -
Deleting the "Searches" folder from my user folder?

I didn't try the CCcleaner software (but I have it on my computer). The reason I didn't try using that application is when I manually deleted one of the files from the Searches folder, the actual file got deleted. So I'm skeptical that these are just shortcuts.

For my own peace of mind I want to empty the files/searches from these folders.