The Windows Indexing Service provides you with the ability to perform advanced searches on directories located on your computer and on shared directories on the network. The Indexing Service was introduced with IIS (Internet Information Services) and is now installed with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
The Indexing Service is not started by default on a Windows 2000 professional computer. If you want the Indexing service to start automatically, select "Start | Settings | Control Panel | Administrative Tools" and open the "Computer Management" application. In the left pane of the "Computer Management" window, select "Services", then in the right pane, right-click on "Indexing Service". The "Indexing Services Properties" dialog box will appear.
In the "Indexing Services Properties" dialog box, on the "General" tab select "Automatic" from the "Startup type:" drop-down list. Under "Service stautus:" click on the "Start" button. A flurry of hard disk activity may begin as the Indexing Service builds or updates the index. The Indexing service creates an index (also called a catalog) organized in a way that makes it quick and easy to search. The Indexing Service also records the documents properties, for example its date of creation and last modified date.
The Search application can be accessed by right-clicking on any folder and selecting "Search..." in the popup menu. You can search for file names or you can search for text within files using keywords, or phases. Queries can use wildcards (?, *) and boolean operators (AND OR and NOT). When a user searches an NTFS volume, the Indexing service will return in the results only the files the user has permission to see.
The documents created by most applications contain formatting and control information, for example a webpage contains html tags, a Word document contains rtf tags. The Indexing Service uses filters to extract the content from the formatting and control information. Documents with extensions for which filters are not installed will not be indexed by default. If you want to index everything, open the "Computer Management" application as described above, and select "Services ...", then right-click on "Indexing Service" and select "Properties" in the popup menu. In the "Indexing Services Properties" dialog box which appears, on the "Generation" tab, check the checkbox next to "Index Files With Unknown Extensions".
The Indexing service is designed to run continuously and requires no maintenance. After it is setup, it will automatically update the index. When a file changes, the OS sends a change notification to the Indexing Service, causing it to update the index. Folders on remote computers are scanned periodically.
The Windows Indexing Service uses a fair amount of disk space (approximately 30% the amount of the original files). If the shared directories on the network are large, it can consume a considerable portion of the computer's memory and processor cycles. There are several options for configuring the Indexing Service to improve performance.
To configure the Indexing Service select "Start | Settings | Control Panel | Administrative Tools" and open the "Computer Management" application. In the left pane of the "Computer Management" window, click the plus sign next to "Services and Applications", then right-click on the "Indexing Service" icon. In the popup menu, select "All Tasks | Tune Performance". The "Indexing Service Usage" dialog box will appear.
The "Indexing Service Usage" dialog box provides three radio button options that let Windows set the Indexing Service Performance for you; "Used often", "Used occasionally", and "Never Used". If you want to provide your own custom setting, set the "Customize" radio button and click on the "Customize..." button. The "Desired Performance" dialog box will appear.
The "Desired Performance" dialog box contains two slider controls. The "Indexing" slider control sets how quickly the catalog will be updated. Adjust it to the left to reduce the amount of system resources used to update the catalog. The "Querying" slider control sets how quickly search results will be returned. Adjusting it to the left will reduce the amount of system resources used, but search results will take longer to return.
You can also control the Indexing Service by configuring the specific folders to be indexed. When you click on the "Indexing Service" icon in the "Computer Management" window, the right pane should list a catalog named "System". When you double-click on a catalog, you will find three folders, "Directories", "Properties", and "Query The Catalog".
Note: If Internet Information Server (IIS) is installed on your computer, you should also see a catalog named "Web". The Web catalog scans the C:Inetpub directory.
To add a folder to be indexed, right-click on the "Directories" folder and select "New | Directory" in the popup menu. In the "Add Directory" dialog box that appears, enter the path of the new directory. To remove a folder, left-click on the "Directories" folder to display the list of directories in the right pane. Then left-click on a directory and select "Delete" in the popup menu.
Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp.
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.
About The Author
Stephen Bucaro
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit bucarotechelp.com.
Benton shuttle to Midway .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareThe most important benefit of XML is its simplicity. Though... Read More
With so many Microsoft Windows related viruses, errors, and other... Read More
In today's business world it's all but impossible to escape... Read More
When my daughter was getting into AOL instant messaging (AIM)... Read More
MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. the leading solutions provider in the area... Read More
In linux, one of great commands for finding out information... Read More
Some companies that are in need of fleet management may... Read More
Healthcare facilities such as clinics, hospitals, and biomedical laboratories can... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is Great Plains Dexterity... Read More
The fact that a software tester is a most infamous... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt to... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very generic accounting application... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software eEnterprise,... Read More
Are you a database professional? Do you work with a... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Solomon and Axapta are Microsoft Business... Read More
Did you ever give a thought to the number of... Read More
Sometimes your PC will start acting strange for no apparent... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being... Read More
There are plenty of articles out there about how to... Read More
The objective for Zandi Digital is to make available clever... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Navision serves both European and American megamarkets.... Read More
Current Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has more that 10... Read More
In 2004 Oracle, Inc. made its new step toward J2EE... Read More
This is intermediate level SQL scripting article for DB Administrator,... Read More
Each Industry and market niche has business specific and unique... Read More
limousine Chicago airport Arthur ..Linux essentials:It's free for download but you have to pay... Read More
Cyberspace has opened up a new frontier with exciting possibilities... Read More
This short paper will expand on two key reasons to... Read More
When you need a phone number, you do a quick... Read More
If your company has regional and worldwide operations, you might... Read More
In our opinion, traditional approach when you select ERP/MRP system... Read More
One of the things we can be as certain of... Read More
Have you ever noticed that when you look at your... Read More
Think of this, first we had the HAM Radio, then... Read More
Healthcare facilities such as clinics, hospitals, and biomedical laboratories can... Read More
Case study: A secretary using Corel WordPerfect 7 is often... Read More
ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. Multi-module ERP... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves to the wide spectrum... Read More
Are you ready? SQL Server 2005, the next-generation data management... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies... Read More
In the Clinton era the status quo was simple: you... Read More
With this small article we are continuing Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More
What is a Web Database?A web database is a database... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very good fit for... Read More
We would like first emphasize the change in the paradigm.... Read More
Remember back in the days where screensavers were the coolest... Read More
I provide, here clear explanations and a count of function... Read More
It is a well known fact that Java as a... Read More
This is a short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt to... Read More
Software |