W7 Search Fails

What has happened? I used to be able to type something to search for
in 'Start', but now I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search'
in WExplorer (top right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

How can I get my search back?

Thanks

Big Fred

wrote:

What has happened? I used to be able to type something to search for
in 'Start', but now I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search'
in WExplorer (top right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

How can I get my search back?

Thanks

Big Fred

Have you checked "Services" to see if "Windows Search" is started?

--
Sir_George

On 25/03/2014 10:06, wrote:
What has happened? I used to be able to type something to search for
in 'Start', but now I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search'
in WExplorer (top right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

How can I get my search back?

Thanks


No idea - I don't use Windows Search. Until you get it sorted out, why
not install Everything and Agent Ransack?
http://www.voidtools.com/
http://mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

--

Jeff

wrote:
What has happened? I used to be able to type something to search for
in 'Start', but now I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search'
in WExplorer (top right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

How can I get my search back?

Thanks

Big Fred

The Search Indexer features "backoff".

If the machine is busy, the Search Indexer stops processing files.

Try taking your hands off the mouse, sit back for ten or
fifteen minutes, while Task Manager is open as well. And see if the
Search Indexer (three processes) are active.

You can disable the "backoff" feature. I run my laptop that
way. The Search Indexer does not stop on my laptop, if I'm
working.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

http://www.mydigitallife.info/disabl...exing-service/

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28450...is-it-running/

When the Indexer is finished, on my laptop it might indicate
that 138000 files were processed. As a rough approximate
value. It takes around 3 hours, for the Indexer to completely
rebuild the index.

Paul

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:16:41 -0400, Paul wrote:

wrote:
What has happened? I used to be able to type something to search for
in 'Start', but now I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search'
in WExplorer (top right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

How can I get my search back?

Thanks

Big Fred

The Search Indexer features "backoff".

If the machine is busy, the Search Indexer stops processing files.

Try taking your hands off the mouse, sit back for ten or
fifteen minutes, while Task Manager is open as well. And see if the
Search Indexer (three processes) are active.

Hi Paul

I have done the above, and am looking at Task Manager. Do you know
the names of the processes (3) I should be looking for? Since the
Indexer window maintains that 0% are indexed, I have no idea if
indexing is actually running, or not.

Fred


You can disable the "backoff" feature. I run my laptop that
way. The Search Indexer does not stop on my laptop, if I'm
working.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

http://www.mydigitallife.info/disabl...exing-service/

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28450...is-it-running/

When the Indexer is finished, on my laptop it might indicate
that 138000 files were processed. As a rough approximate
value. It takes around 3 hours, for the Indexer to completely
rebuild the index.

Paul

wrote:


Hi Paul

I have done the above, and am looking at Task Manager. Do you know
the names of the processes (3) I should be looking for? Since the
Indexer window maintains that 0% are indexed, I have no idea if
indexing is actually running, or not.

Fred

Examples here.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-9ad418fb29ec

C:\Windows\System32\SearchIndexer.exe
C:\Windows\System32\SearchFilterHost.exe
C:\Windows\System32\SearchProtocolHost.exe

What I discovered in testing, is I can use Task Manager to
raise the priority of two of those. The third one
appears to die on its own occasionally, and a fresh
copy is forked. And as a result, I can't get the
task priority on the last one, to stay raised
for any significant period of time.

I fired up the Windows 7 laptop, to verify that they are
present, and selected "rebuild" on the index, to kick it off.
The SearchFilterHost.exe is quiet at the moment, the other
two are busy.

Paul

Sir_George wrote:

roger wrote:

I used to be able to type something to search for in 'Start', but now
I get no results. Same thing when I do a 'Search' in WExplorer (top
right). I am running W7 Ultimate Pro.

I have tried 'recreating the index' for drive c, but it sits on '0
items indexed' forever. (like - over an hour so far).

Have you checked "Services" to see if "Windows Search" is started?

And that it is configured for "Automatic (Delayed Start)" to ensure it
loads when you boot Windows.

Paul wrote:

The Search Indexer features "backoff". If the machine is busy, the
Search Indexer stops processing files.

Try taking your hands off the mouse, sit back for ten or fifteen
minutes, while Task Manager is open as well. And see if the Search
Indexer (three processes) are active.

Many services are rolled under the collective svchost.exe process, so
you don't see them in Task Manager (you only see the svchost.exe
process). The loader process maybe exposed outside of svchost.exe so it
is visible in Task Manager. However, the default view in Task Manager
is to only show processes owned by the Windows account under which the
user has logged into. To see the searchindexer.exe process means
clicking on the "Show processes from all users". This will show
processes that were started by other Windows accounts, like SYSTEM,
LOCAL_SERVICE, and NETWORK_SERVICE. searchindexer.exe is loaded by the
SYSTEM account, not by the user's account.

SysInternals' "Process Explorer" will show under which svchost.exe
process the searchindexer.exe service is controlled. Load SysInternals'
Process Explorer, find and highlight the SearchIndexer.exe process
(rolled under a svchost.exe process), and watch its CPU usage. You can
also double-click on the process to show its properties and select the
Performance Graph tab. That has the advantage over Task Manager that
the process isn't bouncing around in a list as new processes show up or
unload.

Paul wrote:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-9ad418fb29ec
Not sure how that tells roger how to set/disable the backoff feature.
"backoff" isn't even mentioned.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

For Professional and Ultimate editions, you can use the policy editor.
For Home editions, there is no policy editor so you have to use the .reg
files to update the registry. These are text files so you can look at
them in Notepad before double-clicking on them to effect their registry
changes.

VanguardLH wrote:
Paul wrote:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-9ad418fb29ec
Not sure how that tells roger how to set/disable the backoff feature.
"backoff" isn't even mentioned.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

For Professional and Ultimate editions, you can use the policy editor.
For Home editions, there is no policy editor so you have to use the .reg
files to update the registry. These are text files so you can look at
them in Notepad before double-clicking on them to effect their registry
changes.

The link for backoff, was in my previous post. These are the three links
in the previous post.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

http://www.mydigitallife.info/disabl...exing-service/

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28450...is-it-running/

Paul

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:14:53 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:


Many services are rolled under the collective svchost.exe process, so
you don't see them in Task Manager (you only see the svchost.exe
process). The loader process maybe exposed outside of svchost.exe so it
is visible in Task Manager. However, the default view in Task Manager
is to only show processes owned by the Windows account under which the
user has logged into. To see the searchindexer.exe process means
clicking on the "Show processes from all users". This will show
processes that were started by other Windows accounts, like SYSTEM,
LOCAL_SERVICE, and NETWORK_SERVICE. searchindexer.exe is loaded by the
SYSTEM account, not by the user's account.

SysInternals' "Process Explorer" will show under which svchost.exe
process the searchindexer.exe service is controlled. Load SysInternals'
Process Explorer, find and highlight the SearchIndexer.exe process
(rolled under a svchost.exe process), and watch its CPU usage. You can
also double-click on the process to show its properties and select the
Performance Graph tab. That has the advantage over Task Manager that
the process isn't bouncing around in a list as new processes show up or
unload.


I am thinking - you gotta be kidding me. Something this difficult to
enable or use is really not worth its name.

I will miss XP.

Fred

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 19:18:37 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:14:53 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Many services are rolled under the collective svchost.exe process, so
you don't see them in Task Manager (you only see the svchost.exe
process). The loader process maybe exposed outside of svchost.exe so it
is visible in Task Manager. However, the default view in Task Manager
is to only show processes owned by the Windows account under which the
user has logged into. To see the searchindexer.exe process means
clicking on the "Show processes from all users". This will show
processes that were started by other Windows accounts, like SYSTEM,
LOCAL_SERVICE, and NETWORK_SERVICE. searchindexer.exe is loaded by the
SYSTEM account, not by the user's account.

SysInternals' "Process Explorer" will show under which svchost.exe
process the searchindexer.exe service is controlled. Load SysInternals'
Process Explorer, find and highlight the SearchIndexer.exe process
(rolled under a svchost.exe process), and watch its CPU usage. You can
also double-click on the process to show its properties and select the
Performance Graph tab. That has the advantage over Task Manager that
the process isn't bouncing around in a list as new processes show up or
unload.

I am thinking - you gotta be kidding me. Something this difficult to
enable or use is really not worth its name.

Consider what it means to service a cow or a mare.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:14:15 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

Consider what it means to service a cow or a mare.


LOL!


Eeww! I'll refrain from doing that, thank you very much. g

roger wrote:

I am thinking - you gotta be kidding me. Something this difficult to
enable or use is really not worth its name.

I will miss XP.

And what would be different in Windows XP for whatever file indexer you
used there? Monitoring a service in XP is same as how it's done for 7.

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:09:20 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:14:15 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

Consider what it means to service a cow or a mare.

LOL!

Eeww! I'll refrain from doing that, thank you very much. g

Yeah - part of the problem with a thought like that popping into my head
is fighting my natural tendency to visualize what I'm saying :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)