Privacy and Security Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer for all users in Windows 11.

Search Indexing in Windows improves the speed and efficiency of searches by creating an index of files and their properties on your device. This index allows Windows to quickly locate and retrieve the information you need.

Indexing is the process of looking at files, email messages, and other content on your PC and cataloging their information, such as the words and metadata in them. When you search your PC after indexing, it looks at an index of terms to find results faster.

By default, all the properties of your files are indexed, including file names and full file paths. For files with text, their contents are indexed to allow you to search for words within the files.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

• Classic = This mode indexes your Documents, Pictures, and Music folders plus the desktop by default. It is suitable for users who primarily store their files in these locations. Classic mode provides a balance between search performance and system resource usage.
• Enhanced = This mode indexes your entire PC, including all user folders and files. It is ideal for users who store files in various locations across their device. Enhanced mode provides more comprehensive search results but may use more system resources.

Reference:

You must be signed in as an administrator to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer.

Search Indexer requires the Windows Search service to be enabled, running, and set to automatic.

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on Search on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Under Find my files, select (dot) Classic (default) or Enhanced for what you want. (see screenshot below)


4 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Do step 2 (classic) or step 3 (enhanced) below for what you want.

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.



(Contents of REG file for reference)



A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.



(Contents of REG file for reference)

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 Either restart the Windows Search service OR Restart the computer to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink