Windows Search Indexing keeps restarting from scratch after reboot in Windows 11

jacobacci · Oct 7, 2025

A complete Windows index on my Win 11 24H2 machine has around 500'000 items. Every now and then I notice that search becomes extremely hit and miss. When I look at the indexing status, I notice that Windows has restarted indexing from scratch. After indexing is complete (which can take several days), search works normally - until Windows decides to restart indexing from scratch again.
This makes search practically unusable on my machine.
I have disabled indexing backoff.
Is there anything I can do to fix this (clearly not working as designed) behaviour?

pepanee · Oct 7, 2025

Try this tutorial:

Repair Windows Search and Index in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to repair the Search Engine feature for Windows Search and search indexing in Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can use Windows Search to find your apps, files, settings, help, and more on Windows—plus unlock the power of the web with quick access to online...

www.elevenforum.com

allan · Oct 7, 2025

I'd suggest disabling Window indexing & search and using Everything instead: voidtools

jacobacci · Oct 7, 2025

Thanks @pepanee
Disabling SearchEngine-Client-Package worked. Then did a restart.
but
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"
gave the following result:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32>dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.26100.5074

Image Version: 10.0.26100.6584


Error: 0x800f080c

Feature name SearchEngine-Client-Package is unknown.
A Windows feature name was not recognized.
Use the /Get-Features option to find the name of the feature in the image and try the command again.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log

After a few tries, the enable command worked, but there was no prompt to restart the computer.
The dism.log does not show any entries with the correct timestamp.

jacobacci · Oct 7, 2025

allan said:
I'd suggest disabling Window indexing & search and using Everything instead: voidtools

It doesn't look like Everything can search Outlook pst files, which is a must for me.

KevTech · Oct 7, 2025

I disable indexing and just use XYplorer for searching.
I like that I can search for contents in the file to find the file if I can not remember the exact file name but remember some of the words in the file.
I have paid lifetime but their is a free version.

allan · Oct 7, 2025

jacobacci said:
It doesn't look like Everything can search Outlook pst files, which is a must for me.

Set indexing to just index Outlook and use Everything for all searches except Outlook

Try3 · Oct 7, 2025

jacobacci said:
It doesn't look like Everything can search Outlook pst files, which is a must for me.

NirSoft's SearchMyFiles does.

SearchMyFiles - contents search in pst files.webp

www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html
My latest SearchMyFiles ditties - posts #11, 13 - TenForums
[This search was done with my MSOffice Outlook closed]
[If it was running I'd use Outlook's own search box]

Denis

jacobacci · Oct 8, 2025

Thanks guys for all your tips. I will look at those 3rd party search engines. For the time being I have put together a "indexing deep reset" batch from several web sources and things seem back to normal for windows indexing. The batch needs to be run as admin.

Code:

Sc config wsearch start=disabled
Net stop wsearch
REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search" /v SetupCompletedSuccessfully /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
del %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.db
Sc config wsearch start=delayed-auto
Net start wsearch
pause

The batch removes Outlook from indexing locations, so at the end I need to add Outlook to the search locations. In Outlook set this in File / Options / Search and then Outlook reappears as an indexing location in indexing options.

allan · Oct 8, 2025

I always recommend Everything as an alternative to the native Windows search to pretty much everyone. Results are instantaneous, it's lightweight, it works with all recent Windows versions, and it's free.

jacobacci · Oct 8, 2025

jacobacci said:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32>dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.26100.5074

Image Version: 10.0.26100.6584


Error: 0x800f080c

Feature name SearchEngine-Client-Package is unknown.
A Windows feature name was not recognized.
Use the /Get-Features option to find the name of the feature in the image and try the command again.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log

The issue seems to have been that I used the commands in a batch file. Using them in an elevated PowerShell7 box (without any quotes in the command) works reliably.

Windows Search Indexing keeps restarting from scratch after reboot in Windows 11

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Similar threads