Vista Instant Search has stopped showing files

When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to show me
files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since there
is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for a
place to tweak it.

How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?

I think someone will address this better in more detail but a Service called
Windows Search may have been Stopped or even Disabled. There is suppose to
be a way to selectively turn these search features on or off too but I was
unable to find that feature and I think I would like to know where it is. I
recently elected to turn Indexing and/or Windows Search off. Can I turn
'on' file searching but still leave Indexing turned off? The 'ms' longer
time lost to do a search isn't an issue right now for me but the loss of the
file search functionality pretty much is. Even with Indexing and Search
disabled this search function still finds Programs but I think that is about
it. Also, for me at least, I'm using Vista 64-bit Ultimate. Thank you.
PS., Also for me I am trying to keep Vista running as fast as possible with
only essential resources running. I haven't figured this all out yet so if
you have any suggestions or places to point to I would appreciate it.

"devistated" <> wrote in message
news:0C193A9B-524A-489C-ADA6-...
> When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to show
> me
> files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
> things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
> there
> is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for a
> place to tweak it.
>
> How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?

Hi,

Control Panel/Indexing options/Advanced, click on 'restore defaults'.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"devistated" <> wrote in message
news:0C193A9B-524A-489C-ADA6-...
> When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to show
> me
> files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
> things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
> there
> is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for a
> place to tweak it.
>
> How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?

That seemed like a good idea. I clicked RESTORE DEFAULTS and accepted that it
would rebuild the entire index. But now that it has completely rebuilt the
index (117,000+ entries), the index still does not show any files when I
search on anything. If I type words that I know for certain are in Word
documents or Excel spreadsheets or other files, it either comes back saying
it found nothing or else it gives me e-mail messages that happened to have
those words. But it never finds anything in the many files on my hard drive.

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Control Panel/Indexing options/Advanced, click on 'restore defaults'.

> "devistated" <> wrote
> > When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to show
> > me
> > files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
> > things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
> > there
> > is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for a
> > place to tweak it.
> >
> > How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?
>
>

Hi,

In that same dialog, under file types, make sure that file extension is
enabled and that it is set to include content.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"devistated" <> wrote in message
news:EDB656B2-603B-4DC4-9272-...
> That seemed like a good idea. I clicked RESTORE DEFAULTS and accepted that
> it
> would rebuild the entire index. But now that it has completely rebuilt the
> index (117,000+ entries), the index still does not show any files when I
> search on anything. If I type words that I know for certain are in Word
> documents or Excel spreadsheets or other files, it either comes back
> saying
> it found nothing or else it gives me e-mail messages that happened to have
> those words. But it never finds anything in the many files on my hard
> drive.
>
> "Rick Rogers" wrote:
>
>> Control Panel/Indexing options/Advanced, click on 'restore defaults'.
>
>> "devistated" <> wrote
>> > When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to
>> > show
>> > me
>> > files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
>> > things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
>> > there
>> > is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for
>> > a
>> > place to tweak it.
>> >
>> > How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?
>>
>>

DOC, XLS and XLSX are all checked and all are set to index both file
properties and contents. But if the file contents are being indexed, they are
not being displayed by Instant Search when I search on words that are in the
files.

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> In that same dialog, under file types, make sure that file extension is
> enabled and that it is set to include content.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
> My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
>
> "devistated" <> wrote in message
> news:EDB656B2-603B-4DC4-9272-...
> > That seemed like a good idea. I clicked RESTORE DEFAULTS and accepted that
> > it
> > would rebuild the entire index. But now that it has completely rebuilt the
> > index (117,000+ entries), the index still does not show any files when I
> > search on anything. If I type words that I know for certain are in Word
> > documents or Excel spreadsheets or other files, it either comes back
> > saying
> > it found nothing or else it gives me e-mail messages that happened to have
> > those words. But it never finds anything in the many files on my hard
> > drive.
> >
> > "Rick Rogers" wrote:
> >
> >> Control Panel/Indexing options/Advanced, click on 'restore defaults'.
> >
> >> "devistated" <> wrote
> >> > When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to
> >> > show
> >> > me
> >> > files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
> >> > things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
> >> > there
> >> > is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for
> >> > a
> >> > place to tweak it.
> >> >
> >> > How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?
> >>
> >>
>
>

Windows Search service is "Running" on my PC. Go to the classic view of
Control Panel and choose Administrative Tools and either Services or System
Configuration (which then requires that you choose the Services tab). So the
problem that I am having is not because the Windows Search service is not
running.

"Susan" wrote:

> I think someone will address this better in more detail but a Service called
> Windows Search may have been Stopped or even Disabled. There is suppose to
> be a way to selectively turn these search features on or off too but I was
> unable to find that feature and I think I would like to know where it is. I
> recently elected to turn Indexing and/or Windows Search off. Can I turn
> 'on' file searching but still leave Indexing turned off? The 'ms' longer
> time lost to do a search isn't an issue right now for me but the loss of the
> file search functionality pretty much is. Even with Indexing and Search
> disabled this search function still finds Programs but I think that is about
> it. Also, for me at least, I'm using Vista 64-bit Ultimate. Thank you.
> PS., Also for me I am trying to keep Vista running as fast as possible with
> only essential resources running. I haven't figured this all out yet so if
> you have any suggestions or places to point to I would appreciate it.
>
> "devistated" <> wrote in message
> news:0C193A9B-524A-489C-ADA6-...
> > When I use the Vista Instant Search from the start menu, it used to show
> > me
> > files and e-mails (labeled as "communications") and programs and other
> > things. But for some reason, it is no longer showing any files. Since
> > there
> > is no Help feature for it, I have no idea how to even begin to look for a
> > place to tweak it.
> >
> > How can I get Vista's Instant Search to start showing files once again?
>
>