How to make Windows 10’s search lightning fast and more useful

[Batu69]

I like the search in Windows 10 even though I had to tweak it quite a bit to make it behave the way I want it to and am running into search not working issues from time to time.

One thing that I like about it in particular is that it highlights the main results better. This is a small change that puts the focus on the first result and since search gets it right most of the time, it is easier to recognize it and select it with a tap on the enter key.

Anyway, the search is not optimized for speed by default which can be largely attributed to it trying to find web results as well as local results.

Since I don't consider web results useful at all, I have disabled the feature completely. If I want to search for something on the Web, I do so using a web browser which is open 24/7 anyway.

The next thing I did was optimize the locations that Windows indexes. The operating system indexes several by default including the complete user folder.

While that may not be as bad as it sounds, you will find many locations in the user folder that you may not want indexed or returned by search. For instance, you may have programming project directories and repositories there with thousands of files and directories, or other larger file collections that you have no interest in being returned by Windows 10's search.

There is also the AppData folder with hundreds of thousands of files, for instance web browser cache and cookies.

When it comes to the list of indexed files, it is best to only include locations that you want results to be returned from.

If you don't use Internet Explorer for instance, you may not want Internet Explorer favorites to be returned, ever. That's however one of the default locations included automatically by search indexing.

Manage search Indexing Options on Windows 10