Create a searchable file structure

Windows Search is often held back by the messy file structure on most Windows systems. The user folder is filled with temporary files that are not relevant to the user. To avoid including these file masses, it is best to move your files to a separate partition. As an example:

- C
  - Users
  - Windows
- D
  - Data
    - Pictures
    - Documents
    - Projects
  - Programs

This way there are only a few folders that contain all your files without any clutter (i.e. D:\Data).

Since some programs will put files on your boot partition C and resizing it after the fact is a pain, I’d recommend allocating a generous 250GB plus the size of your RAM for it. The extra space is needed for the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), that saves your memory to your boot drive (unless you disable hibernation). It is usually the same size as your RAM (which you can check at Settings → System → Info).

Index your files

Now we need to tell Window search which folders to search. Ideally, we just specify the folders from the previous step.

• Open Settings
• Navigate to Privacy & security
• Click on Searching Windows
• Select Classic
• Click Customize search locations
• Now choose the folders you want to include in the search (and remove anything else) Now Windows will index the selected folders.

Disable web search

The web search slows Windows Search down considerably and adds often unhelpful results. To disable the web search:

• Open the group policy editor
  • Press Windows key + R
  • Type gpedit.msc
  • Press enter
• Navigate to User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → File Explorer
• Find and open Turn off display of recent search entries in the File Explorer search box
• Select Enabled
• Press OK

Now restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Remove the search bar

The search is available in the start menu that you can open by pressing Windows key. To search, just start typing while the start menu is open. This way you don’t need to move your mouse to search - you can even start programs or open files by pressing Enter.

If this comes naturally to you then you might want to remove the now redundant search bar from the taskbar:

• Right-click the taskbar at the bottom of your screen
• Press Taskbar settings
• Expand Taskbar items
• In the Search row select Hide

Further reading

• How to create a partition
• How to move WSL to another partition