By default, Windows only indexes your library folders like Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc. This makes the search slower and limited. After all, you cannot search for your files in other drives or folders. To improve Windows search, you must enable the Enhanced search mode.
Once enabled, Windows indexes the entire hard disk. That way, you can search for any files directly from the Start menu & File Explorer and find them instantly. Enhanced search is available in both Windows 10 & 11. In this tutorial, we’ll show the steps to enable enhanced search on Windows 10 & 11. Let’s get started.
How to Enable Enhanced Search on Windows 10 & 11
On Windows 10
1. Press “Windows Key + I” to open the Settings app.
2. In the Settings app, go to the “Search → Searching Windows” page.
3. On the right page, select the “Enhanced Mode” option under “Find my Files”.
On Windows 11
1. Open Settings by pressing Windows key + I.
2. Navigate to the Privacy & Security tab on the sidebar.
3. Click on the Search Windows option on the right panel.
4. Select the Enhanced option under the Find My Files section.
As soon as you turn on the Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer, Windows will start the indexing process. Depending on the power settings, number of files, and the hard drive size, the full indexing will take some time to complete. So, sit back and wait until the indexing is complete. The full indexing is a one-time process and is pretty resource-intensive in terms of hard disk usage.
That being said, according to Microsoft, it will take about 15 minutes to start seeing the results in the Start menu search after enabling the Enhanced Mode.
Of course, after the one-time indexing is complete, Windows will add or remove indexes as you add, modify, or remove files. It will not re-index the entire hard drive every time there is a change.
How to Disable Enhanced Search on Windows 10 & 11
To turn off enhanced search, all you have to do is select the classic mode and you are good to go. Here’s how to do it.
On Windows 10
1. Open Settings.
2. Navigate to the Search > Searching Windows page.
3. Select Classic under the File My Files section.
Of course, you still search for programs and applications via the Start menu.
On Windows 11
1. Right-click on the Start icon and select Settings.
2. Navigate to the Privacy & Security> Searching Windows page.
3. Select Classic from the Find My Files section.
Alternatively, you can also disable the Windows search index service to completely disable the Windows search function.
How to Exclude Folders from the Search Index on Windows 10 & 11
If you have specific folders that you don’t want Windows to index and appear in the search results, you can exclude them manually. Here’s how:
Windows 10
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to the “Search → Searching Windows” page.
3. On the right page, scroll down and click on the “Add an excluded folder” button.
4. Select the folder you want to exclude and click “Select Folder“.
Windows 11
1. Right-click on the Start icon and select Settings.
2. Navigate to the Privacy & Security> Searching Windows page.
3. Click the Add an Excluded Folder button on the right page.
4. Select the folder you want to exclude and click Select Folder to add it to the exclude list.
Once the folder is added to the exclude list, Windows will not index that specific folder and files in it. As a result, those files will not appear in the Start menu and File Explorer search.
And there you have it! It’s that simple to enable or disable enhanced mode on Windows 10 & 11. If you are stuck or need help, comment below and we’ll help. If you like this article, check out sticky notes keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation.
Nice to know MS finally made it work; for years I have been using the outstanding SearchMyFiles from NirSoft, https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html and still highly recommend it as the best of the 10-20 search tools I have tried out of many in the category. Of it’s many great features is that is still maintained and bugs killed several times per year.