However, there is a nifty and lesser-known feature in Windows XP known as the Indexing Service, which can index all files on your computer and make searching for files a whole new experience. We take a look here at how to implement the Indexing method.
Step 1. Open It Up
Go to Start > Search > For Files or Folders. The Search Companion will open.
Step 2. Enable Indexing
In the Search Companion, click on ‘Change preferences’. In the next window, click on ‘With Indexing Service (for faster local searches)’. Now click on ‘Yes, enable Indexing Service’.
Use the Indexing Service to search better
Step 3. Customise It
If you wish to customise the folders to be indexed, click on ‘Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced)’. In the Indexing Service window that opens, double-click ‘System’. Double-click ‘Directories’. Now, the folders being indexed will be listed. You can remove a folder from the list by clicking on the folder and pressing [Delete]. To add a folder, click on ‘Action’, then on ‘New’, and then on ‘Directory’. Enter the name of the folder to index, and click OK.
The indexing process will begin. It might take several hours to complete, but it takes place in the background. Once the files have been indexed, you will notice a vast improvement in the speed at which search results are achieved. Just type the information about the required file in the ‘A word or phrase in the file’ box-the indexed files can be searched on the basis of this information using certain prefixes. For example, ‘@filename wash’ will display all filenames that have the word ‘wash’ in them, whereas ‘!wash’ will find files that have the word ‘wash’ somewhere in them.
| How it Works |
| The Windows Indexing Service uses a document filter that parses through a document, extracts text and properties and passes it on to the indexer. This process is known as indexing. The index ed files’ information ,such as the file name,another name,keywords,size,etc.. is stored in the catalog file. |
You can also use advanced search features: for example, adding ‘*’ (an asterisk) to the end of ‘wash’, as in ‘wash*’, will search for other words such as ‘washer’ or ‘washing’. Boolean operators, too, are supported.
Advance Indexing Service settings
Double-click directories to see which folder are being indexed
Add the directory for indexing
You can also search for documents based on properties. For example, specifying ‘@DocLastAuthor = Mahesh’ will search for documents most recently edited by someone called ‘Mahesh’. Specifying ‘@DocWordCount = 500’ will search for documents whose word count is 500. For more information about such properties, refer to the ‘is.chm’ file in the Help folder in your Windows directory. The file is usually C:WindowsHelpis.chm.
| If you are searching for | Query language term | What it means | What it searches for |
| Two terms in the same document | gold & coin | gold AND coin | Documents with both the words ‘gold’ and ‘coin’ |
| Either of two terms in a document | gold | coin | gold OR coin | Documents with either of the words ‘gold’ and ‘coin’ |
| One term without a second term being present | gold & ! coin | gold AND NOT coin | Documents with the word ‘gold’ but not the word ‘coin’ |
| Documents not matching a property value | ! @size = 300 | NOT {prop name=size} = 300 | Documents that are not 300 bytes large |
| Two terms that are close together in the same document | gold ~ coin | gold NEAR coin | Documents with the word ‘gold’ following or preceding ‘coin’ |
| Either of two terms, and not two other terms if they are close together | gold | coin &! (leather~bag) | gold OR coin AND NOT (leather NEAR bag) | Documents with the word ‘gold’ or ‘coin’, and not with the words ‘leather’ and ‘bag’ if the latter are within 50 words of each other |