On Windows 10, when the Windows Search service (a.k.a. Indexing service) is stopped and disabled in Control Panel > Admin Tools > Services, the Search Windows feature (which searches for files and apps on the local computer) does not work very well. To be specific, when I click the search icon on the Taskbar and enter a search term, I often get a message saying "Something went wrong" and no results are shown. For example, when I type "gpedit" or "readme" (I have some text files by this name) or veracrypt (I have a folder by that name) I get the "Something went wrong" message. But other searches such as "msconfig" or "Windows Defender" work OK. The search bar used in File Explorer seems to work OK. On Windows 7, disabling the Windows Search service does not interfere with local file and app searches. The reason I disabled Windows Search service on Win 7, and the reason I wanted to disable it on Win 10, it that it seems to me unnecessary, and wasteful use of system resources. It also might be a security risk, because it indexes the contents of files. But, it would be unhandy to have the local search capability somewhat broken. It seems very odd that some search terms work OK and others don't. Instead of disabling Windows Search service in Control Panel, I tried the following: File Explorer > R-click C: > Properties > General tab > Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties: uncheck > Apply > Apply changes to drive C:\, subfolders and files But, I got an error box "Error Applying Attributes. And error occurred applying attributes to the file: C:\swapfile.sys. The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." I had to click Cancel to get rid of the error boxes. Rebooted. Noticed that "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed . . ." was unchecked, even though I had clicked Cancel. In . . . Admin Tools > Services, I noticed Windows Search service is running. Is Windows Search indexing my files even though the "Allow files . . ." box is unchecked? How can I test to find out if the contents of files is being indexed? Am I right to assume indexing the contents of files might be a security risk? Am I right to be concerned about Windows Search (Indexing) taking up unnecessary system resources?
Issue with the "Allow files . . ." happen to all the computers i tweak since the Win7 era. But if i remember right there's an 'Indexing Options' tool in CP that should to allow you to read which folder is being indexed. Personally i don't use Windows Search i do find it does being a resource hog at times back in the XP days and developed a habit of disabling it.