Windows Indexing Service

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Windows indexing service allows instant searching of PCs and corporate networks. It is an operating system level service that maintains an index of most of the files on a computer and updates them without user intervention.

[edit] History

The first incarnation of the indexing service was shipped in August 1996 as a content search system for Microsoft's web server software, Internet Information Services. Its origins, however, date further back to Microsoft's Cairo operating system project, with the component serving as the Content Indexer for the Object File System. Cairo was eventually shelved, and with it OFS, but the content indexing capabilities would go on to be included as a standard component of later Windows desktop and server operating systems, starting with Windows 2000.

In Windows Vista, the content indexer was replaced with the Windows Search indexer which is enabled by default. The old context indexer service is still included with Vista but is not installed or running by default.

[edit] Search interfaces

Once the indexing service has been turned on and has built its index (which can take hours), the index can be searched in a number of ways.

The search option available from the Start Menu will use the indexing service if it is enabled. Queries can also be performed using the Indexing Service Query Form in the Computer Management application.