Vista (Indexed) Searching of mapped network drive

Take a look at this page.  It looks like it could be relevant to your issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918996

That helped...I have now selected the mapped drive for indexing.  I would like to turn on the indexing now.  The instructions (kb/918996) say "You right-click the Windows Desktop Search icon in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar, and the you click INDEX NOW."  I can't seem to find any such Windows Desktop Search icon.  How do I know what's actually been indexed?  

thanks,
darin

It looks like they are refering to XP when they talk about the notification icon.

Try going to the control panel again and looking under Indexing Options.  Is there more showing there now?

It also says that indexing will happen when the pc is idle.  If that's the case, you should be indexed now, assuming you left your pc on overnight.

I did leave my PC on overnight so you would think the mapped network drive would be indexed by now. I went to Indexing Options and the mapped network drive is still showing (and still selected).  However, when I click on the Windows pearl in the lower left and then start typing a value to search, it still finds nothing.  If I hit return so it searches "everywhere", it opens up a browser and shows a couple files that are relevant but doesn't show ALL of them (there should be 150 hits on the search I'm doing).  The "search everywhere" feature is also VERY slow compared to the old XP search "companion".  Thoughts?  It seems like there ought to be a way to know if the computer is done indexing everything that's been selected in the Indexing Options utility.

thanks!
darin

I opened a vista VM and followed the KB instructions myself.  Here's what I found.

When I download the update, there is a new tab under "Indexing Options>Advanced Options" called "Add UNC Location.

When I go to that tab, I can ad a UNC path to a network share.  I can't directly put in the mapped drive letter.

After Doing this the UNC shows up in the "Included Locations" of the Indexing Options.

I think this is how far you got.  Right?

What I noticed were two things.  

First, in the grey space above the "Included Locations" list, there is a number that says "1,496 items indexed".  This number was "496 items indexed" before I added the UNC.  It took a while to get to that number and I could see it growing as I watched it.

Second, if you click on advanced again, the first tab "Index Settings" has and option to rebuild your index.  If you're not indexing properly, try rebuilding the index.

Finally, typing the name of a known file on the share doesn't display it in the start menu when I search.  If I hit enter however, it does show up in the "Search Everywhere" window and shows the location as the UNC properly.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Roland

Hi Roland,
I can see my mapped drive now in the "Included Locations" of the Indexing Options.  I can also see that it's indexed 503,040 items, suggesting that it has indexed everything on the server (I can't be sure though because I don't know how many files are on the server and other locations that were in the Included Locations).  However, when I searched "Everywhere" I simply got a message that "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage".  Similar to your results, I get nothing in the start menu when I search for a known file on the share.

I then went to the "Add UNC Location" tab in the "Indexing Options>Advanced Options" and added the mapped drive.  I then selected "Rebuild Index".  I'm going to let that go over the weekend and see what happens.  I'll post results as soon as I know anything.

Thanks for the help!
darin

The Indexing Options utility now reports that the "indexing is complete".  I ran a search for a known file on the share and "searched everywhere".  Internet Explorer opens up and I get the same error message ("...cannot display webpage").

I guess I'm not convinced that the Windows Desktop Search is installed/working properly.  

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Darin

Hmm, I'm not suse why internet explorer is giving you an error.  When I select "Search Everywhere" on mine, it opens in a windows explorer view.  Let me see what else I can find.

Does anyone know if there's any 3rd party software out there to do this?  I really don't need the indexing, I just need the old XP style search that allows me to pick a folder to search.  This Vista search is a royal pain!

thanks,
darin

To pick a folder to search in Vista and Win7, your just supposed to navigate to it via "computer" and type your query in the box at the top right corner.  There are more options available once you start typing.

You may get a message that says indexed searches will be faster but it will still search it and show the progress in the address bar above.

When I do that, it gives me "NO results found", even when searching a known file on the mapped drive.  I also get the message that says indexed searches will be faster.  The search is actually pretty fast.

Thoughts???

thanks,
Darin

Roland,

Please check out this link: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/archive/b/windowsvista/archive/2007/05/09/advanced-search-techniques.aspx

This doesn't look good!  I'm currently checking out some of the 3rd party options.  That seems to be the most likely solution at this point.

darin

I found some info on other sites that were talking about similar issues.  Try "un-indexing" your mapped drive then try the normal search from the explorer view.

per:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistadesktopui/thread/95e14d56-7e96-4ed6-bb88-50be368dff0c

Please cancel this request.  I would like to accept my last post as the solution.

Highly recommend Agent Ransack!