Q. How can I configure which locations are indexed in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2?

A. The easiest way to access the Indexing options for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is to type Indexing in the Search field on the Start bar. This will bring up the Indexing Options Control Panel applet. You can also access the applet directly from Control Panel.

In the applet, you can modify the locations that are indexed and via the Advanced button. You can set which types of files are indexed and where the indexing information is stored, as shown here.

By default, the search database is located at C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearchDataApplicationsWindows and the main content is in the file Windows.edb. Depending on the amount of data being indexed, the file may be large (mine was 300MB to index around 40GB of data).

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