Windows 10 search indexing and Find My Files settings

[films&games]

Hi,

I have Find My Files set to “Classic” and Indexing is turned off.

Would it be okay for me to set Find my Files to “Enhanced” and turn on indexing again?

My account is a local/offline account – so I will just be searching my PC.

Would there be any long-time performance issues with my Corsair MP600 m.2 SSD?


Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, please.

Thank you.

 

[ubuysa]

Is this a PCS build? We can only really give detailed hardware advice on PCS builds.

That said, and since this is really a software question; whether you need to set Find My Files to Enhanced depends entirely on how your folder structure is organised. If you set up a logically organised folder structure then you'll always know which folder any given files will be in, making it easy to find them. Searching for files will then be unnecessary.

Setting Find My Files to Enhanced will not have any direct implications on your SSD, that simply controls which folders get searched.

With indexing off it will take quite a long time to find any given files, the whole point of indexing a drive is to make finding files faster. However, turning indexing on means that Windows reads and indexes the drive in the background, on slow HDDs this can have a performance impact. On your M.2 NVMe the indexing process won't have any noticeable performance impact because the drive is so fast, it will increase the number of reads done to the drive but that has no impact on the life of your drive.

The bottom line then is that setting Find My Files to Enhanced and turning on indexing will not shorten the life of your drive, nor should it have any noticeable performance impact either. Whether you need to turn these two features on is a function of how often you have to search for files. As I've said, a sensible and logical folder structure makes the need to search for files redundant.

 

[films&games]

Is this a PCS build? We can only really give detailed hardware advice on PCS builds.

That said, and since this is really a software question; whether you need to set Find My Files to Enhanced depends entirely on how your folder structure is organised. If you set up a logically organised folder structure then you'll always know which folder any given files will be in, making it easy to find them. Searching for files will then be unnecessary.

Setting Find My Files to Enhanced will not have any direct implications on your SSD, that simply controls which folders get searched.

With indexing off it will take quite a long time to find any given files, the whole point of indexing a drive is to make finding files faster. However, turning indexing on means that Windows reads and indexes the drive in the background, on slow HDDs this can have a performance impact. On your M.2 NVMe the indexing process won't have any noticeable performance impact because the drive is so fast, it will increase the number of reads done to the drive but that has no impact on the life of your drive.

The bottom line then is that setting Find My Files to Enhanced and turning on indexing will not shorten the life of your drive, nor should it have any noticeable performance impact either. Whether you need to turn these two features on is a function of how often you have to search for files. As I've said, a sensible and logical folder structure makes the need to search for files redundant.

Hi @ubuysa, My Windows 10 Pro machine is a PCS build, which I have had since early February.

PCS don't seem to stock the Corsair m.2 MP600 Force SSD anymore.

The spec is below.

Case	FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window) Change to: CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive	3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB CORSAIR MP600 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 4950MB/R, 4250MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Change to: CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste	STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting	NONE Change to: 50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking	10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options	MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System	Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language	United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media	Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software	FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus	NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE Change to: BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser	Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Monitor	NONE Change to: IIYAMA G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27"
Warranty	3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)