How Search and Indexing Works in Windows Vista

The underlying architecture and operation of indexing has changed considerably in Windows Vista compared with search capabilities built into earlier versions of Windows. Understanding how search and indexing works in Windows Vista is essential to configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting search and indexing.

Understanding Search Engine Terminology

The following terminology relates to search and indexing as it has been implemented in Windows Vista:

  • Catalog. The system index together with the property cache.

  • Crawl scopes (inclusions and exclusions). Included and excluded paths within a search root. For example, if a user wants to index the D drive but exclude D:\Temp, he would add a Crawl Scope (inclusion) ...

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