Windows 7 Search

[anything I don't mind]

Is it possible to search in windows 7 without indexing ?

I thought that i had all the indexing options off but inside program and features, i went to 'turn windows features on or off' and windows search is turned on, but it says indexing on the tooltip. If i turn off windows search then all the search functionality is lost. I am not able to search. But if i leave the windows search on. I find that it indexes all my hard drives even though i have the indexing service off and i have disabled it on all the drives. If the windows search indexes my hds without the indexing service and i have not specified indexing on any folders. What is the point of the indexing service and the ability to select folders ?

 

[theheyes]

Yes, it will just take longer. The Windows Search service (searchindexer.exe) needs to be running to perform searches. Indexing is a function of that service, which for all intents and purposes can be disabled by removing all the folders from the indexing options. The names are a little misleading.

 

[anything I don't mind]

i know i can disable indexing and still have search functionality.

my question is if i have no folders defined in the indexing options in control panel, but yet it still indexes all my hard drives, so the question is, what is the use of being able to specify the index folders if it is just going to index everything anyway. There must be some other purpose for the indexing options.