So, I'm running Vista, and I frequently use the search function in the start menu to quickly track down files rather than going through all of my folders to find them, or whatever.
For some reason, however, about a week ago it started acting up. I try to search for a file name which I know exists on my computer, but it just leaves "Searching..." at the top continuously and doesn't change. When I click "Search Everywhere" so it opens up a separate window for searching, it tells me that no items match my search, and gives me a notification saying, "Your searches might be slow because the index is running. Click to turn on the index..." I click the notification, tell it to turn on indexing, and go through the confirmation and all, and the notification disappears, but as soon as I type to start searching again the same notification comes up, and the cycle continues. So, for some reason, the index got turned off and refuses to turn back on.
I tried going into "Indexing Options" in Control Panel, where it again tells me that indexing isn't running, and the only option it gives me is to go Advanced Options (the other buttons are grayed out). When I go to Advanced Options, the only option available to me is to Restore Defaults -- again, everything else is grayed out, including the option to rebuild the index.
When I do click Restore Defaults, it gives me a notification that it will do so upon my restarting the computer and it may take a while. However, when I do restart my computer, it starts up normally without doing anything differently and the index is still nonfunctional.
tl;dr: The index won't run, making me unable to search my files.
Does anybody have any idea why the index refuses to run, or any ideas for what I can do to try and fix it?
For some reason, however, about a week ago it started acting up. I try to search for a file name which I know exists on my computer, but it just leaves "Searching..." at the top continuously and doesn't change. When I click "Search Everywhere" so it opens up a separate window for searching, it tells me that no items match my search, and gives me a notification saying, "Your searches might be slow because the index is running. Click to turn on the index..." I click the notification, tell it to turn on indexing, and go through the confirmation and all, and the notification disappears, but as soon as I type to start searching again the same notification comes up, and the cycle continues. So, for some reason, the index got turned off and refuses to turn back on.
I tried going into "Indexing Options" in Control Panel, where it again tells me that indexing isn't running, and the only option it gives me is to go Advanced Options (the other buttons are grayed out). When I go to Advanced Options, the only option available to me is to Restore Defaults -- again, everything else is grayed out, including the option to rebuild the index.
When I do click Restore Defaults, it gives me a notification that it will do so upon my restarting the computer and it may take a while. However, when I do restart my computer, it starts up normally without doing anything differently and the index is still nonfunctional.
tl;dr: The index won't run, making me unable to search my files.
Does anybody have any idea why the index refuses to run, or any ideas for what I can do to try and fix it?
