How do I add a network drive to an index in Windows 7?

The easiest way to add a folder to the index is to simply add the folder to a library. Choose Start→Documents (or Music or whatever), click the Library Locations link in the upper-right corner, and add the folder. The folder you add can be on your PC or on the network.

Can Windows 7 Search Network shares?

If you want to search items on network shares, you should map this network share on your PC, then right click the mapped network share, choose “Always Available offline”. Thus you can search on network shares.

How to add network folders to Windows Search index?

Now when you go to computer, the mapped drive should be listed. Now right-click on the network drive and click on Properties. At the bottom, make sure to check the Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties. Once you do this, the new files will be scanned and included in the Windows 10 search.

Can a NAS be added to the local search index?

Note: Technically speaking, the Windows client will not add a network location to the local search index. Instead, it will pass that search on to the server and the server will perform a search using its index. If you are trying to search a NAS device, it will perform the search in real-time, so the results will take some time to appear.

How does search indexing work in Windows 7?

Similarly, Windows has an indexing mechanism that speeds up searching of files in the system. Instead of going through each drive and directory, Windows simply searches for the associated index and maps the real location of the file.

How do I get Windows 7 to index a network mapped drive?

If the network folder you’re trying to include is stored on a computer that’s running an older version of Windows, you might be able to make it compatible with Windows 7 libraries by installing Windows Search 4.0 on the computer, and then indexing it. I was able to get this to work in another manor.