Do I have to index my entire C drive for Windows to find just one single file?

Question

I want to find a file named jucheck.exe because Windows keeps asking me for permission to run this program. I understand that this is Java component that checks for new updates. But nevertheless, I want to find it!

So I press Win + E to bring up the Explorer and I dive into my C drive. I then type in the search string "jucheck.exe" and let it search my entire C drive for this file. But it finishes in seconds and tells me something about search index, something about "it will take long time" or whatever. I don't really care how long time it takes, just do it!

So how does this work then, does Windows only look for files that are indexed by default? How do you force it search for an entire disk drive, without having to index every single file?

I just want to find this file on this occasion, and maybe I will never ever again look for an EXE file, so for this reason I obviously don't want to index over 1 TB worth of files just for the search function to work on this single occasion.

So I ended up using an elevated CMD prompt instead.

cd /
dir /s jucheck.exe

It found the file in the following locations:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS6\JVM\bin

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4.6\jre\bin

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update

I am essentially looking for a more simple and smooth way to find files in Windows for the future use. I did try the Windows finder, or whatever you want to call it. You bring it up with Win + F. Here you can specify wheteher you want Windows to search the entire computer, individual disk drives or only in the index. I chose my C drive but it still didn't find anything.

From the looks of it I would say that I need to tell Windows to index my entire C drive and clog it up with all kinds of junk files, just so that I can do a file search for a single file on one single occasion in like months! Really? Is this how this thing works?

I am talking about Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

Answer 1

When you do a search in a location it will, by default, search in indexed locations but you should have an option under "Advanced Search" to change to non-indexed locations.

As you can see the "Advanced Search" Options should be on the right hand side and I'm pretty sure you just need to check the "Include non-indexed, hidden and system files" check box to get it to seach everywhere.

You'll probably get a warning in the main window about searching non-indexed locations being slow which you can safely ignore.

Answer 2

I disabled indexing a long time ago. I know where my files are so I rarely ever use the search function on Windows. Usually when I'm looking for a process native to windows, I first check system32. If it's not there, a Google-search might be worth your time. If it's not a windows process, I'd browse to Program Files and search it there. If I really can't find it, I'll just have to wait a minute or so for the full search to end.

If you'd really like indexing on your computer, but only on certain directories, you can do that too. It'll work the same way it does when applying to drives:

1. Browse to the directory you want to index
2. Right Mouse Buttom > Properties
3. Click Advanced
4. Enable indexing, click OK
5. Click Apply, Windows will ask you whether to apply it to this directory only or recursively. Check recursive.

It might run into some errors while applying the new settings to the files in this directory, usually because the file is protected or currently in use. Ignore all, they will not be indexed. Of course it helps to close as many programs as you can before doing this.

Answer 3

dir /s c:\jucheck.exe

On a side note if you want to disable the update (what I did) go into Control Panel.

You should be able to find the Java(TM) Control Panel. Run it. There is an update tab. Uncheck "check updates automatically" and click OK.

It might yell at you, but who cares. Then just manually update your Java by going in there every now and then. Updates keep your java is important for security reasons. So disable updates at your own risk.