Is there a way to get Windows 7 to index shared network drives?

Question

I was able to do this in Windows XP Search and using something like Copernicus.

I don't see any way to do this with Windows 7 (other than making it available offline which means that all that data will be duplicated on my local drive.

What I've tried : I read elsewhere in the Windows 7 Help that you need to make sure the networked drive is indexed by it's O/S. So this network drive is on our Server (XP Pro, SP3) so I've installed Windows Search 4.0 and set it to indexing that drive.

I have another XP machine which is already indexed and Windows 7 still wouldn't let me add that drive to a Library (to get it indexed) because it's not indexed. So I'm not hopeful that the above solution will work.

Answer 1

Go to the search settings. (Open the Control Panel, click "Indexing Options")

Open "Advanced Options" and choose "Add UNC Location"

Answer 2

Posting because after all these years this is still a relevant problem (often because people want to add shares to libraries--which require indexing). Answers from sevenforums.com and social.technet.microsoft.com include:

• The add UNC patch for indexing shares works, though initially indexing a share seems to be slow. While the patch seems to work on windows 7 32bit, there is no 64 bit solution.
• Make available offline is not a practical solution.
• Use a 3rd party indexer such as X1 search, archivarius, Isys Search or Copernic.
• Adding network shares to a library via WMP seems to also index them (unverified). It requires changing the location of a symbolic link e.g. 'my documents' to a network location, then adding that location to a library within WMP, WMP will index the share.

Answer 3

You need to download an add-on for Windows, but this is only for Windows 7 32-bit; it doesn't work with 64-bit.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3383

This will enable the Add UNC Location option you seek.

Answer 4

This is what I just did ... in the folder you want to index click Organize/Folder and Search Options. Click "Always search file names and contents (this might take several minutes)". This effectively indexes the folder to allow fast searches. Works for my needs anyway.

Answer 5

Windows 7 does not like to index networked drives, but there is a way around this.

How to Add a non-indexed Network Share as a library

1. Create a folder on your hard drive for shares. i.e. c:\share
2. Create another folder in the above share. i.e. c:\share\docs
3. In Windows Explorer, right click on Libraries and select New > Library. Link the Library to this folder.
4. Delete the folder.
5. Use the mklink in an elevated command prompt to make a symbolic link. Name the link the same as the folder you created above. i.e - mklink /d c:\share\docs \\server\docs
6. Done.

Now you have non-indexed UNC path as a library. Note that if you want to add the network path to an existing library, you can do that as well. Just modify the 3rd step by right clicking on an existing library and choosing Properties.