J
Jay Libove
Guest
This is a follow-on to my earlier thread:
In that earlier thread I had hypothesized that it was the replacement of a hard disk that had provoked the slowness in Windows desktop search, but now I don't think so. I'm guessing it was some update pushed out by Microsoft in very late 2019, maybe the Windows 10 v1909 update, or maybe some other smaller change.
In summary:
I have a quite powerful desktop workstation that I have had for a couple of years (a Dell Precision T3620, Xeon E3 CPU, 16GB RAM, drive C: is a PCIe-NVM SSD, the search index is on C:, drive F: is a SATA3 magnetic hard disk, about 1TB of actual indexed data is on F: ).
Starting around the end of 2019 (I'm unclear exactly when, maybe just into 2020) Windows desktop Search got very slow on this one machine. (I have several other machines which have similar software configurations on various - all lesser - hardware configurations, on which search continues to perform well).
The symptom is that, upon tapping Start, or clicking on the magnifying glass in the task bar, and typing search text (for Windows to search its index for local files and data), the SearchIndexer.exe process will max out the CPU and responses can take 30-60 seconds to return. Previous to when this problem began, on this same computer, such searches responded in one second more or less - that is to say, basically instantly. (And on all of my other computers, they still do).
If I run the same search using Powershell to query the search index (.. SELECT {stuff} FROM SystemIndex {WHERE conditions}) the results are instant. [I'm actually using a Powershell .ps1 script from the Powershell Gallery as referenced in this other discussion thread directly query the Windows 10 desktop Search Index database? ].
So, the problem is between the Windows Search GUI/ Cortana (embedded in Start/ the Task Bar) and before the query actually reaches the search index (which we see responds immediately).
I have rebuilt the search index, and even gone so far as to completely reinstall Windows (not roll back, not refresh; blank installation). The problem persists. On this computer only.
The ONE difference that I THOUGHT existed between this computer (the most powerful computer I own, the only one where this performance problem exists) and all of my other computers, is that this computer has some of its data on a second hard drive, whereas all of my other computers have only a single drive.
So I added an external USB3-attached hard drive to my notebook computer (in other words, about the slowest possible way to do it), moved my OneDrive (for Business) storage onto that external drive, and re-indexed ... and the searches on my notebook computer remain immediate.
So, discard the theory that the problem is caused by having a second hard drive.
Which leaves me only with the theory that something that Microsoft (or someone) updated, somewhere in late 2019/ early 2020, interacts badly with the Dell Precision T3620 hardware, to make JUST searches performed from the Start menu/ magnifying glass in the Task bar (but not Powershell SELECT queries from the same search index) perform slowly.
By the way, the slowness is variable. Usually it's 30-90 seconds. Today for whatever reason sometimes it has been 10-15 seconds. Still a very real, very disruptive difference from the ~1 second response time that all of my other computers have, and that this same computer had until late 2019/early 2020.
(The one thing that I haven't done yet, because I'm hesitant to add another day or two of wasted time on top of the literally couple of solid weeks of time that this has already cost me, is reinstall v1903, with the network disconnected; disable all automatic updating, re-set up OneDrive, load the files, index, and see if the problem does NOT happen with that older version of software...)
Other information, I have tried with and without linked a Microsoft account to the desktop user, with and without Cortana enabled/ Bing consent, with and without allowing desktop search to run Internet searches... none of those things affect this performance problem. (My normal configuration, shared across all of my other machines, none of which have the performance problem, is to block searches of the Internet from the Start menu/ magnifying class on the Task bar, and also block searches of my Cloud content - because I don't want results in the form OneDrive for Business:{object}, because clicking on those launches handler Office programs which talk to the cloud, which is always slow, compared to the same program opening a local file, and allowing OneDrive to sync the changes in the background).
Has anyone else encountered this issue where searches directly SELECT'ed from the search index are fast, but searches carried out from the Start menu/ magnifying glass in the Task bar are slow? Any fixes?
many thanks,
Jay
More...
In that earlier thread I had hypothesized that it was the replacement of a hard disk that had provoked the slowness in Windows desktop search, but now I don't think so. I'm guessing it was some update pushed out by Microsoft in very late 2019, maybe the Windows 10 v1909 update, or maybe some other smaller change.
In summary:
I have a quite powerful desktop workstation that I have had for a couple of years (a Dell Precision T3620, Xeon E3 CPU, 16GB RAM, drive C: is a PCIe-NVM SSD, the search index is on C:, drive F: is a SATA3 magnetic hard disk, about 1TB of actual indexed data is on F: ).
Starting around the end of 2019 (I'm unclear exactly when, maybe just into 2020) Windows desktop Search got very slow on this one machine. (I have several other machines which have similar software configurations on various - all lesser - hardware configurations, on which search continues to perform well).
The symptom is that, upon tapping Start, or clicking on the magnifying glass in the task bar, and typing search text (for Windows to search its index for local files and data), the SearchIndexer.exe process will max out the CPU and responses can take 30-60 seconds to return. Previous to when this problem began, on this same computer, such searches responded in one second more or less - that is to say, basically instantly. (And on all of my other computers, they still do).
If I run the same search using Powershell to query the search index (.. SELECT {stuff} FROM SystemIndex {WHERE conditions}) the results are instant. [I'm actually using a Powershell .ps1 script from the Powershell Gallery as referenced in this other discussion thread directly query the Windows 10 desktop Search Index database? ].
So, the problem is between the Windows Search GUI/ Cortana (embedded in Start/ the Task Bar) and before the query actually reaches the search index (which we see responds immediately).
I have rebuilt the search index, and even gone so far as to completely reinstall Windows (not roll back, not refresh; blank installation). The problem persists. On this computer only.
The ONE difference that I THOUGHT existed between this computer (the most powerful computer I own, the only one where this performance problem exists) and all of my other computers, is that this computer has some of its data on a second hard drive, whereas all of my other computers have only a single drive.
So I added an external USB3-attached hard drive to my notebook computer (in other words, about the slowest possible way to do it), moved my OneDrive (for Business) storage onto that external drive, and re-indexed ... and the searches on my notebook computer remain immediate.
So, discard the theory that the problem is caused by having a second hard drive.
Which leaves me only with the theory that something that Microsoft (or someone) updated, somewhere in late 2019/ early 2020, interacts badly with the Dell Precision T3620 hardware, to make JUST searches performed from the Start menu/ magnifying glass in the Task bar (but not Powershell SELECT queries from the same search index) perform slowly.
By the way, the slowness is variable. Usually it's 30-90 seconds. Today for whatever reason sometimes it has been 10-15 seconds. Still a very real, very disruptive difference from the ~1 second response time that all of my other computers have, and that this same computer had until late 2019/early 2020.
(The one thing that I haven't done yet, because I'm hesitant to add another day or two of wasted time on top of the literally couple of solid weeks of time that this has already cost me, is reinstall v1903, with the network disconnected; disable all automatic updating, re-set up OneDrive, load the files, index, and see if the problem does NOT happen with that older version of software...)
Other information, I have tried with and without linked a Microsoft account to the desktop user, with and without Cortana enabled/ Bing consent, with and without allowing desktop search to run Internet searches... none of those things affect this performance problem. (My normal configuration, shared across all of my other machines, none of which have the performance problem, is to block searches of the Internet from the Start menu/ magnifying class on the Task bar, and also block searches of my Cloud content - because I don't want results in the form OneDrive for Business:{object}, because clicking on those launches handler Office programs which talk to the cloud, which is always slow, compared to the same program opening a local file, and allowing OneDrive to sync the changes in the background).
Has anyone else encountered this issue where searches directly SELECT'ed from the search index are fast, but searches carried out from the Start menu/ magnifying glass in the Task bar are slow? Any fixes?
many thanks,
Jay
More...
