Will not Index the Documents folder

F

fbernaus

New Member
I've been surfing the web for ages and tried many fixes I've been reading, including this one, to address my specific problem. Yours is a GREAT tutorial, by the way. But it does not work for me :cry:

My problem is that the Vista search box won't find ANY file under my Documents folder. I have selected "index this folder" under the properties of the folder but it won't work. If I go to control panel the only folder that is included is "Users", but does this mean "c:\users" or not? I have no clue! if I try to manually add a folder from this control panel / indexing window I can not navigate to "c:\users\my_user_name\documents" folder because it does not show up as you can see on this screen capture! what the hell is going on?

I am already thinking of reinstalling the whole system but I'd like to know how I went into this situation or else I risk doing the same again.

Thank you a lot to whoever replies...

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My Computer

System One

Hello Fbernaus, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Since the Documents folder path is not there, use Method Two in this tutorial to check to make sure that the Documents (Personal) folder has the default entry of %USERPROFILE%\Documents in the registry. You can use the download (step 2) for the Documents folder to make it even easier to do.

Afterwards, see if you can add the C:\Users\(user name)\Documents folder to the index, if it is not already added now.

Hope this helps,
Shawn
Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Brink said:
Hello Fbernaus, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Since the Documents folder path is not there, use Method Two in this tutorial to check to make sure that the Documents (Personal) folder has the default entry of %USERPROFILE%\Documents in the registry. You can use the download (step 2) for the Documents folder to make it even easier to do.

Afterwards, see if you can add the C:\Users\(user name)\Documents folder to the index, if it is not already added now.

Hope this helps,
Shawn
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Click to expand...

Thank you a lot Brink for replying and moving this post. Sorry my OS is in Spanish as you can see. I already checked what you are telling me, but everything seems to be right. All personal folders are where they should be, this is what I see under regedit:

regedit.JPG

Moreover, if I open file explorer I can't see "c:\users" under the root folder at c:\

explorer.JPG

but if I click on the "Documents" shortcut under my favorites links then it takes me there, and then I click on the address bar on the top it shows "C:\Users\Fermin\Documents":

documents.JPG

I know the folder is there because I backup it regularly! but why can't I see it even if I have "show hidden files and folders" turned on? I guess something is wicked in my system and that same problem is preventing Windows Search from working correctly.
 

My Computer

System One

How strange. I have not seen the C:\Users folder missing before like this. If it has not been like this for more than 90 days, then you might see if a System Restore using a restore point dated before this problem can fix it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
I was afraid that was the reply I was going to get. No I do not have a restore point available because I've been suffering from this problem for too long. I think what I am going to tell you about Windows Live Photo Gallery will give you more info.

Windows Live Photo Gallery was acting in a very strange way since the day I installed it (it came as a Windows Update or Microsoft just rolled it out as a stand-alone program, I can't remember). It would not show my photos under c:\users\fermin\images and it would complain it had no access to that folder if I tried to manually drag the folders onto the application. So I gave it up because I use Adobe Photoshop Elements and I thought Live Gallery was a crap (even though I could not find any info about this problem googling and so on).

I forgot about this problem (many many months ago) then the first time I really neede to look for a missing document I found out windows search had this problem. I thought both problems were related. Eventually I somehow made Photo Live Gallery work, by unchecking the "read only" atribbute on c:\users\fermin (should it be like that?) but as for Windows Search I had no luck, whatever I tried.

Last I installed Google Desktop Search, hoping I could use this software instead of Microsoft's - the same problem with this one. I believe it relies on Windows Search to properly work.

So the only thing I have to try is reinstall the whole system.
 

My Computer

System One

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