Microsoft Improves Windows Search Indexer With Help From Insider Feedback

Sure, features like Timeline, Sets, Cortana and Windows Hello are the most attractive pieces of Windows 10 to play with, but the Windows team still needs help testing the installation of operating systems, such as the Windows Indexer.

For those who scratch their heads at the moment, the Windows indexer is the machine behind the organization in File Explorer. While many of us can randomly throw files into folders and then folders into other folders and then splash those folders on our home screen, the Windows Indexer tool works tirelessly to tag and organize the elements so they can surface with Windows Search.

The whole process, like most things, has its own drawbacks and disadvantages, since it uses a fusion technique to optimize file queries.

•     As Indexer moves from one folder to another, query speeds decrease. When Indexer detects that query speeds may be decreasing, it merges indexes to increase performance. A fully merged index yields results up to 10 times faster than a non-combined index.
•     But there is a catch: mergers require a lot of CPU, which in turn consumes the battery. The more files you have, the greater the energy consumption. In fact, the biggest complaint we heard from Insiders was that the Indexer uses too much battery.

As with most things in Windows 10, the Windows team is looking to optimize the Windows indexer experience, even in milliseconds, so they were excited to have had Insiders help with the project.

Perhaps, unbeknownst to many, the Insiders have been using the new accelerated version of the Windows Indexer fusion technique. According to the Windows team, the idea was simple, reduce the number of mergers and see how it improved battery life without affecting the speed of the process.

•     Little by little the data began to arrive. What we saw on our screens was incredible: despite the fall of the threshold, the query speeds were not modified. Even more surprising: our heavier users got up to 10 minutes of additional battery life with the threshold change.
•     The test ran for 6 weeks last summer and, during that time, we gathered data from more than 10,000 Insiders. The data gave us all the support we needed to drive the change in our production constructions. We also used the tests to validate a number of other indexer improvements: a 40% reduction in the amount of processing required to index heavy text files, the addition of code to smooth spikey CPU usage, and dozens of solutions for Avoid cases where the index is damaged and needs to be repaired.

Thanks to the large number of Windows Insiders that tested several versions of Windows 10, all users of the Windows 10 Face Maker Update now benefit from an optimized Windows Search experience.

The Windows team took the time to thank Insiders on their Windows Insider blog and explain the whole process from conception to launch a few months ago.

We should continue to see this kind of subtle evidence and its implementation move to other aspects of Windows 10 since all operating systems are ticketed by versions of consecutive updates.