SOLVED: How To Reduce The Size of Windows Search Index File Windows.edb

As you can see in the screenshot below we have a client with a small seed drive of just 64 GB that was almost completely out of space. The image shows that they had 2.6 GB of space free but we took that after we had cleared 1.5 GB of garbage files. That took the pressure off so that the server was unlikely to crash but most certainly did not solve the problem.

We then used the free TreeSize utility (yes, we have a very old portable version that was completely free, even for corporate use, which we have posted HERE) and were shocked to find that the real culprit was the Windows Search Index database file, Windows.edb:

That got us to trying to figure out how to shrink the Windows.edb index file. There are several solutions to this but the easiest and fastest is simply to delete it and recreate it, But you don’t want to just right click on the file and click delete. That will not work because the file is in use and it would screw up your index. If you stop the service first and then deleted it here is how to properly delete and rebuild the Windows.edb:

1. Click the START button and type INDEXING OPTIONS
   • … or you can click START, then the SETTINGS cog icon > in the Search bar at the top type > Searching Windows
2. Click the ADVANCED button on the Search Indexer Settings
3. Click the REBUILD button

This process will delete the old Windows.edb file and create a new one, but it will take a minute before you see much happen. Within a couple of minutes the items in INDEX THESE LOCATIONS will clear and the entire contents of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows folder will be magically deleted. A moment or two later, you will see that folder start to populate with new files and INDEX THESE LOCATIONS return its previous configuration.

Three other ways of dealing with a large Windows.edb file are to defragment it or move it to a different drive:

1 – Defragment the Windows.edb To Reduce Its Size:

1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator
2. Run the following commands:
   sc config wsearch start=disabled
net stop wsearch
esentutl.exe /d
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
sc config wsearch start=delayed-auto
net start wsearch

This will perform an offline defragmentation of the Windows.edb file2.

2 – Modify The Windows.edb Index Location

1. Stop the WINDOWS SEARCH Service
2. Click the START button and type INDEXING OPTIONS
   • … or you can click START, then the SETTINGS cog icon > in the Search bar at the top type > Searching Windows
3. Click the ADVANCED button on the Search Indexer Settings
4. Set the index to a different location
5. Startthe WINDOWS SEARCH Service

3 – Reducing The Content Being Indexed

1. Stop the WINDOWS SEARCH Service
2. Click the START button and type INDEXING OPTIONS
   • … or you can click START, then the SETTINGS cog icon > in the Search bar at the top type > Searching Windows
3. Click the MODIFY button on the Search Indexer Settings
4. Uncheck items you do not want / need to have indexed

Remember that Windows does NOT need the Windows Search Index to perform searches. That service simply makes searches dramatically faster.