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Hello
I have upgraded to Windows 11 Pro on two different laptops, and both have the same issue with indexing. It is painfully slow and then usually resets itself after a couple of weeks.
Both PCs are high-end laptops with Core i9 mobile CPUs (1 x 6 core and the other 8 core). Both run 2 x NVMe 1TB drives. Both have 64GB RAM.
Both run MS Office and I use Outlook for email connected to same IMAP accounts on both. My docs, pics, music and work-related files are all stored on OneDrive and accessed from both PCs (OneDrive is set to keep local copies on both PCs for fast access).
Windows is being asked to index around 250,000 files and 80,000 emails and calendar appts. Windows 10 used to accomplish this task in 6-8 hours max.
Windows 11 takes nearly two days just to index the emails. It can take up to three weeks to index the lot and then some folders simply refuse to be indexed. Then, after a couple more weeks it will eventually lose the lot and indexing has to start from scratch again (on both PCs)
I have tried:
Disabling backoff via registry so indexing never pauses
Only adding one location at a time to let it slowly build up (e.g., add only Outlook and when that finishes add a folder)
Rebuilding the index
Storing the index in different location
Search and Indexing Trouble-shooter
Nothing fixes the issue
Any help appreciated.
Cheers
Mick
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I deleted the entries under that registry key several weeks ago and didn't notice any difference to anything else, except indexing started happening at high speed. I looked at it again about a week ago and a huge number of entries had reappeared under that key. I deleted them all again with no apparent ill effects. But I haven't found any clues as to what they do ... ?
I personally haven't had any issues personally, though I did back up the entire key first with Regedit. From once having waiting 1 hour for 4 files to be indexed, and having had Windows Search taking 10% of my CPU for months, I was so happy that 80,000 PC and Outlook files were indexed in minutes.
Are there any downsides to deleting the keys under PluginResourceData? Does anyone know what these keys do?
When I say it is a fix by Microsoft. I might have been too generous. What I meant is that it seems like it is a manual fix that Microsoft support, though it's revelation was a long time coming judging by this thread. What MS should do is include a check for a oversized or incorrectly configured HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\PluginResourceData key and apply an autofix in the troubleshooting wizard. Like another person, I did once have a well indexed PC, then after an update, suddenly 70.000 things needing indexing. I am hoping that either I do not have that problem or if I do, deleting this key will massively speed up the re-indexing.
Hi SimonAJenkins,
excellent.
why do you say it's a fix by microsoft? is there a fix?
In addition, I noticed that the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\PluginResourceData appears from time to time (as example after re-indexing outlook)
seems that we just have to delete it again from registry it indexing speeds up again.
like a morning routine to kill this key :-)
Thank you all for this thread.
take care
V
