how to stop Win7 from searching a specific folder

[slim150]

Hi. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 finally from XP. One of its neat features is the very inclusive search that you can find in the top right of any file explorer window.

Is there anyway to prevent this search from traversing to a specific folder and subfolders? I have tried a lot of things. Currently the folder is hidden but I have the show hidden folders option on (so its a light color folder). The search result still brings up hidden files.

[7th]

Have you tried to take a look at the indexing options on control painel?

depending on what you need, you could, for example, put a limit to the list of kind of files indexed on the search... just an idea though

[slim150]

i tried that and it didn't work. i took out the extensions i didn't want to search for and rebuilt the index, but it still found em.

[7th]

i tried that and it didn't work. i took out the extensions i didn't want to search for and rebuilt the index, but it still found em.

as far as I know, leaving an extension out of the index does not mean it won't look for it, it will just take longer to find it.

ok, here is a way you can hide every subfolder and files inside a folder (this means that the search will find the topmost folder but will deny access to any subfolder or file of that folder, not even showing them on the search)... please, don't do this with the files you want to hide, instead, first make some tests since you can mess things easily with this...

- create a folder and inside this folder another file (could be a simple txt, just to test)
- now go to properties of that folder, than go to the security tab
- click the edit button below "Group or user names"
- select "Authenticated Users" and at the list of permissions below, mark the option "List folder contents" as DENY.
- click apply and OK

with that, nobody logged to your computer will be able to open or list (via search) the files inside this folder... NOT EVEN YOU... and how this can be of any help to you? Well, here's the trick...

To get acess back to that folder and its content, you just have to take ownership over it again and just to make life easier, you may add a "take ownership" to your right click context menu so you can gain access to the files again in a fast way. Maybe you already have that but if you don't, go to this website and download the zip file

http://www.blogsdna.com/2173/add-take-ownership-option-in-right-click-context-menu-of-windows-7.htm

or do a google search for "add take ownership option".

That's a lot of text but I hope this solves your problem... see ya ;)

[slim150]

Great Idea... Thanks. That does exactly what I want.

[7th]

Great Idea... Thanks. That does exactly what I want.

:happy: