How can I use Windows Indexing service in Windows server 2012

Question

How can I use Windows Indexing service in Windows server 2012? I had used window indexing in windows server 2003 and windows server 2008. I am unable to find window indexing in window server 2012.

Longitudinal

Answer 1

On Win2008 and 2012, what you want is "Windows Search Service" (note, "Service" -- that is the key word). This is the current version of index server.

Note that when querying windows index server via ADO driver, there are some small differences in the response structure from Win2003 to Win2008+. It is easy, however, to port ADO / SELECT queries from old index server to new Search Server.

NOTE that there is another Microsoft product, called "Search Server" that is a different animal. You prob do not need that one (it is a discrete download). Search Service is part of the Windows server core, and is what you want as the new / current version of what used to be called "index server." (See below)

On Win7/8 desktop OS, this is installed be default (I believe). On server, you have to enable the feature.

Installing this lets you set up what to index, and gives you the ADO driver. We ported an app from Win2003 Index Server to Win2012 Search Service via this path. Very small code changes were needed to the SELECT and the connection string.

Kieffer

Does "Windows Search Service" allow to index shares? – Magdamagdaia

@Magdamagdaia No idea, have never tried. By default, it runs as a local or system account, and won't have access to any network resources. How it will behave as a named account is unknown (in my experience). – Kieffer