Windows Vista includes most file types in its Search Index by default. For file types that are not indexed, Search would still work, but will be slower as Windows has to recursively search each folder in your hard disk for the file name or file type that you’re finding.
If you have a custom file type in your PC that you want to add to Windows Search Index for much quicker search, you can do so using Indexing Options.
1. Click Start, Control Panel, System and Maintenance
2. Click Indexing Options.
(Alternately, you can launch this dialog directly by typing Control srchadmin.dll, Indexing Options in Start, Search box.)
3. In the Indexing Options dialog, click the Advanced button.
4. At this point, the User Account Control dialog will popup asking for permissions to continue, since you’re going to modify a system-wide setting. Click Continue when you see the prompt.
4. Click the File Types tab, and then view the list of file types. If the check box that is next to the file name extension is selected, the file type is included in the index. If the check box that is next to the file name extension is not selected, the file type is not included in the index. If the custom file type is listed in that dialog, just enable the checkbox so that it is included in the Index.
In case the dialog does not list the custom file type that you want to add to index, type the file extension in the text box provided at the bottom and click the Add new extension button.
5. To index on the properties of a file type, click Index Properties Only. To index the properties and the contents of a specific file type, click Index Properties and File Contents. If you choose the second option, Windows uses the built-in plain-text filter to index the contents of that file type.
6. Click OK to close the dialog.
Here are some excellent articles at the Microsoft Web site that would help you resolve most of the problems with the built-in Search in Windows Vista.
2. Windows Vista Help: Improve Windows searches using the index: FAQ
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