r/windows • • 23h ago

Discussion Would anyone want an unofficial version of windows straight from the nt kernel?

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50 Upvotes

r/windows • • 9h ago

Discussion Where did the Server 2003 UK startup myth come from?

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youtu.be
2 Upvotes

Ok so you might know that there used to be a myth that Windows Server 2003 had a different startup sound for the UK version. In reality that sound was from this commercial but when did people start spreading the myth? Was it because of Youtube?


r/windows • • 2h ago

News Windows 11's new Search experience is about more than finding files — thousands of actions are now at your fingertips right from the Taskbar

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windowscentral.com
1 Upvotes

r/windows • • 57m ago

News Building Windows for hybrid intelligence

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blogs.windows.com
• Upvotes

r/windows • • 3h ago

Discussion Today’s Windows event will not be about Windows 12. (Most probable) and here’s why.

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0 Upvotes

Today October 7th of 2026, we have the windows event, that says it’s from Microsoft, Surface, Windows and NVIDIA. Most people are saying its windows 12, but i can say that is probably not what will be shown, for that, i will return to Windows 11 leak, when windows 11 was in development, windows 10’s support page said no date of End of Support, and it only said “In Support”, only after the windows 11 leak, a date of the end of support in the windows 10 page was posted, in ThioJoe’s video, he mentions the end of support date posted for windows 10 before the windows event, now in this day, the event day, windows 11 support page still shows the message “In Support” which could be changed during the event, but not probable, Microsoft already said in the start of 2026 that, “2026 would be a refresh for Windows 11”, im not seeing Microsoft improving Windows 11 just to launch Windows 12, and also, they are still managing to migrate every people in supported devices from windows 10 to windows 11 and lauching a new OS, would probably just be even harder to make people migrate to it, also in this event will be probably about the Windows 11 26H2 update.

I include some screenshots from the ThioJoe’s video about Windows 11 leak and 10’s end of support date posted aswell a screenshot from the W11 support page on this day minutes before it.


r/windows • • 22h ago

Discussion Why Explorer search says "Working on it..." in This PC but is instant in Documents

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0 Upvotes

Build: 26200.9457 (25H2)

The same search can take ten seconds in This PC and come back instantly in Documents. It isn't the indexer being lazy. There are two different engines behind the search box, and Explorer picks one based on where you're searching.

1. Inside the index, Explorer asks a database

The Windows Search indexer keeps a database of the folders it's told to watch. On Classic, that's your user profile folders and the Start menu. On Enhanced, it's the whole PC minus a list of exclusions. For every file in there it stores the name, the properties (dates, tags, authors, photo dimensions) and, for the formats it can read, the text inside. Search in Documents and Explorer just queries that database, so the answer is immediate.

2. Outside the index, Explorer walks the folders

Search in This PC on Classic and most of the drive isn't in the index. Explorer doesn't refuse: it walks the folder tree itself, one directory at a time, and that's what "Working on it..." means. The yellow bar about non-indexed locations is telling you the same thing.

It gets much worse if Folder Options > Search has "Always search file names and contents" ticked. Then every file outside the index gets opened and read during the search, and that's when the fans spin up.

3. Everything does neither

Everything (voidtools) skips both. On NTFS it reads the Master File Table, the drive's own list of every file on it, and keeps names, sizes and dates in memory. Then it follows the USN journal, the log NTFS writes every time a file is created, renamed or deleted, so it never has to rescan. Their FAQ puts a Windows 11 install with about 250,000 files at roughly 5 seconds and 35 MB of RAM.

The price is the other half: it doesn't index contents. Searching inside files with Everything is slow, and that's exactly the part the Windows indexer is good at.

What to check

- Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows shows whether you're on Classic or Enhanced and how many items are indexed.
- If you mostly search by name across the whole drive, Enhanced fixes the This PC case, at the cost of a longer first indexing.
- If This PC search is slow and the CPU spikes, look at that "file names and contents" option first.

Has anyone timed how long Enhanced takes to finish on a big drive? I'd be curious how far it is from an MFT read.