Let me set the scene for you:

• SolidWorks 2011 installed on Win7 x64
• Models and drawings stored in shared folder (mapped to local drive letter) on Windows 2003 server (x64)
• Windows Search 4.0 installed on the server and indexing the files
• No PDM (Workgroup or Enterprise)
• Offline files disabled (due to client hardware capacity and network infrastructure)

It has been well documented that Windows7 does not index the contents of mapped drives.  I found many resouces that led me to believe that installing Windows Search 4.0 on the server would solve the problem... So we have done this and are now able to search the network drive using the Search field in Windows Explorer.

However, we're still having a problem searching from SolidWorks.  Using the same search criteria in both Windows Explorer and SolidWorks, I can get results using Windows Explorer, but not SolidWorks.

I have added the mapped drive to the Search Paths in SolidWorks, and I have made certain that the Search options are set to that it is always indexing.  But still no results.

Upon looking at my Indexing Options, I think I have found the problem: the Search Path was added to the Indexed Locations, but it is noted as unavailable:

So now what do I do?!  I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have.

Sincerely,

Chris Italiano