Stopping Microsoft Search from eating my hard drive

"Here's what I had to do:

open services.msc
Stop the Windows Search service (I was this far already).
Rename C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
Start the Windows Search service
The directory rebuilds Windows.edb (34 MB initial size in my case)
Open Control Panel / Indexing Options
Wait a long time for buttons to become enabled
Click Modify
Uncheck Users directory or whatever else you don't want indexed (I left Start Menu enabled because it's so small)
Click Ok
Stand on your head and count to three while drinking water with a straw. (not sure if this part is necessary but I wanted to try everything I could)

It now says indexing complete with only 800 or so items. Total size of the directory is now just over 48 MB. Pretty large index if you ask me, but better than 2 GB."

"To delete and rebuilt the index :

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Indexing options
Click Advanced
under Troubleshooting, click rebuilt

You may want to change which folder you wish to include in the index before doing step 3. For that in step 2 instead of clicking Advanced, select Modify"

"Those that wish to keep Windows Search working, but don't want the index file taking up space on the boot drive, can change the location the index is located.

Launch Indexing Options, click Advanced, and - in the Index location panel, populate the New location, after service is restarted to a folder on another disk drive.

You'll have to restart the service (or restart your pc if you find that easier) in order for the change to take place."

"If you open the search tool and then click on the ""details"" drop down on the right hand side (next to the ""?"" icon) there's a menu called ""Search Options.."". Open that dialog and you can modify which folders are being indexed.

By removing folders from the Indexed Locations (by clicking on ""Modify"") the indexer will remove the data associated with these folders thus freeing up your disk space."

"I think I actually solved it, at least on my machine.
EDGE that blood sucker... turn of sync options in edge browser... it has a feature called sync on all devices that uses your windows login that override everything else :-("