Privacy and Security Add or Remove Search Index Locations in Windows 11

SM03 · Apr 26, 2022

@Brink is there any way to make it via reg settings option to add indexing location/drive permanently via reg file inserting into the iso so that user don't have to do that manually after clean install?

Brink · Apr 26, 2022

SM03 said:
@Brink is there any way to make it via reg settings option to add indexing location/drive permanently via reg file inserting into the iso so that user don't have to do that manually after clean install?

I'm not aware of a way so far.

geobrick · Jul 12, 2023

In step 6, Under "Change selected location" I'm seeing what looks like User Account SID numbers that are selected.
In addition to seeing "Data (C:\)", "Local Disk (C:\)" and "Microsoft Outlook", I'm seeing:
"csc://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-1002)/"
"csc://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-500)/"
"dp://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-1002)/"

Hovering the curser over them pops up the message "This location is unavailable. Uncheck it to stop finding items that used to be there."
I can easily unselect them but what's the proper way to clean this up system wide? Are there remnants in the registry related to these accounts?

I may have enabled the administrator account early in the windows installation process (maybe one of the steps to get past the 5 character username limit) but I think I disabled it when I was done. I also switched from a Microsoft login to a local login 2 weeks after the initial installation.

Let me know if there's anything else I should be looking for that needs to be cleaned up.

Brink · Jul 12, 2023

geobrick said:
In step 6, Under "Change selected location" I'm seeing what looks like User Account SID numbers that are selected.
In addition to seeing "Data (C:\)", "Local Disk (C:\)" and "Microsoft Outlook", I'm seeing:
"csc://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-1002)/"
"csc://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-500)/"
"dp://(S-1-5-21-(long string of numbers)-1002)/"

Hovering the curser over them pops up the message "This location is unavailable. Uncheck it to stop finding items that used to be there."
I can easily unselect them but what's the proper way to clean this up system wide? Are there remnants in the registry related to these accounts?

I may have enabled the administrator account early in the windows installation process (maybe one of the steps to get past the 5 character username limit) but I think I disabled it when I was done. I also switched from a Microsoft login to a local login 2 weeks after the initial installation.

Let me know if there's anything else I should be looking for that needs to be cleaned up.

Hello geobrick,

I'd just leave them unchecked, and not worry about it. Trying to remove them could easily break something.

-500 would be for the GUID for the built-in "Administrator".
-1002 would usually be for a second account (local or Microsoft).

hdmi · Apr 2, 2024

SM03 said:
@Brink is there any way to make it via reg settings option to add indexing location/drive permanently via reg file inserting into the iso so that user don't have to do that manually after clean install?

Powershell Tackles Windows Desktop Search

A great question was posed in the Microsoft Powershell forum, “In PowerShell, which command should I use to know the directories currently included and excluded from the indexed system of Win…

powertoe.wordpress.com

The download link to get the file Microsoft.Search.Interop.dll from there is broken, but you can still download it elsewhere:

WindowsSearchSample/Microsoft.Search.Interop.dll at master · FileMeta/WindowsSearchSample

Demonstrates how to access Windows Search from C#. - FileMeta/WindowsSearchSample

github.com

Alternatively, you can get the same file from here:

https://nuget.info/packages/tlbimp-Microsoft.Search.Interop/1.0.0

(Under Contents, click on the lib folder, click on the net45 folder, and double-click on the file.)

Here's my own version of the script code:

Powershell:

# Create the Crawl Scope Manager object
Add-Type -path "Microsoft.Search.Interop.dll"
$crawlman = (New-Object Microsoft.Search.Interop.CSearchManagerClass).GetCatalog("SystemIndex").GetCrawlScopeManager()

# Show the Scope Rules
$scopes = @()
[Microsoft.Search.Interop.CSearchScopeRule]$scope = $null
$enum = $crawlman.EnumerateScopeRules()
while ($true) {
  $enum.Next(1,[ref]$scope,[ref]$null)
  if ($scope -eq $null) { break }
  $scopes += $scope
}
$scopes|ogv

The article doesn't explain many important details like, how to specify that you want to add a new rule with an exclusion as opposed to add a new rule with an inclusion or things like whether the url that you specify has to end with a backslash \ or has to end with an asterisk * etc., but you can refer to the official docs from Microsoft:

Managing scope rules - Win32 apps

The Crawl Scope Manager (CSM) enables you define scope rules that include or exclude URLs from the Windows Search crawl scope.

learn.microsoft.com

So, once you have adapted the script to make it do everything you want, you can create an answer file Unattend.xml that you can then use to let the script run automatically before the user logs on to Windows for the first time after Windows Setup has finished the install.

Windows Setup Automation Overview

learn.microsoft.com

Add a Custom Script to Windows Setup

learn.microsoft.com

retexan599 · Apr 2, 2024

Firstly, as far as I can tell, W11 is saving the items I want in File History. However, there are not as many items indexed as there once was (back with W10):

It used to be around 12,000 or so. So I decided to check out the search index (your Option 2). The Indexed Locations screen looks like this:

I am the 'HP USER' in the list. The mystery to me is that neither Desktop nor One Drive(which now incorporates Desktop) shows in this list of desired locations to index. As I said, it does appear that items from the Desktop are being saved in File History, because I can see them when I view the File History.

I am wondering whether I am missing some items to be saved because of the absence of OneDrive in the Indexed Locations list. Why is there no OneDrive/Desktop in the list? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Brink · Apr 2, 2024

Hello @retexan599,

Usually, you would do this below to see the OneDrive folder available to add to the search index, but it's still not showing for me either afterwards. You could test and see if you may get lucky.

1) Turn on Enhanced mode for Search Indexer.

Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer for all users in Windows 11. Search Indexing in Windows improves the speed and efficiency of searches by creating an index of files and their properties on your device. This index allows Windows to quickly locate...

www.elevenforum.com

2) Turn on Cloud Content Search.

Enable or Disable Cloud Content Search for Accounts in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Cloud content search for your account or all users in Windows 11. Windows Search lets you search from your taskbar to find what you’re looking for, whether it’s on your device, in the cloud, or on the web. Windows Search can personalize your...

www.elevenforum.com

Privacy and Security Add or Remove Search Index Locations in Windows 11

Add or Remove Excluded Locations for Enhanced Search Index in Settings

Add or Remove Excluded and Included Locations for Search Index in Indexing Options

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