This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable opening the Advanced Options dialog in Indexing Options in Windows 10 and 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 and retrieve the information you need.
Indexing is the process of looking at files, email messages, and other content on your PC and cataloging their information, such as the words and metadata in them. When you search your PC after indexing, it looks at an index of terms to find results faster.
You can disable the Advanced button in Indexing Options to prevent changing file settings, index location, rebuild index, file types indexed, and file contents indexed.
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable opening the Advanced Options dialog in Indexing Options.
Contents
- Option One: Enable or Disable Advanced Options in Indexing Options in Local Group Policy Editor
- Option Two: Enable or Disable Advanced Options in Indexing Options using REG file
EXAMPLE: Disable Advanced Options in Indexing Options
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.
All editions can use Option Two to configure the same policy.
1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).
2 Navigate to the policy location below in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below step 3)
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
3 In the right pane of Search in the Local Group Policy Editor, double click/tap on the Prevent the display of advanced indexing options for Windows Search in the Control Panel policy to edit it. (see screenshot below)
4 Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you want.
5 Enable Advanced Options in Indexing Options
This is the default setting.
A) Select (dot) Not Configured. (see screenshot below)
B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below.
6 Disable Advanced Options in Indexing Options
A) Select (dot) Enabled. (see screenshot below)
B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below.
7 You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.
2 Enable Advanced Options in Indexing Options
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_Advanced_Options_in_Indexing_Options.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
"PreventUsingAdvancedIndexingOptions"=-3 Disable Advanced Options in Indexing Options
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_Advanced_Options_in_Indexing_Options.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
"PreventUsingAdvancedIndexingOptions"=dword:000000014 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows 11
- Enable or Disable Modify Indexed Locations in Indexing Options in Windows 11
- Change Search Index Storage Location in Windows 11
- Reset and Rebuild Search Index in Windows 11
- Enable or Disable Use of Diacritics in Search Index in Windows 11
- Enable or Disable Include Encrypted Files in Search Index in Windows 11
- Add or Remove File Types for Search Index in Windows 11
- Enable or Disable Indexing File Contents by File Type in Windows 11
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