Solved Windows search indexing options is missing.

I'm running Win 11 Pro build 26100 and it's patched and up to date as of today. The system was upgraded from Windows 10 months ago and before that the system has been in use for a few years.

The windows file search looks to be indexing files and working correctly however I went to exclude some some folders in my documents from the index however Indexing options is missing from the Start menu and control panel.

Going to windows search settings and clicking 'advanced indexing options' or 'customise search locations' does nothing. The Windows search troubleshooter is also unavailable.

What I have noticed in the Start menu is if I search for 'indexing options' and entry for @%SystemRoot%\System32\srchadmin.dll,-601#immutable1 appears but does nothing when clicked.

The srchadmin.dll is not on this machine so I've just copied it from another machine (same windows version and indexing options works) and when I do this the menu link above will launch indexing options however I can't click on modify or advanced to make any changes.

I've run sfc and dism scanhealth and it found no problems.

I've also done a repair install on the device but the search still doesn't work.

Windows search doesn't appear to be in group policy editor.

First off to check has this functionality been removed from Win 11?

Secondly does anyone know how I can get the functionality back?

Hello Ollie, and welcome to the forum.

Are you able to use an option in the tutorial below to remove an index location?

Thanks for the welcome and the quick reply.

Option one works fine, by selecting 'Enhanced' to index whole drive I can then add and remove excluded folders.

Option two is the one I was after where in 'Classic' mode I can add folders to include and exclude however when I get to step 3 clicking 'Advanced indexing options' does nothing. Underneath the 'Classic' option there is a link to 'Customise search locations' which I presume is supposed to open up indexing options as well but again that does nothing either.

The indexer troubleshooter below that tells me that is below 'Advanced indexing options' tells me that the 'Windows Online Troubleshooting Service is disabled'.

What the 'Advanced indexing options' button should do is launch 'Indexing options' and by adding the missing srchadmin.dll to the system32 folder the odd link in my start menu will open it however the modify and advanced buttons do nothing, presumably I'm missing the files for those too.

As a test, if you open Run (Win+R), and run the command below in Run, does it open Indexing Options?

shell:::{87D66A43-7B11-4A28-9811-C86EE395ACF7}

Brink said:

As a test, if you open Run (Win+R), and run the command below in Run, does it open Indexing Options?

shell:::{87D66A43-7B11-4A28-9811-C86EE395ACF7}

Click to expand...

Yes but only when I've added the missing file srchadmin.dll to the system32 folder. If I remove the file then it does nothing.

With the file there it opens 'Indexing options' however the modify and advanced buttons do nothing.

Presumably I'm missing other files and/or configuration.

If it makes any difference when I've added the missing dll I've not done anything to register it, I've just copied the file.

Does Indexing Options show indexing is running at the top?

Go ahead and run a sfc /scannow command like in option one below to repair and replace any missing system files. Afterwards, see how Indexing Options may work for you.

Yes indexing options does show the number of indexed files at the top and in the 'Searching windows' settings page it shows the same amount of indexed files but also shows some pending after the reinstall but it is gradually coming down and I expect it will go down to zero eventually.

If I run sfc then it finds no problems and reports

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

I've also previously run dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth and it found no issues however I'm just trying to run it again now to make sure.

And just to confirm the dism

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.26100.1150

Image Version: 10.0.26100.4349

[==========================100.0%==========================] No component store corruption detected.

Is the Modify button grayed out in Indexing Options like in the screenshot below?

If so, double check using the tutorial below to make sure the Prevent customization of indexed locations in Control Panel policy hasn't been enabled to disable the button.

No it's not greyed out, it can be given focus and clicked but it just does nothing when I do so. The advanced button is the same too.

In case it's relevant I note that in the group policy editor I have no entries for windows search, these are both missing which I've seen some references to.

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Search
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Search

If wanted, you could try doing a repair install of Windows 11 using either option below to see if it may repair this without losing anything.

I tried a repair install this afternoon via the option one windows update method you listed hence however it made no difference.

As I was missing the srchadmin.dll file and sfc, dism or a repair install doesn't add that file so indexing options only works when it's manually added is there any other global setting that enables the Prevent customization of indexed locations in Control Panel feature like the group setting above?

Let's try running the commands below to disable and enable the Search Engine feature to see if it may toggle it to work properly afterwards.

You'll need to run the commands below in an elevated command prompt or elevated PowerShell.

Run the commands below one at a time, and restart the computer after each command.

dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

Wahey, I think we may have a winner.

Disabling and re-enabling with restarts in between looks to have made the 'Advanced indexing options' button open 'Indexing options' and now the 'modify' and 'advanced' buttons work as expected and I can exclude extra folders from the index.

It's fixed the windows search troubleshooter which wouldn't start previously.

It's also added lots of entries in for Search in the group policy editor more inline with what others machines appear to have.

I've added a couple of folders to exclude and it appears to have removed the files from the index (some of the folders contained thousands of little files and cache files hence wanting to remove them).

I'll know for sure when the indexing is complete but so far it's looking great.

My guess is that this fault occurred when the device was upgraded from Windows 10 to 11, it does make me wonder if there is anything else that similarly didn't upgrade correctly although I've not spotted anything, I'll keep my eyes open though.

Thank you very much for your fast responses and help, it's very much appreciated.

You're most welcome. Great news so far.

Ollie222 said:

Wahey, I think we may have a winner

Click to expand...

Yes, we do. And he's a white alien with big ol' eyes. (He'd be handsome if his nose wasn't so ugly, but don't tell him I said that)

Just a quick follow up on this to say it looks like the problem has been completely resolved.

With a handful of folders excluded and a rebuild of the index the number of indexed files has dropped from over a million to a more reasonable 150k and the index database file has reduced from 7gb to 0.5gb.

More importantly the cache folders are now ignored so the search indexer isn't constantly running in the background.

I've had a look around the rest of the Windows settings and control panel and haven't spotted anything else that isn't working so hopefully whatever the issue was only affected the search.

Thank you very much for the help, it's much appreciated.

That is great news indeed. I'm glad it was able to help without the need of a clean install.