05 May 10 Windows Desktop Search Solution for Vista

At last!  I have finally fixed the annoying indexing problem in Outlook 2007 that I’ve been obsessing about for the last few days.  I must have trawled just about every site on the web with discussion on how to fix the problem including the automated Microsoft ‘Fixit‘ solutions with no success.  Every time I tried to search in Outlook I got an indexing status message with thousands of entries to process and nothing happening.  Going to the control panel > indexing options > advanced > rebuild index also had no effect.  I got a message indicating indexing was not running due to user activity.  I made sure I was doing absolutely nothing; still no success.  Grrr.  There are any number of solutions out there; going to control panel > administrative tasks > services > Windows Search , starting, stopping service, going to tools > instant search > search options in Outlook 07, selecting, deselecting folders to be indexed etc. etc.  Still no effect.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The solution turned out to be very simple:

1. Install Service Pack 2, unless you have already done so.  If the ‘modify’ and ‘pause’ buttons are not available in control panel > indexing options reinstalling SP2 might well be the solution.
2. Indexing options, Services > Windows Search all look okay but Outlook still won’t search?  A corrupted registry is most likely the cause.
   Download this registry update
   *I found Internet Explorer was the best choice for downloading this update.
   *Select ‘Open’ and allow the update to run
   (it’s safe; it can be found in it’s orginal context here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/85803-index-windows-search-service.html an excellent tutorial which I followed to the letter with no success.)
3. With SP2 installed and the registry update installed, my Outlook search now works perfectly, and I didn’t even need to restart my computer!

If your problem persists, rebuilding the index might be the way to go.  Try this:

You can rebuild the search catalog, which restarts the indexing of your data files. The search catalog is a file where all of your Outlook and Microsoft Windows items (data files) are indexed. To rebuild your search catalog, do the following:

1. Exit Outlook.
2. In Microsoft Windows, click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
3. Do one of the following:
   • Windows Vista Click System Maintenance, and then click Indexing Options.

Note In Classic view, double-click Indexing Options.

• Microsoft Windows XP Under See Also, click Other Control Panel Options, and then click Indexing Options.

Note In Classic view, double-click Indexing Options.

1. Click Modify, select the check boxes for the locations you want to index, and then click OK.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Click Rebuild.
4. Restart Outlook.

The temperamental nature of WDS seems to be just another of the woes associated with Vista.  The supposedly ‘more user friendly’ features of this OS seem to make it actually more difficult to manage a system because certain controls have been removed or made less accessible.  While Vista need not be a complete disaster, it’s hardly going to go down as a great moment for Microsoft.

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Tags: Control Panel, index, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows, search, search error, Service pack, SP2, Windows Explorer, Windows Registry, Windows Search, Windows Vista, Windows XP