Windows 10: Windows 10 Indexing - How to index Outlook historical PST file and what does Indexer...

Windows Indexing problems are an ongoing issue for thousands of people - yet to be addressed by MS. In Windows 7 it worked fine - within a few hours it completed. In Windows 10 it has been a constant problem. Windows 11 users have the same issues per on-line articles. For years now I have been reading articles at MS and other tech chat rooms. The MS solution typically is to provide links to articles use the Index Troubleshooter which appears to do nothing or on how to rebuild the file - that does not solve the problem and is disruptive to work to not be able to locate documents and emails. H

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Exclude PSTs from Windows Desktop Search Indexing in Windows 10 when they are not open in Outlook 365

Win10/22H2/O365 2302. I have about a dozen PST files that I do not want Windows Desktop Search to index, to keep the index EDB a reasonable size. Historically, I thought WDS did not index PSTs unless they were open in Outlook, but I've noticed recently that WDS is indexing everything, resulting in a very large index, despite (1) the PSTs are not open in Outlook and (2) the folder where the PSTs are stored is not included in the indexed locations.

Is there any way to systematically exclude these PSTs from the index? I noticed they are all listed under the registry key HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-96414999-1499730031-444732941-29377\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog, so I could conceivably try just deleting them there, but I'm not finding any public documentation of S-1-5-21-96414999-1499730031-444732941-29377 and am hesitant to start monkeying with regedit without any guidance.

***Moved from Outlook / Windows / Classic Outlook for Windows / For business ***

 

Windows 10 Indexing -

Does changing from Enhanced to Classic require entire rebuild losing data already indexed? Or will it retain work completed and speed up indexing?

Good day to all,

At Searching Windows screen, I notice Indexing Status is set on Enhanced. If I change it to Classic, will it retain the index work already completed and speed up the process to recapture Outlook data more quickly? Or will it start a rebuild losing what already is indexed and set me backwards?

Windows 10 indexing is faulty - yet again. It is a problem suffered by many users per on-line chat rooms etc. Outlook Search is not showing my newer PST emails. It reveals only emails from three weeks ago and older. I suspect something ran afoul after a Windows update but I do not really know what caused the problem.

It is now in that "extremely long" rebuild process making work very difficult. I need Search working for Outlook files and for My documents.

Trouble Shooting steps already performed:

• I properly maintain my Dell PC Optiplex 7070 custom build.
  
• Windows 10 updates are current. - Windows 10 Pro - current version 10.0.19045 Build 19045
  
• Office 365 Apps for Business - Is current
  
• I use Classic Outlook for emails. Most important Mailbox to my work is the PST. (Also have other email addresses with OST)
  
• Uninstalled and reinstalled Office 365.
  
• Have run sfc /scannow
  
• Have run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
  
• Have several times run ScanPST.EXE
  
• Have run Dell Command - all is currrent
  
• Have run Dell Support Assist - all is current
  
• Disabled Add-Ins in Outlook
  
• In Control Panel Power Management and also in the Bios - changed PC to Never Sleep Mode - yet indexing did not continue overnight. Indexing resumed when I resumed activity in the morning
  
• Turned off hibernation at command prompt
  

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. It seems Indexing worked well in Windows 7 and had deteriorated with Windows 10. Articles and users state it is even worse in Windows 11. Many Microsoft techs on line state Microsoft is aware yet the problems remain unresolved.

Thank you for any thoughts you might share.

***Move from Outlook / Windows / Classic Outlook for Windows / For business ***

 

Windows 10/Outlook 2016 Search Index Broken

I have a user who can no longer use the search function in outlook 2016. It doesn't give an error, it just wont return results.

After extensive googling, I have found and tried the following solutions to no avail.

1. Rebuild windows search index
   
2. Delete windows.edb file and rebuild search index
   
3. Remove outlook from the search index, reboot and add it again
   
4. Full repair of outlook
   
5. Scanpst to fix corrupted PST files (they weren't corrupted)
   

I have loaded the PST files into my outlook and I can search them, and there is no issues with any other computers in the office, so it is computer specific and not related to the PST file.

Does anyone have any other suggestions short of a full reinstall of windows? I am literally banging my head on the desk...

UPDATE

After more tinkering, I removed Outlook from the Search Index and tried searching for emails within outlook, and it worked... just really slowly. When I added Outlook back into the search index, it stopped working.

Also, searching is working for local drives, just not Outlook