Questions about indexed search options

[Paul Randall]

I'm running preinstalled Vista Home Basic on a cheapo Compaq desktop, which
has no updates and has been connected to the internet for a half hour at
most through a firewalled router, so it is probably not infected with much
junk.

Four questions:

1) On the Indexing Options which I access from control panel, I click the
modify button to change the locations to be indexed or excluded from
indexing. I can't find any way to remove the following locations from the
'exclude' list: Program Files, ProgramData, Default, and WINDOWS. I don't
want any files excluded. How can I remove everything from the exclude list?

2) When I click the Advanced button on the Indexing Options page, and go to
the file types tab, I get a list of almost 400 file extensions. I assume
that checking the checkbox means that files of this extension should be
indexed. By default, not all of the file extensions are checked. I am
allowed to check all but a few of them, but some don't stick. Two extensions
that won't stick are .z96 and .zfsendtotarget. If I close and reopen this
window, they revert to being unchecked. What can I do to make the checking
a checkbox stick?

3) For some extensions, the filter description column says: Registered
IFilter is not found. One example is files of type .zumaSavedGame. Below,
in the 'How should this file be indexed?' section, there are two options,
one of which can be chosen for the highlighted file type in the upper
section; the choices are 'Index Properties Only', and 'Index Properties and
File Contents' (the default option for .zumaSavedGame). When I try to
select 'Index Properties Only', sometimes it sticks for a little while and
sometimes it doesn't, meaning sometimes I can OK out of Indexing Options and
restart it from control panel, and my change to .zumaSavedGame is still
there, and sometimes it reverts to the default. Is this how it is supposed
to work, and if not, what can I do to fix it?

4) For some extensions, like .WebAllowBlockList, the checkmark is checked,
and I can not uncheck it. When I hover over that extension, I get a popup
saying 'You do not have permission to change the settings for this
extension'. I can't find any files with this extension, but Vista is pretty
good at hiding stuff, and why have this extension in the list if there are
no such files? Anyhow, can anyone shed light on what is happening here or
what I can do to get permissions to change the setting for this extension or
prove to myself that no such file exists?

Thanks for any help/understanding you can give me.

-Paul Randall

 

[Paul Randall]

I'm running preinstalled Vista Home Basic on a cheapo Compaq desktop,
which has no updates and has been connected to the internet for a half
hour at most through a firewalled router, so it is probably not infected
with much junk.

Four questions:

1) On the Indexing Options which I access from control panel, I click the
modify button to change the locations to be indexed or excluded from
indexing. I can't find any way to remove the following locations from the
'exclude' list: Program Files, ProgramData, Default, and WINDOWS. I
don't want any files excluded. How can I remove everything from the
exclude list?

I've found part of the answer to question 1. The indexed locations windows
has an upper part and a lower part. Clicking the 'show all locations'
button, the upper window shows some (all?) drive letters with breadcrumb
icons to expand the folder tree. Next to each drive or folder is a
selection checkbox. The list of excluded places is displayed in the lower
window. All folders not checked in the upper tree window show up in the
list of excluded folders for each drive. Some of my excluded folders were
easy to find in the tree. Default was a pain, but eventually I discovered a
folder named default down a few levels.

I was not able to INCLUDE folder C:\ProgramData or any of its subfolders
because the checkboxes are grayed out.

I'd like help or links to info on how to enable indexing of this folder.

-Paul Randall

 

[Jon]

I've found part of the answer to question 1. The indexed locations
windows has an upper part and a lower part. Clicking the 'show all
locations' button, the upper window shows some (all?) drive letters with
breadcrumb icons to expand the folder tree. Next to each drive or folder
is a selection checkbox. The list of excluded places is displayed in the
lower window. All folders not checked in the upper tree window show up in
the list of excluded folders for each drive. Some of my excluded folders
were easy to find in the tree. Default was a pain, but eventually I
discovered a folder named default down a few levels.

I was not able to INCLUDE folder C:\ProgramData or any of its subfolders
because the checkboxes are grayed out.

I'd like help or links to info on how to enable indexing of this folder.

I believe this is a case of checking the 'Index this folder for faster
searching' box via

Right-click 'ProgramData' folder > Properties > Advanced

Be aware that the index itself is in 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search'

so 'Indexing the index' might potentially have unpredictable ramifications
(??)

Also the fact that it's a hidden folder will also affect what you can
sjearch for in that folder.

-Paul Randall

For your other questions, I'd suggest having a look in the registry under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT at particular extensions

eg
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\PersistentHandler shows the ClassId for the IFilter
for text files etc
which you can then explore under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID


What you see via Indexing Options reflects what you can view there.


Excluded extensions are also listed under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
Search\Gather\Windows\SystemIndex\Extensions\ExtensionList

If you make changes via the GUI and observe the effect of those in the
registry (and vice versa), then things may become clearer. You may need to
stop and restart the Windows Search service if you make changes via the
registry.



Re your other questions it sounds like there's possibly some registry
corruption there eg an untidy removal of an installed IFilter

Also 'WebAllowBlockList' relates to Parental Controls, so it would make
sense that you couldn't chedk the box to search its contents via the gui,
but you could examine (and potentially change it) under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.WebAllowBlockList


Haven't covered all your questions I suspect, but a few pointers I hope.

 

[Paul Randall]

I believe this is a case of checking the 'Index this folder for faster
searching' box via

Right-click 'ProgramData' folder > Properties > Advanced

Be aware that the index itself is in 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search'

so 'Indexing the index' might potentially have unpredictable ramifications
(??)

Also the fact that it's a hidden folder will also affect what you can
sjearch for in that folder.










For your other questions, I'd suggest having a look in the registry under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT at particular extensions

eg
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\PersistentHandler shows the ClassId for the
IFilter for text files etc
which you can then explore under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID


What you see via Indexing Options reflects what you can view there.


Excluded extensions are also listed under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
Search\Gather\Windows\SystemIndex\Extensions\ExtensionList

If you make changes via the GUI and observe the effect of those in the
registry (and vice versa), then things may become clearer. You may need to
stop and restart the Windows Search service if you make changes via the
registry.



Re your other questions it sounds like there's possibly some registry
corruption there eg an untidy removal of an installed IFilter

Also 'WebAllowBlockList' relates to Parental Controls, so it would make
sense that you couldn't chedk the box to search its contents via the gui,
but you could examine (and potentially change it) under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.WebAllowBlockList


Haven't covered all your questions I suspect, but a few pointers I hope.

Hi, Jon

Thanks for the information and suggestions. I will play with them today.
My intent is to see what 'Index Properties Only' does when all file
extensions are set this way. Seems like this should quickly produce a
relatively small index that contains the names of every file on a hard
drive.

-Paul Randall