How should I address a missing "Windows Search" registry key used to fix an Outlook indexing failure?

Question

Outlook 2010 under Windows 7 exhibits Issue #5 Microsoft lists here. The symptom is:

When searching in Outlook, you get this error: “Something went wrong and your search couldn’t be completed.”, or "Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed".

The suggested workaround is:

Open Registry Editor.

Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

PreventIndexingOutlook

Set DWORD: 1

But there's no Windows Search key under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows on my machine. (The key does exist in several other places in the registry, e.g., HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search.)

Should I create a Windows Search key so that I can create a PreventIndexingOutlook underneath it?

Answer 1

Yes, it's normal for subkeys of Policies to not exist until a value in them is set. The Group Policy setting "Prevent indexing Microsoft Outlook" (in the Windows Components → Search category) is the one that sets this value, and like all policies, configuring it will cause the Group Policy infrastructure to create the key if necessary so it can set the value. Since you're doing the same thing but manually, you will need to create the subkey first.