April 7, 2011
Enable Outlook 2010 Search And Indexing On Windows 7
I fixed a problem today with Outlook 2010 that has never come up before and won’t have any relevance to any of you. This description may help someone who finds it in a Google search – and it will serve as yet another illustration of how our lives are getting more complicated, not less, as time goes on.
SUMMARY: If searches do not work in Outlook 2010 on Windows 7, make sure the Windows Search and Indexing Service features are turned on. The COM addin mssphtb.dll (“Windows Search Email Indexer”) is not required by Outlook 2010 and is intentionally disabled.
Note that there was a followup for a very specific additional issue with the Samsung Series 9 laptop.
I pulled a new laptop out of the box and started up Windows 7 Home Premium. After the first few rounds of updates, I installed Office 2010 Professional from disk and connected Outlook to my Exchange mailbox. The mailbox filled up normally.
When I put my cursor in the Search bar above the Inbox (shown above), a message immediately appeared: “The Windows Search Engine is currently disabled. Outlook will not be able to provide fast search results using the Instant Search functionality unless this service is running. Please contact your system administrator.”
I contacted my system administrator. He didn’t have a clue, what with being me and all.
The search features in Windows 7 and specifically in Outlook are the center of my life. I cannot use Outlook without being able to search. There’s an article today in Small City Law Firm Tech about the wondrous Search toolbar in Outlook 2010. You should always be searching for things, not looking for them in long lists.
In the course of the next couple of hours, I did all of these things.
- The Windows Search service (Control Panel / System and Security / Administrative Tools / Services) was disabled. I enabled it. It was still on after I restarted, until I launched Outlook, at which point it immediately flipped back to “Disabled” (although it continued to show “Started,” which was strange).
- I ran the built-in repair process for Office 2010 (Control Panel / Programs / Uninstall a program / highlight Office 2010 / Change).
- Outlook 2010 provides direct access to the Windows 7 Indexing Options dialog (File / Options / Search). The button was greyed out.
- When I reached the Indexing Options window from Control Panel, Microsoft Outlook was not listed as a place to be indexed, and could not be added from any control in that window. I deleted and rebuilt the index, with no effect.
- Windows Search is one of the items listed in Control Panel / Programs and Features / Turn Windows features on or off. It was checked. I unchecked it to turn the feature off, restarted, checked it to turn it back on, and restarted. Nothing changed.
At some point I saw that an Outlook COM addin named “Windows Search Email Indexer,” was disabled. (File / Options / Addins. The file is C:WindowsSystem32mssphtb.dll.) Nothing I tried would convince it to stay enabled. Ah ha!
This addin dates back at least to the introduction of Windows Search for Windows XP. It took a while to discover that mssphtb.dll is not needed by Outlook 2010, which is programmed to disable it. It is unclear why it’s present on a brand new system that has never seen another version of Windows or Office.
Sadness.
Eventually I realized that I had overlooked a detail in this article, and that the answer was in this article (by an author who thought the problem stemmed from an upgrade from Office 2007).
There are two Windows features that need to be installed and running on Windows 7 for searching to work in Outlook 2010: Windows Search (pictured above), and Indexing Service.
The Indexing Service was unchecked on my new laptop. I don’t know if it arrived that way or if it was disabled during installation of Office 2010 or some other program. I don’t know why there are two different Windows features that have to be turned on for searching. Although the name shown is “Indexing Service,” it doesn’t appear by that name in the list of Services in Control Panel.
When I checked the Indexing Service and restarted, Outlook searches were completely normal.
Now that I’ve learned that and tucked it into one of the few remaining empty corners of my brain, I don’t expect to ever see it again. Tomorrow it will be something different. I remember when I used to know how to do things instead of how to do Google searches!
35 Responses to “Enable Outlook 2010 Search And Indexing On Windows 7”
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April 7th, 2011 at 6:36 am
Thanks for this Bruce – we’re sure to run across it here at some point – and when we do, you’ve just saved us hours of investigation. I’ve bookmarked this to my ‘don’t forget this ever’ page on OneNote (’cause I’ll forget it otherise…). Lovin’ OneNote more and more – it’s my empty corner!
April 21st, 2011 at 8:09 pm
still no success – i have turned both above features “on”, restarted the windows search service, rebooted etc but windows search always reboots as disabled…when i manually retart it, it works fine but only until i reboot again and then it comes up “disabled” – help please !!
April 22nd, 2011 at 8:54 am
Alas, I’m afraid I’m in the same position. It took me a while to realize it because I rarely have to restart. It seems to work fine once the service is restarted, so we have our workaround – but this is very odd. What kind of computer do you have? This is so strange that I’m wondering if it has something to do with some proprietary Samsung utility.
May 11th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
[...] Previously: Enable Outlook 2010 Search And Indexing On Windows 7 [...]
May 11th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
I discovered a fix on my system. Here’s the description of what was causing the service to turn itself off on my Samsung. Maybe it will help you track it down. Good luck!
May 25th, 2011 at 1:54 am
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. You just saved me from going totally stark raving crazy.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Thanks! Had this issue and starting up indexing helped.
June 23rd, 2011 at 6:24 am
Thanks Bruce, this issue was driving me and my ceo crazy, just saved me a re-image of this crazy series 9!
July 25th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
I can search my inbox again! Thanks!
July 29th, 2011 at 12:38 am
Still not working, but to make it work, I need to do the followings:
1. Open Contro Panel;
2. In search box (top right) type in “index”;
3. Select Indexing Options;
4. Double click “Troubleshoot search and indexing”;
5. Select “E-mail doesn’t appear in search results”
6. Click Next;
7. Going back to Indexing Options, a list of locations for indexing
listed on the table.
8. Click Close.
9. Open Outlook, and type the item you want to search;
10. Indexing will start!
Bye Bye!
August 2nd, 2011 at 1:23 am
For all those who had similar problems and everything else failed – the ultimate solution is NOT using index for Outlook. To do this for Outlook 2010 –
1. Close Outlook.
2. In control panel, open “Index Options”.
3. Remove “Microsoft Outlook” from “Included locations”.
4. Restart Outlook.
This will force Outlook to use the slow non-index search, but it works – every time.
This works for Outlook 2007 too (although the options may be at different location).
August 2nd, 2011 at 7:28 am
Searching without the index is pretty useless. It’s worth staying on this problem until it’s solved.
August 31st, 2011 at 8:42 am
I still cannot get it to work. I’ve tried all of the recommendations above, but each time I reach a step that I cannot find on my computer. It seems like folks are having the best luck with Gary’s recommendation, but when I open the folder for Indexing Options, there isn’t a trouble shooting button to click.
Any recommendations for where to go from there? It seems odd that Outlook set up such a nice litte tab under view in the arrangements section and it doesn’t work. How frustrating!
August 31st, 2011 at 8:52 am
I’m not sure without looking. Want to give me a call? I can get on remotely and take a look. If I do something super-smart, you might have to pay me vast sums of money, but we can talk about the details. (grin)
August 31st, 2011 at 11:01 am
Worked like a charm, reboot was required.
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Outlook 2010 64bit
This was one of the most concise and well worded solutions for anything I’ve ever searched for. Thank you.
August 31st, 2011 at 11:12 am
Thank you! Glad it helped.
September 4th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Gary’s reply
Gary Says:
July 29th, 2011 at 12:38 am
might be the solution to my problem, but when I try to “troubleshoot search and indexing, I get the message: “A problem is preventing bthe troubleshooter from starting.”
I cannot get the troubleshooter working … any advice??
September 7th, 2011 at 6:21 am
Hmm, read through the entire thread – I now can index and find files, but emails will not show up. Incidentally, searching from within Outlook (2010) works great. But Win7-64 will not display emails in search results. Any (more) pointers? Bruce – don’t want to impose, but would love some TeamViewer hand-holding!!!!
Atle
October 17th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I was getting frustrated by the error message telling me that the search function was disabled. This article was extremely helpful, and worked immediately. It would have taken me hours to figure this out. Many thanks.
October 18th, 2011 at 1:52 am
Once can get really lost in the deep hidden corners of an operating system!
Thanks for all the help!
December 5th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
December 6th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Thanks! Have been looking all over for the solution to this, and here it is. A+
December 18th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
from my laptop, index service is not enable while my instant search works well in my outlook 2010.
and from the tip when your mouse move over this feature item in “turn on/off windows feature”, it says, index service is used by old versions of windows 7. we could say it’s not required by windows 7 .
December 18th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
i compared my 2 pcs(instant search is not working on one of them). it turns out that i need enable Cached Exchange Mode to enable instant search.
December 19th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Good point. That’s true – search is only available in cached mode.
January 11th, 2012 at 8:35 am
This is EXACTLY the solution to my problem. Thanks.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:09 am
[...] only brought back people who did have the search service running) I came across this wonderful blog. I cannot take credit for coming up with this solution at [...]
January 19th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Bruce,
You saved me at least two hours of investigation.
Thank you.
Phil C
February 4th, 2012 at 11:55 am
I am having the same problems. I can locate a contact when searching within the Contact context menu but not within the home menu’s “Find a Contact” box. The contact is there. I found a work around but am not too happy with it. That is to add an Advanced Find function to the ribbon. It works, but you have to select Contacts from the dropdown list. But it finds the contacts. Here is the link:
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-software/1368645.htm
Best wishes, Jim
February 4th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
how can i enable indexing in my outlook
February 4th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
by reading the article
February 21st, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Well, I was one of the google searchers and am very thankful for this write-up. Thank you!
March 6th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Is there a solution to the “search not working in Outlook 2010″ problem for someone with Windows XP? I spent all day yesterday trying to figure this out, to no avail. Search doesn’t work at all in Outlook 2010, it just stays “Searching…” forever.
“Search –> Search Tools –> Indexing Status” tells me “Outlook is currently indexing your items”, which now shows 10,000+ items remaining to be indexed. This number is constantly increasing and never decreases.
Thanks.
March 6th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
My process has been: go into Search Options / Advanced and reset the index to the default; restart the computer; start Outlook; and walk away. It can take anywhere from several hours to several days, depending on the number of files and number of items in Outlook. It can be difficult if the machine is underpowered, as many old XP systems are, or if some other process causes the search indexer to constantly throttle itself back. Old XP systems that have been cluttered up over the years are more prone to that. Good luck!
April 27th, 2012 at 12:44 am
Thanks for hint.