Outlook has long been the email program of choice for Microsoft users. It is the primary email client for many businesses thanks to its useful task management and automation features.
Over the past few years, Outlook has undergone numerous changes and the latest version now makes it possible to Windows Search to use for improved search functionality. This feature was first included in Outlook 2016, but a recent update seems to break this feature.
Outlook search today uses Windows Search to provide a much faster experience by using pre-indexed search results. Since Windows 11 is fairly new, Microsoft has been regularly releasing updates to patch and fix persistent bugs. It seems that the latest update is disrupting Outlook Search for many users due to the built-in functionality to use Windows Search.
This is a known issue and Microsoft has also acknowledged this. The company recently released a permanent fix that you can read about in this article. This is how it works.
Search in Outlook does not work
The change we are going to make works through the Windows registry. Before you start, I recommend one backup the Windows registry or a create a restore point on your Windows 11 computer.
Right-click on the start button. Click Run in the menu. In the Run window type: regedit.
In the Windows registry, copy and paste the following line into the address bar.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Then right-click on free space on the right side and click on New and then on Key.
Give this key a name
WindowsSearch
Then click on the WindowsSearch key and then right-click on New on the right side and then on DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Give this DWORD value the following name
PreventIndexingOutlook
Double-click PreventIndexingOutlook and change the value data to “1” without quotes. Click OK.
Close the Windows registry and restart your computer. It should now be possible to search in Outlook again.
If it still doesn't work, you can Restore Office.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!
Thank you very much for the information.
I have also heard of the ctrl shift F that your keyword from an email is copied into the search screen. And then you can see in which folder the email is stored.
Do you know that?
No, but now I do. I knew that CTRL + F opens advanced search, but in combination with the SHIFT key it does not also fill in the selected word. Thanks for the tip!
I have a lot of folders in my email, how can I search for a specific subject the fastest, and which ctrl/shift key do I use for this?
Hello, go to the Inbox or folder you want to search.
Press Ctrl + E or F3 to move the focus to the search field. In Outlook 2016 and later, you can also use the magnifying glass in the ribbon.
Type the search terms related to the topic you are looking for. Outlook will automatically start showing results that match your search terms.
To make it even more specific, you can use search operators like:
subject:”your subject” to search subject lines only.
from:”sender name” to find emails from a specific person.
Success!