Update for Windows Search 4.0, December 2008

An update is available for Windows Search 4.0. This update contains two fixes. The first fix enables you to search for content in digitally signed e-mail. The second fix addresses an issue in which high network traffic occurs in an environment that uses Offline Files synchronization. Both fixes are explained in detail in the "More Information" section.

Update information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem described in this article. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

Prerequisites

To apply this update, the computer must be running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008. Also, the computer must have Windows Search 4.0 installed.

Restart requirement

You may have to restart the computer after you apply this update.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

For all supported x86-based versions of Windows Vista

For all supported x64-based versions of Windows Vista

Fix 1: Indexing of digitally signed e-mail

Before this update, a computer that was running Windows Vista with SP1 and Windows Search 4.0 behaved as follows:

• Users could search all digitally signed e-mail messages that they had sent. This search included all message content.
• Users could search all digitally signed e-mail messages that they received. However, these searches were limited to certain properties, such as subject, sender, or recipients. Users could not search the message body or attachment contents.

This update for Windows Search 4.0 addresses these limitations. After you apply this update, you can search all content in digitally signed e-mail messages. This includes the message body and any attachments.

Note This update does not support indexing the content of encrypted e-mail messages. Also, this update does not support indexing content of any S/MIME receipts that are received on S/MIME signed messages that you send.

Some specific scenarios and known issues:

Scenario 1

You receive a digitally signed e-mail message that contains another e-mail item or a file that is an attachment.

In this scenario, the subject of the attached e-mail message or the file name is not indexed as a part of the parent message.

Scenario 2

You receive a digitally signed e-mail message that contains a non-e-mail Microsoft Office Outlook item, such as an Appointment, a Contact, or a Task.

In this scenario, the body of the non-e-mail Outlook item is not indexed.

Scenario 3

You receive a digitally signed e-mail message that has attachments, and the message also has an embedded image or a vote button.

In this scenario, attachments in the e-mail message are not indexed.

Scenario 4

You run Office Outlook in classic online mode (non-cached mode), and you receive a digitally signed e-mail message that contains a file attachment, such as an Office Word document.

In this scenario, the attachment contents are indexed as a part of the parent message.

Note When Outlook is running in classic online mode, attachment contents of a regular message are not indexed as part of the parent message. This behavior reduces load on the Microsoft Exchange server.

Scenario 5

You run Outlook in cached mode, and you receive a digitally signed e-mail message that contains a file attachment, such as an Office Word document.

In this scenario, the contents of the attachment are indexed as if they were in the message body of the parent message instead of in separate documents.

Note In regular messages, the contents of attachments are indexed as separate documents.

In this same scenario, if you use the attachment:attachment body string Advanced Query Syntax query to search for attachment contents in digitally signed e-mail messages, the query will not return any results. To work around this issue, you have to use the contents:attachment body string query.

Scenario 6

You receive a digitally signed e-mail message, and the Prevent indexing e-mail attachments Group Policy setting is enabled in your organization.

In this scenario, digitally signed e-mail messages are not indexed. This Group Policy setting does not work together with this update.

Scenario 7

You receive a digitally signed e-mail message that has an attachment, and you use the hasattachments:true Advanced Query Syntax query.

In this scenario, the query returns no results. There is no workaround for using the hasattachments:true query. Instead, you must search for the digitally signed e-mail attachment based on attachment contents.

Installation considerations

After you install this update, e-mail messages that are digitally signed and are received after the installation of this update will be indexed. However, e-mail messages that were digitally signed and received before the installation of this update are not automatically indexed. If you want to include all previously received digitally signed e-mail messages, you must rebuild your index. To do this, open Control Panel, click the Indexing Options item, click Advanced, and then click Rebuild.

Enterprise customers who deploy this update and want to make sure that all previously received digitally signed e-mail messages are searchable have the following three options:

Option 1

After they deploy this update, enterprise customers can ask users to open Control Panel, click the Indexing Options item, click Advanced, and then click Rebuild.

Option 2

Enterprise customers can write and deploy an application that calls the ISearchCatalogMaNot applicableger::Reindex public API. This forces the index to rebuild.

Note If you force a rebuild for all deployed users in an environment at the same time, it could significantly affect the network and the Exchange server during the initial rebuilding of the index. Therefore, we recommend that you force a rebuild of the index to small groups of users in stages.

Option 3

Enterprise customers can force an index rebuild by resetting a registry key to its default setting.

To have us set this registry key for you, go to the “Fix it for me” section. If you prefer to set this registry key yourself, go to the “Let me fix it myself” section.

Fix it for me

To change this registry automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.




Note This wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.

Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD so that you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

Thanks to MVP Anand Khansefor contributing to this Fix it.

Next, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Let me fix it myself

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To force an index rebuild, reset the registry key to its default setting. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\SetupCompletedSuccessfully
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
4. Type 0, and then press ENTER.
5. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

Note If you select this option, you reset all deployed users to the default settings in indexing scopes. Therefore, any modifications that you have made to indexing scopes will be removed, and the default settings will be reset. These default settings include user data in the "Documents and Settings" folder and in Outlook e-mail messages.

Did this fix the problem?

Check whether the index was rebuilt. If the index was rebuilt, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support.

How to block indexing of digitally signed e-mail

You can apply this update for Windows Search 4.0 and still specifically disallow the indexing of digitally signed e-mail. In this case, you have to remove the .p7m file type from the indexing file inclusion list. To do this, open Control Panel, click the Indexing Options item, click Advanced, click the File Types tab, and then click to clear the .p7m type.

Note Any change to the list of file types for inclusion or exclusion into the index requires a full rebuild of the index. This rebuild will be enforced as soon as you make the change.

Enterprise customers who use Group Policy settings to manage their deployments can also exclude the.p7m file type. To do this, enterprise customers must enable the Prevent indexing of certain file types Group Policy setting, and they must add the .p7m file type to the exclusion list.

Fix 2: High network traffic in an Offline Files synchronization environment

In some environments, you can use Offline Files synchronization or client-side caching (CSC) to locally cache content from network shares. In this case, Windows Search indexes the cached content. Before this update, when you logged on to a Windows Vista SP1-based client computer that had CSC applied, multiple attempts were made over the network to open the Desktop.ini file for each shared folder. Additionally, the logon action caused redundant network traffic to retrieve the security descriptors for each folder and file.

This update for Windows Search 4.0 removes these calls and greatly reduces the network traffic that is caused by this behavior.

For help with Windows Search problems in Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft web page: