Outlook mail search is affected by desktop search in Windows 11. It has issues indexing and finding messages and disrupts mailbox search. This impacts POP and IMAP accounts as well as Exchange accesses that have been offline. Exchange accounts online and Microsoft 365 users are not affected.
Search for email in Windows 11 is interrupted
Microsoft’s latest operating systems are now affected by a bug that interferes with Microsoft Outlook’s search and indexing. This is just like the December cumulative update to Windows 11 and Windows 10. Microsoft has already published a similar post on this support website.
Outlook Desktop may not show the most recent email results when you search Outlook Desktop on Windows 11. Indexing might be slow or stopped if you go to Control Panel and check the Windows indexing options. This problem affects users who have POP, IMAP or offline MS Exchange accounts. The search function uses the local Windows Search to index email. Microsoft 365 email and associated Exchange accounts use Service Search to search for most scopes. This issue is not affecting them. Microsoft
This error is still not fixed. Microsoft is working on a solution and will release an update “in one the next versions”.
Microsoft announces a workaround
Users affected by the problem will need to accept a temporary solution. The following steps are required to allow Microsoft Outlook to use the integrated Search function in the email client under Windows 11 instead of the system search function.
- Windows key + R
- – Enter Regedit
- Launch Registry Editor
Then navigate to the following registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows
- Right-click Windows in the left tree
- Search key for Windows Search – New
- – New DWORD Value (32 bits) –
PreventIndexingOutlook - – Double click
PreventIndexingOutlook – value = 1
Temporary workarounds are available. Microsoft Outlook must be restarted in order to allow the changes to take place and enable the integrated search function.
Windows 10 has been unaffected
The registry changes can be reversed after Microsoft releases the update. An update is not required for a Known Issue Rollback (KIR), which was implemented in Windows 10.