I'm looking for a way to keep the pop up message "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 administrator." from even showing up to begin with.  But without actually turning on the Windows Search Engine, as we purposely disable Windows Search Engine and Indexing on our computers. 

The user then can click Do no show this message again but I'd like to keep 1400 people from having to click that message when we roll this out.  I'm just nice like that.

So far to solve this I put in a DWORD registry entry of DisableDownloadSearchPrompt with a hex value of 1 into key Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Search into the Default User registry hive (by doing a Load Hive... from another profile on the image I'm building and choosing the default user profile's NTUSER.DAT file)

Also tried to find something in the Outlook MSP admin file config options but came up empty.  Though there are a lot of options in there so maybe I missed something.

Thanks for helping me save 1400 clicks!

Hi,

When you try to deploy Microsoft Office Outlook 2010,  you can use Group Policy settings to turn off this feature via OCT.

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=18968

Copy all the files and folders from the Office 2010 CD to a folder on the network or on your computer. For example, copy the files to \\server\share\Office14.
Command-line option to start the OCT: setup.exe /admin .For example, use the following: \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /admin.

In Microsoft Office Customization Tool, under Features, hightlight Modify user settings,

1. Access to  Microsoft Outlook > Outlook Options > Preferences > Search Options .
2. Double-click Prevent installation prompts when Windows Desktop Search component is not present option, select Enabled and then click OK.

You can read following article to familiar with deploy Office by Group Policy or .msp file, also can add  registry key to accomplish this:

"Create custom configurations of Office 2010"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178960.aspx

"Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602181.aspx

"Deploy multiple Setup customization .msp files"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179196.aspx

Best Regards.

First off thanks for the response William!  Appreciate the help.

Unfortunately I tried the solution of changing my msp file to Enable the "Prevent installation prompts when Windows Desktop Search component is not present" and uninstalled and reinstalled office with the setup /adminfile newadmin.msp command and I'm still getting the same prompts.

I looked at the GP admin file you linked to and the only mention I can see in there that looks possible is the same setting. 

Any other ideas?

Just to clarify this is not the prompt asking you to install the software.  This is a prompt warning you that it's been disabled.  But it's disabled on purpose.

Thanks again! 

Did you find out anything more about this?  I am trying to do the same thing.  I'm wanting to turn of the Windows Search service on my terminal server farm since it is constantly using up some of the CPU.  However, I would like to not have the prompt show up for everyone.

I do have the mentioned setting set to Enabled in a GPO, but I still see the prompt when the service is turned off.

• Edited by Nardo88 Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:15 PM

Looks like I found something.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/show-dialogs-dismissed-using-dont-show-dialog-setting/

The value we are concerned with is 53.  I've manually created and deleted the registry values it mentions and have confirmed that it works.  If you create this key or add the 53 value to the key it seems to do the trick.  Now the concern is how to change that value for everyone.  I'm thinking I'll use group policy preferences, but this may overwrite the existing value.

• Marked as answer by WoodenSoul Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:10 PM

Nardo88 for the win!  Good searching sir/maddam.  I was doing all kinds of searches for disabling the message.  Never thought to search for how to reenable a window that was checkmarked to never show again!

For those looking for the quick answer:

Create a group policy or modify your default user registry hive to add a string value registry entry of PONT_STRING with a Value Data of 53 in the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\options\general.  

The article referenced by Nardo88 explains that if you already have a PONT_STRING entry then to just add a Value Data of 53 to the end making sure you put a comma between each entry. (i.e. - 8,11,53).  The article also gives other values of dialog boxes you might want to dismiss.

• Marked as answer by WoodenSoul Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:20 PM

Thanks much!

Saved me hours of searching. Much appreciated and did the t

Hi Nardo88,

Did you find a way to append "53," to the pont_string key? Or did you end up writing over current values, if any?

We are using Outlook 2013 in a Windows 2008r2 XenApp farm.

Outlook runs an installation (Microsoft Office 64-bit Components 2013) every time a user starts Outlook and/or when the user clicks on the search field in Outlook (explained here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/b8e8277c-a2f9-426a-bb3d-3f45bd0a47fc/installation-runs-everytime-we-start-outlook-2013-application-in-terminal-services)

To solve that, we had to install the File Services role and enable the Windows Search feature on the XenApp servers. Even when not selecting any disk to index the searchindexer.exe is hogging a big chunk of processing power along with I/O because it's indexing every users profile and mailbox. So I've stopped the process and disabled the service once and for all. The users were not happy with the performance, to say the least.

But now the popup that this thread is about keeps popping up for the users when they click the search field inside Outlook. I want it removed. But I don't want to overwrite the current values for the users.

It's frustrating. From one problem to another :)

Regards
P-H