Hi,

is that even possible? My Goal is to prevent users from searching the filesystem via charmsbar.

if I disable the Windows Search service, it affects only the search indexer and not the ability to search something. 
In Windows 7 it was possible to turn the Windows Search Feature off, but that Feature is not available in Windows 8.x anymore.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Patrick

Hi,

as far as I know this is indeed not possible. Note that users are always able to search files they are allowed to read by using any tool.

To optimize user experience (and maybe to hide some folder from the user), there are tons of gpo settengs available in search.admx. i would recommend to leave the indexer on, but to define restrictions on what gets indexed and thus displayed upon search.

take a look in the group policy reference  for the exact settigns and their usage. In a non domain environment you could add/change the involved registry

Thanks for your reply. I found a setting in group policies called "Prevent indexing certain paths".

That seems to be just what I'm looking for. But it's still possible to search C:\ if I enable this setting with value "file:///C:\*". Is there another way to hide a specific folder for users?

If you just want to hide a drive

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer > Prevent access to drives from My Computer

In some cases the indexer needs "a kick" (rebuild) to forget already indexed locations.

Be aware that hiding drives this way purely cosmetic, and users will still have access if they now how.

I think it's impossible to disable the search in Windows 8.x. A premium support engineer confirmed this.

Thanks anyway for your support.

I think it's impossible to disable the search in Windows 8.x. A premium support engineer confirmed this.

Thanks anyway for your support.

• Proposed as answer by Michael ShaoMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 7 hours 21 minutes ago

I think it's impossible to disable the search in Windows 8.x. A premium support engineer confirmed this.

Thanks anyway for your support.

• Proposed as answer by Michael ShaoMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, October 20, 2014 3:30 AM

I think it's impossible to disable the search in Windows 8.x. A premium support engineer confirmed this.

Thanks anyway for your support.

• Proposed as answer by Michael ShaoMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, October 20, 2014 3:30 AM
• Marked as answer by Michael_MartinModerator Thursday, November 06, 2014 5:10 PM

Hi,

Thank you for your update.

If any further questions, please feel free to ask in TechNet.

Best regards

I think it's impossible to disable the search in Windows 8.x. A premium support engineer confirmed this.

That sounds too negative.  "Impossible"?  More like "not available by design."  Run ProcMon to see where all the possible points for interference in the flow could be using permissions, if not designed GPO for example.  But I would be surprised if there is not a GPO.  Surely this use case would have been anticipated for supporting "Kiosk mode" deployments?

OMG.  gpedit.msc search for Search in Administrative Templates All Settings finds 55.  Surely one of those would do something about inhibiting File search?  OTOH another search for charm incredibly finds nothing relevant?  So you may have to design your own inhibitor.

Good luck

Many comments, but no one asks "why?" - so I'll do this.

Why would you benefit from turning off search? It will not do any harm.

Ok, it is possible to remove the search functionality. At first i disabled the SearchEngine-ClientPackage via following DISM command "dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:SearchEngine-Client-Package". That affects the ability to search through the charmsbar and windows explorer. 

The next step was to enable "Remove run menu from Start Menu" via group policy.

Best regards

• Marked as answer by Michael ShaoMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 10 hours 7 minutes ago