Enable or disable indexing file contents of specific file types in Windows 11 to control whether Search reads inside your files via Search settings or the registry.
Quick steps: Search and open “Indexing Options” in the Start menu, click the “Advanced” button, go to the “File Types” tab, select the file type of your choice, and select “Index Properties Only” or “Index Properties and File Contents” to enable or disable file content indexing of that file type.
Windows Search is pretty powerful, and by default, it tries to index the content of all the supported file types so that you can search for them with the content inside the file along with its regular properties such as the file name or size.
However, there may be times when you don’t want Windows to index the content of specific file types, or you may want to make sure Windows is actually indexing the content of a file type. Whatever the case may be, you can change the behavior of file content indexing by file type using the advanced indexing options or via a simple registry edit.
In this quick and easy Windows how-to guide, I will show you the two methods. For most users, following the advanced indexing options method is sufficient. For advanced users who’d like to make scripts or one-click solutions, the registry method is helpful. Let me show you.
Before You Start
- Administrator rights are required to change advanced indexing options. This applies to both methods.
Enable or Disable Indexing File Contents of Specific File Types Using Indexing Options
First, open the Settings app by pressing the “Windows key + I” shortcut. Next, click “Privacy & security” in the sidebar, then click “Search” under the “Windows permissions” section.
On this page, scroll down to the “Related settings” section and click “Advanced indexing options“. This opens the “Indexing Options” window.
Note: You can open the same window by simply searching for “Indexing Options” in the Start menu. However, using the Settings app is useful because you don’t need to remember the exact name. So I showed the long way first.
In this window, click the “Advanced” button at the bottom.
The above action opens the “Advanced Options” window. Here, go to the “File Types” tab. Next, select the file type of your choice and select the following option under the “How should this file be indexed?” section, and click “OK” to save the change.
- Enable file content indexing for that specific file type: Select the “Index Properties and File Contents” option.
- Disable file content indexing for that specific file type: Select the “Index Properties Only” option.
Click “Close” in the Index Options window, and you are done with the changes.
With that, you’ve changed whether Windows indexes the file content of that file type. If you have more file types to configure, simply select each file type and change the indexing setting as shown above.
Enable or Disable Indexing File Contents of Specific File Types Using Registry Editor
For those who are a bit adventurous or want to create scripts or one-click solutions, you have the registry method. It is similar to the first method. All you have to do is set a proper GUID, and you are good to go.
Important note: While editing the registry is simple, it can cause problems if you are not careful. So, please back up the registry before following the steps below.
Press the “Windows key + R” to open the Run dialog. In it, type “regedit” and click “OK” to launch the Registry Editor tool. In it, go to the “Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT” folder. You can either copy and paste the path into the address bar or simply navigate to it in the left panel.
Here, on the left sidebar, you will see a big list of file extensions (file types). Find and expand the file extension folder of your choice and select the “PersistentHandler” folder. For example, I select the “.desklink” extension.
Note: If there is no “PersistentHandler” folder under an extension, right-click the extension folder, select “New” > “Key”, and set the new folder name as “PersistentHandler”.
On the right panel of the Registry Editor, double-click the “Default” key.
Now, change its Value Data as follows and click the “OK” button to save the change.
- Enable indexing file contents of this file type: Set the Value Data to “{5e941d80-bf96-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}” (without quotes).
- Disable indexing file contents of this file type: Set the Value Data to “{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}” (without quotes).
For example, I don’t want Windows to index the content of .desklink files. So, I set its Value Data to “{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}”.
If you have additional file types to configure, follow the same steps for each. Once everything is done, close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. After restarting, the changes will be applied, and Windows will either index or not index the file contents of that specific file type depending on your configuration.
That’s it. Write down below any questions or comments you have. I’ll respond as quickly as possible.
