Regedit and Registry Search

[britechguy]

This probably falls into "stupid question" just based upon the behavior I observe when doing a search in Regedit, but is every search "item by item" from beginning to end of the registry?

The behavior of searches (except when you do a Find next, which clearly takes off from your current position) strongly suggests that there is no sort of indexing whatsoever involved in Regedit searches, but was wondering if anyone with deep Windows registry expertise would confirm/refute that?

Registry searches take "for freakin' ever" and the only reason I can think of for this is that there is no index and the only way they're being done item-by-item, regardless of which classes are checked in the Find dialog itself.

 

[Sky-Knight]

It searches as you expect, from whatever hive you have selected.

And no, there is no index.

 

[Markverhyden]

As @Sky-Knight indicated you can pick where to search. Historically my searches revolved around the user(s) in question. So picking the respective hive shrinks the search a lot.

 

[britechguy]

Historically my searches revolved around the user(s) in question. So picking the respective hive shrinks the search a lot.

True, if the thing being searched for is actually there. I'll try again later just to test, but I seem to recall if the thing being searched for is not in that hive, the search in regedit will "keep on going" in hopes of finding it somewhere, until it's circled back to where it's started.

 

[britechguy]

By the way, what triggered this question, indirectly, was someon on one of the blind-centric tech lists asking how they could stop Windows search from including web searches (period) that are done with Bing by default.

I turned this off in the very earliest days of Windows 10, when there was a clear setting to do so, and it never returned through many cumulative updates and Feature Updates, and that included my "unauthorized" in-place upgrade to Windows 11. But none of the settings now available related to Search permissions seems to do that trick, and there are a number of registry hacks out there which I have no idea if they work or not anymore. Things with certain registry hacks have stopped working over time.

There has to be some setting, somewhere, in the Registry that disables web searching as a part of a Windows Search. But I have tried searching my own registry for things the various registry hacks have used, and almost none turn up and one key that does turn up is nowhere near to the place the hack says it should be placed. I know that when I flipped that switch in probably early 2016 it had to have set some registry value to disable web searching as part of Windows Search, but I'll be darned if I have any idea where/what.

 

[Markverhyden]

True, if the thing being searched for is actually there. I'll try again later just to test, but I seem to recall if the thing being searched for is not in that hive, the search in regedit will "keep on going" in hopes of finding it somewhere, until it's circled back to where it's started.

Not my experience. If that particular hive has nothing then it returns nothing. I have started searches at the root in efforts to clean things up. In reality it would have been quicker and easier to just do a N&P.

 

[Markverhyden]

By the way, what triggered this question, indirectly, was someon on one of the blind-centric tech lists asking how they could stop Windows search from including web searches (period) that are done with Bing by default.

I turned this off in the very earliest days of Windows 10, when there was a clear setting to do so, and it never returned through many cumulative updates and Feature Updates, and that included my "unauthorized" in-place upgrade to Windows 11. But none of the settings now available related to Search permissions seems to do that trick, and there are a number of registry hacks out there which I have no idea if they work or not anymore. Things with certain registry hacks have stopped working over time.

There has to be some setting, somewhere, in the Registry that disables web searching as a part of a Windows Search. But I have tried searching my own registry for things the various registry hacks have used, and almost none turn up and one key that does turn up is nowhere near to the place the hack says it should be placed. I know that when I flipped that switch in probably early 2016 it had to have set some registry value to disable web searching as part of Windows Search, but I'll be darned if I have any idea where/what.

I believe if you open an explorer window and search from there is will limit to just what's on the HD or other attached locations.

 

[britechguy]

Not my experience. If that particular hive has nothing then it returns nothing.

Well, I just did testing, and we're both right, kinda. If I start a search in a hive that's after the one I know that a given key resides in, the search stops when I hit the end of either that hive (and I don't think so, read ahead) or the registry (more likely) when none is found.

If I start the search in one of the hives above where that key resides in the registry tree structure, the search continues until that key is found two hives below.

This suggests to me that while there is no "circling back to the start" of the registry if a search hits the end, it does not stop at hive boundaries. It starts wherever you happen to have focus and continues until either the search finds something or the end of the registry is reached.

Anyone who wishes can easily test this out themselves. The partial key name (and I only looked for Keys) I used was "BingEnabled." I've only got that in a single key in the entire registry. If I start in a hive below the one it resides in, I get nothing for a search result. If I start at either Computer or a hive above the one in which it resides, it's found.

 

[GTP]

How to stop windows searching with Bing

Have you tried this?

Browse to the folder

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer in the left pane, right-click the empty space in the right panel, and select DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions”, without the quotation marks, and set the Value data to “1”.

 

[britechguy]

@GTP

This is registry hack #3, and is very similar to #s 1 and 2. Under Windows 11, anyway, there is a toggle under Privacy & Security settings, Search Permissions Pane, "More" section for "Show search highlights." I've had that toggled OFF for I have no idea how long, and I don't know if the default is ON, but I suspect it is. [Addendum: In checking that Pane again, not only is that setting toggled off, but it's stippled out. I have no ability to change it as things stand now, and I have no idea why that would be.]

A registry search for the key you mention, starting at "Computer," does return that key, here:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\ADMX_WindowsExplorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions
with multiple subkeys beneath it. A find next returns nothing. Here's the screenshot of what's found:

 

[GTP]

@britechguy


I'm not sure if you mentioned whether it's Home or Pro, but looking at my systems (both Win 11 Home and Pro) I cannot see any reference to "ADMX"
Not sure why you have an "ADMX" key showing here. I would backup your registry, and specifically this ADMX key (which should include all subkeys) then remove it. You can add it back later if needed.

The registry hack I posted is for Windows 11, so I would be looking for the specific key as mentioned - and if not there - create it and edit it as described.
If it doesnt work you can simply remove it.

I found this also which could be helpful.

Winareo Tweaker allows you to set certain parameters with regard to "Searching with Bing." I've never used this software but I have several clients that do/have.
I'm not a fan of these types of tools but it could be useful for what you are doing. Create a Restore Point before; JIC.

 

[britechguy]

My own system is Windows 11. And why what's in any Windows Registry is actually in there remains a deep, dark mystery to me, for the most part. I noticed exactly what you did, but figure since there's an entire swath of AMDX keys and most of them appear to be very directly related to Windows, that Microsoft put 'em there. The machine has never had an infection detected, so if it's something nefarious it's really, really good at avoiding detection while leaving a massive, visible trail of evidence of its existence. Windows Defender/Security hasn't complained.

 

[GTP]

Microsoft did indeed "put them there" and they are by no means nefarious.
They refer to Administrative Policies.

Some info here.

I would try Winareo Tweaker.

 

[britechguy]

I've used WinAero Tweaker, and love it.

But I'm trying to find out if there is any way to do this through the native Windows UI first. I really don't like either registry hacks or third party utilities if there is actually a way to do something in the Windows settings, as that pretty much means the method is as safe as it can be.