Thread: How to Incorporate encrypted files into the System Search

Windows does not indicate encrypted flies by default. Thus, even the search function cannot find it and it's definitely not easy to operate.

To 'start with, the encrypted files are excluded from the search for safety reasons. However, you can ensure that all the contents are indicated by means of a registry entry. The safety is ensured nevertheless as Windows shows search hits of encrypted files only if a user has the access rights to it. Type 'regedit' in the entry field of the start menu and press Enter. Confirm the request of the user account control. Navigate to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\ Windows' key in the editor. Create the 'Windows Search' sub-key with the 'Edit/New/Key' command and select it. Open 'Edit/New/DWORD value' in the right part of the window, enter 'Allow Indexing Encrypted StoresOritems' as the description and press Enter. For editing, double-click the new entry, set its value to '1' and confirm with 'OK'. Close the registry. You need to wait for sometime for complete efficiency because Windows re-creates the index completely in the background. Therefore, you should try not to change the settings that have been configured if possible.

Basically, you can also configure the settings by adjusting the indexing options in the Control Panel. For that. select the 'Classic View' in Vista or 'View Large Icons' in Windows 7. Then double-click 'Indexing' options'. and then 'Advanced' in succession. Activate the 'Index settings' register. You can confirm via the 'Index encrypted files' option and then with 'OK'. However, the path via the registry has the advantage that these instructions defined as guidelines can no longer be changed by a user using the indexing options.