Searches and indexing in Outlook can present a number of issues for end users. Administrators need to know how to correct problems as they emerge.

One of the problems that can occur is if a user performs a search for text that they know exists but the search returns no results.

One instance where this can happen is if after upgrading your Windows XP operating system to Windows Vista, you then upgraded your Office suite software to the 2007 version. This can happen if your end user has received many Rich Text Format (RTF) emails and/or because Outlook 2007 was configured to use RTF as the format for email messages.

What has happened is that after the upgrade, Windows Vista no longer recognizes RTF files since they are not registered under Windows Vista.

The following steps below can be used to correct this situation:

1. Click on the Start button in the lower left hand corner.
2. Next click Control Panel option.
3. From the view pane, select the Classic View.
4. Double-click Indexing Options.
5. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced. If you are not the administrator then get their assistance as you may be prompted for their password.
6. From the File Types tab, find “rtf” in the Extensions list.
7. You need to determine if the RTF filter has been registered. You want it to be registered. Look at the Filter Description for “rtf”. Is it described as a “Plain Text filter” or a “Null filter”? If so, then you’ll need to register it.

Here are the steps to register the “rtf” filter:

1. Click on the Start button. Next click on All Programs and then Accessories. Right-click the Command Prompt, and then click “Run as administrator”.
2. You may be prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation. If needed, get assistance from an administrator for them to type their password. Click Continue to confirm.
   a) Type regsvr32 rtffilt.dll, and then press ENTER.
   b) You should see the following message: “DllRegisterServer in rtffilt.dll succeeded.” Click OK.

Another problem that you may see is when you receive an error message which says: “Outlook cannot perform your search. Outlook cannot display this view. The folder already exists.” This may happen when the Find feature in Outlook is being used.

If a previously defined Advanced Find was saved it may now be corrupted. This could be the reason Outlook is reporting to be unable to perform the search.

This problem can be resolved very easily by following the steps below:

1. Quit and log off of Outlook.
2. Click the Start button. Then click Run and in the Open box type: “outlook /cleanfinders” without the double quotes.

The reason why you received this error is because the /cleanfinders switch in Outlook causes all saved searches to be removed from the mailbox.

Another situation that administrators will run into occasionally is when they use elevated user rights within Outlook 2007 on a Windows Vista machine. They will find that they cannot index email messages or search email messages.

An example of this is if you have a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Vista, has User Account Control (UAC) enabled and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 is also running with elevated user rights. You will find that you cannot index email messages or search email messages.

There is a host process called “SearchProtocolHost.exe” that cannot open the same handle to the personal folders (.pst) file that Outlook 2007 uses. The reason is because Outlook 2007 is using this handle when you run Outlook 2007 by using elevated user rights.

You can reproduce this problem with the following steps:

1. Click on the Start button
2. Select Control Panel and then click “User Accounts and Family Safety”
3. Click User Accounts
4. Select “Turn User Account Control on or off”
5. Check the box for “Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer”
6. Hit enter or click OK
7. The dialog box for “You must restart your computer to apply these changes” will pop up. Click on Restart Now.
8. Re-log back on to the system as a non-administrator.
9. For the version of Outlook that you are running, open the Program FileMicrosoft OfficeOffice directory.
10. Right-click on OUTLOOK.exe and then select “Run as administrator”
11. Enter the administrator’s password and then click OK or hit enter.

On a side note, as you may have already concluded, using .pst files can be difficult and lead to various problems. Having a good archiving solution in place can limit a company’s exposure to the problems often seen when using .pst files.