Administrative How-to Guides

Applies To: Windows 7

This section describes common Windows Search, Browse, and Organize tasks for administrators.

  • How to Customize and Deploy Libraries

  • How to Hide Default Libraries

  • How to Index Library Locations

  • How to Make Folders Available Offline

  • How to Install Windows Search and Enable the File Services Role

  • How to Include Encrypted Files in the Index

  • How to Enable TIFF Content Indexing

  • How to Deploy Search Connectors for Federated Search

How to Customize and Deploy Libraries

Administrators can promote file collections among users by creating and deploying custom libraries. Custom libraries can be created or edited in the following ways:

  • Using the Manage Locations dialog box in Windows® Explorer

  • Creating or editing a Library Description (*.library-ms) file directly

For more information on Library Description files, see the Library Description Schema topics on the Microsoft® Web site.

Administrators can deploy customized libraries in the following ways:

  • Using a logon script or Group Policy Preferences (through the Default User profile)

  • Adding custom libraries to the server where Roaming User Profiles are redirected

Deploying through a logon script or Group Policy Preferences

You can copy the .library-ms files to a local computer or copy them to a server if the users’ library directories are redirected to a network location. You can use a logon script or Group Policy Preferences to copy libraries to the %userprofile%\Appdata\roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries directory.

The locations specified in custom libraries need to be accessible by the target users. These locations include known folders, fixed local folders, mapped drives on the users’ computers, or network shared resources where users have access. If a user does not have permissions to a folder, that folder does not appear in the library and no warning appears for the user.

Warning

Copying a customized default library to this directory overwrites the existing library. However, if a user right-clicks the library name, and then selects Restore default libraries, the default library replaces the custom library that was deployed by the administrator.

Using the Default User profile   Administrators can edit the set of libraries associated with the Default User profile, and then deploy the libraries to users who derive from Default User.

Deploying libraries using Roaming User Profiles

Remote libraries can include content from locations that are local or remote to the server, much as local libraries can. To support this, the user’s known folders are ideally redirected and available in the Roaming User Profiles. Library definition files are located in the %userprofile%\Appdata\roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries directory, and they can be shared on a server.

For more information, see Implementing Roaming User Profiles.

Note

Library locations should be modified to reference UNC locations. Local paths that are included as locations will not work properly because the user is roaming from computer to computer.

How to Hide Default Libraries

If certain default libraries are not suitable for the business environment (such as Music or Videos libraries), we recommend hiding those libraries. Hiding libraries is preferable to deleting them because many applications depend on these default libraries to run properly. Applications will re-create the default libraries if they cannot locate them on the computer.

To hide a default library, you need to run a script on the network to modify the Library Description file, and you need to set a Group Policy setting to hide the link to this library on the Start menu. The script should set the hidden attribute of the Library Description file (*.library-ms). This conceals the library from users in the Windows Explorer navigation pane and Items View. However, this does not hide the library in the Start menu or in the Include in Library option in the context menu. This also does not prevent the user from opening the library from an application or the Library application programming interface (API).

The following example script hides the Pictures library:

@echo off
%systemdrive%
cd\
cd %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
attrib +h Pictures.library-ms

You need to set a Group Policy setting for every library that has a link you want to conceal in the Start menu. You can find these Group Policy settings under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar.

How to Index Library Locations

Certain library features depend on the contents of the libraries being indexed. There are two ways to enable the indexing of library locations:

  1. Index the location by using the local Windows Search indexer.

    • If a folder is stored locally, include it in the library. This automatically adds the location to the indexing scope.

    • If a folder is stored remotely, make it available offline or install a search protocol handler for the storage location. This adds the location to the local indexing scope.

      For more information, see How to Make Folders Available Offline.

  2. Federate from the local indexer to files that are indexed remotely on the following operating systems:

    • Windows 7

    • Windows Server® 2008 R2 with Search activated and running under the File Services role

    • Windows Server® 2008 with Search activated and running under the File Services role

    • Windows Vista® (SP1 and later)

    • Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) with Windows Search 4.0

    • Windows Server® 2003 (SP2) with Windows Search 4.0

For details on installing and enabling the file services role on Windows Server, please see How to Install Windows Search and Enable the File Services Role.

How to Make Folders Available Offline

To gain the benefits of having content indexed locally, users can manually sync to locations that are not indexed remotely and are not using folder redirection.

To make a folder on a shared resource available offline and locally indexed, users can do the following:

  1. Navigate to the folder that you want to include in the library.

  2. Right-click the folder and then select Always available offline.

  3. A dialog box shows the progress of the files that are being locally cached. Wait for this process to complete.

These locations can now be included in libraries to provide a rich metadata-backed experience.

How to Install Windows Search and Enable the File Services Role

Note

No search component update is required for Windows 7 because this operating system already contains the most recent version of Windows Search.

On Windows Server 2003

No server-specific action is required. Install one of the standalone Search packages by using the links below, and then use the Indexing Options control panel to add locations to the index or change other Windows Search indexer settings.

An in-place upgrade from Windows Desktop Search 3.01 to Windows Search 4.0 on Windows Server 2003 is not supported. Windows Desktop Search 3.01 must be uninstalled before Windows Search 4.0 can be installed. However, the Windows Search 4.0 installer checks for the presence of Windows Desktop Search 3.01 and uninstalls it automatically, so a manual uninstall should not be required when you upgrade to Windows Search 4.0.

On Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

  1. In the Server Manager console, click File Services the Roles pane to install the File Services role.

  2. After the File Services role is installed, click Add Role Services and add the “Windows Search Service” role service. You may need to reboot the computer to enable Windows Search on Windows Server 2008 R2.

  3. The Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 role management interface presents a dialog box where you can select whole drives (not folders) that you want to index. To choose indexed locations or indexer settings more precisely, or to modify indexer settings any time after the role installation, use the Indexing Options control panel.

  4. The default search component that is available in Windows Server 2008 is Windows Desktop Search 3.01. To update this to Windows Search 4.0, manually install the Windows Search 4.0 package through Windows Update or by using the following links:

Note

To execute remote queries against server locations, you must set up shared resources with the appropriate permissions so that the target locations are accessible over the network.
Windows Search 4.0 automatically indexes all shared resources locations. Windows Desktop Search 3.01 and the Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2) search component do not automatically index shared resources.

How to Include Encrypted Files in the Index

Use to following procedure to include encrypted documents in the index.

  1. From the Indexing Options Control Panel, click Advanced.

  2. Select Index Encrypted Files.

  3. Click OK in the Index Encrypted File dialog box to rebuild the index to include encrypted files.

After these documents are indexed, users can search to find the content within them.

How to Enable TIFF Content Indexing

The options used to enable optional Windows components are also available to enable the Windows TIFF IFilter feature. These options include the following:

  • Using the Ocsetup.exe tool to install Windows components.

    For more information about how to use the Oscetup.exe tool, see article 936209 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147925).

  • Using Windows Installer.

  • Turning on the Windows TIFF IFilter feature in Windows client.

    To turn on Windows TIFF IFilter

    1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Turn Windows Features on or off.

    2. If you are prompted for an administrative password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

    3. Select the check box next to the Windows TIFF IFilter feature.

After you finish one of the previous options, Windows Search will index the contents of new TIFF image documents that are added to the index scope. If there are already TIFF image documents in the index scope, you need to rebuild the index before you can search for the content of these new files.

To rebuild the index

  1. Open the Indexing Options Control Panel by clicking Start, clicking Control Panel, clicking All Control Panel Items, and then clicking Indexing Options.

  2. Click Advanced, and then click Rebuild.

Warning

Rebuilding the index takes some time. The index may be out of date until the build process completes.

Important

Group Policy settings for the Windows TIFF IFilter enable control of the language dictionary that the optical character recognition (OCR) process uses. To improve OCR processing speed, ensure that the OCR engine is aware of the languages that are used in the text that it is processing. By default, the Windows TIFF IFilter uses the default system language to determine which language dictionary to use during the OCR process. If the language in TIFF image documents differs from the system default language, the OCR search result set is degraded. For more information, see Group Policy for Windows Search, Browse, and Organize.

Search Quality Considerations

The Windows TIFF IFilter is intended for use with textual documents; therefore, search is more successful for documents that contain clearly identifiable text (such as black text on white background) and less successful for documents with mixed content (such as artistic text or text in pictures). Low quality images and mixed languages can also have a negative impact on the OCR processing and consequently on the quality of the search results.

After creating .osdx and .searchconnector-ms files, administrators can deploy search connectors across their enterprise by using one of several methods. You should choose a method based on your individual goals and the scale of your organization’s planned rollout of Windows 7.

For more information, see Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer’s Guide.

Pull Deployment

In pull deployment, the end-user must take the initiative to install the search connector. The administrator can provide a .osdx file to users in one of the following ways:

  • Send it in an e-mail

  • Post it on a Web page

  • Copy it to the user’s computer

Then, the user must locate and open the .osdx file.

Push Deployment

In push deployment, the administrator takes the initiative to install search connectors, and no user action is required. There are a number of ways to push search connectors to users. Following are the most common methods for push deployment:

  • A logon script or Group Policy Preferences in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2

  • Roaming user profiles

  • Imaging

Logon Script or Group Policy Preferences   Administrators can write a logon script or use Group Policy Preferences in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to push files to the appropriate folder on each user’s computer. The script or preference should do the following.

  1. Copy the .searchConnector-ms files to %userprofile%\Searches.

  2. Copy the .lnk files, which reference the .searchConnector-ms files, to %userprofile%\Links.

If you use Group Policy Preferences, you should use the Files preference extension to copy the .searchConnector-ms files, and you should use the Shortcut preferences extension to copy the .lnk files.

Roaming user profiles   Use the following procedure if all roaming user profiles are stored on the same server:

  1. Copy the relevant files to the user profiles on the server.

  2. Allow the clients to copy the files with the next synchronization.

Note

Make sure that the shortcuts (.lnk files) you deploy point to the correct directory. If you point to a user directory, be sure to specify it generically, for example: %userprofile%\Searches\example.searchConnector-ms.

Imaging   Copy the relevant search connector and link files in the Default User profile, and the files will automatically copy to users’ profiles when they log on.

  1. Copy the .searchConnector-ms file to C:\Users\Default\Searches\.

  2. Copy the .lnk file to C:\Users\Default\Links\.

Note

Make sure that the shortcuts (.lnk files) you deploy point to the correct directory. If you point to a user directory, be sure to specify it generically, for example: %userprofile%\Searches....

See Also

Concepts

Windows Browse and Organize Features
Windows Search Features
Windows Indexing Features
Federated Search Features
Group Policy for Windows Search, Browse, and Organize
Additional Resources for Windows Search, Browse, and Organization

Other Resources

Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer’s Guide
Library Description Schema
Implementing Roaming User Profiles