553048 - Deactivation of Windows Search (mail.winsearch.enable) is not possible

Status: REOPENED

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[dfghjkjhg]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; de; rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100227 Lightning/1.0b1 Thunderbird/3.0.3

I just found out, that deactivating Windows Search in Thunderbird is not possible.

When I deselect Windows Search in the preferences window, the preferences window closes. But when I open the preferences window again, Windows Search is activated again.

Also a direct change of mail.winsearch.enable to false doesn't work. It's also immediately set to true again.

So currently it's not possilbe to deactivate Windows Search at all.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

This works for me. Can you try in safe-mode ?

Comment 2

[dfghjkjhg]

I have already tried many times in safe mode. Didn't help.
Just tried again few seconds ago: and it worked ! Win Serach was deactivated.

However: for testing purposes I activated Win Search again. And then I tried again to deactivate Win Search. Now I have the same problem as before: I cannot deactivate Win Search any more.

Comment 3

[dfghjkjhg]

Update:

I restartet my PC, because I thought this would be the solution. But also didn't help.

Meanwhile I restarted it I don't know how many times and surprisingly now it was possible to deactivate Win Search.

But can't explain why deactivation of Win Search is sometimes possible and sometimes not.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

rosaroter, does this reproduce in version 3.1? do you see anything in error console?

Comment 5

[dfghjkjhg]

I just did some tests.
The problem didn't occur any more  :-)

I am wondering whether the problem has been resolved by TB 3.1  - or because I am meanwhile using Win7 (instead of Win Vista before)...

Comment 6

[wi683br]

I have the same issue with Thunderbird 31.7.0 on Win Vista Business SP2 32bit. I've had Windows Search Integration ON for some time, and now trying to turn it off is impossible.  I've tried uninstalling, creating a new computer user, and installing in that user account.  Then even before creating any accounts, if the Windows Search Integration is turned on at some point, it can not be turned off afterward.  I could create a new profile and never turn integration on, but I'd really rather not move all my large accounts (IMAP, POP, and Local) to a new profile. If there is a fix, that would be great.

Comment 7

[Anje]

Using Vista 32 bit and TB 31.7.0

Created separate Profile to test.
Tools > Options > Advanced > General
select: Allow windows Search to search messages.
I have vista UAC set up to ask to ok when making changes.
that window pops up so I can ok it.
click on options Ok

then went into 'Config Editor' to confirm mail.winsearch.enable = true.

Performed some searches and opened and closed Tb and repeated for good measure.

then went to switch off via same method deselect: Allow windows Search to search messages.
I also had the Config Editor open.
UAC window pops up so I can ok it.

the deselected  Allow windows Search to search messages  check box immediately is reselected.
when you try via Config EDitor to toggle, it will get the UAC to allow, but immediately the toggle refuses to go to false.

so to confirm: It becomes impossible to remove this via Options window and via Config Editor.

The only method I could use to fix this was to access Profile folder.
Close Thunderbird.
Open 'prefs.js' file using Notepad and edit the perference: user_pref("mail.winsearch.enable", true);
so that it said: user_pref("mail.winsearch.enable", false);
Save the file and restart Thunderbird.
rechecked the Options selection and Config Editor, all were deactivated, so this method worked.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Aceman, are you able to test this on XP?

Thanks wi683br for reporting this, and Anje for testing. I remembered had a Vista to test on, and also was unable to make the uncheck stick.

Comment 9

[wi683br]

Thank you Anje and Wayne, for your attention and the prefs.js interim fix.

Comment 10

[:aceman]

I do not see this option in Advanced preferences on Win XP.

Comment 11

[Robert Miles]

Problem still present in mid-November 2015 beta version, at least under Windows Vista.  See bug 1224764 for more details, including a possible workaround.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Robert Miles from comment #11)
> Problem still present in mid-November 2015 beta version, at least under
> Windows Vista.  See bug 1224764 for more details, including a possible
> workaround.

"clicking on the Check Now box under System Integration opened another window with a different Allow Windows Search to search messages box; clicking on that one instead actually took effect."

Comment 14

[renArD]

Hi,
I had the same issue in version 60.7.0 32 bits. I checked the "allow Windows to search" option and was unable to uncheck it (even through the mail.winsearch.enable which instantanely switches back to true).
I decided to turn of the "windows search" service (thanks to services.msc) but it turns on automatically. So I set this service to be disabled (not to automatically start). Then I can uncheck the Thunderbird option (it is grayed). I don't remember if I had to restart Thunderbird in the process. Once done, if you turn on the service again, the problem remains : on Thunderbird opening, it asks if it is the default application for emails etc. and if you allow windows to search. Even if you uncheck it, it activates this option !
ATB

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

RenArD, Robert,
Does this also happen with Windows 7? Or 10?

Comment 16

[Robert Miles]

Windows 7 - I don't remember seeing it there. I no longer use Windows 7.

Windows 10 - I haven't seen it under Windows 10.

Comment 17

[Meichthys]

I know this is a very old issue, but i noticed that after turning off windows search in the settings, the following preference was still set in the config editor:
mail.winsearch.enable = true

Comment 18

[EarlgreyTea]

Since Wayne seems interested in this bug, let me make a comment here related to closed bug 1926337.
I think that originally this bug 553048 had a different cause, but the cause in Thunderbird 68 and later is as pointed out by Meichthys.
The "Allow Windows Search to search Messages" option in the Settings UI and "mail.winsearch.enable" in the Config Editor are not linked.
This is also the cause of bug 1664169.

Comment 19

[EarlgreyTea]

regression window:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=a895eda2b2574153242e3b9e13b6d2fe15b2aae0&tochange=56f6fda8a27435070537edc3dcb27d79e82dca06