Solid Edge How to disable Windows indexer Backoff for Solid Edge Data Management?

If you are a user of Solid Edge Data Management, you may have been advised by the Siemens PLM Support team to disable the Windows indexer Backoff to increase the indexing performance of your Solid Edge Data Vault computers.  This article provides an explanation of what the Windows indexer Backoff does, the benefits of disabling it, as well as the process for doing this. 

The Windows indexer Backoff is a feature in Windows that temporarily suspends indexing of a file or folder if there are too many failed attempts to access it. This feature is designed to prevent excessive CPU and disk usage caused by unsuccessful indexing attempts.

Disabling the Windows indexer Backoff can be useful in situations where you need to index a large number of files or folders and do not want the indexing process to be interrupted by the Backoff feature.  This can save you time and make the indexing process more efficient.

However, it is important to note that disabling this feature can increase CPU and disk usage, which may impact system performance.

Please note: As this is a Microsoft Windows setting, you are advised to refer for details on Microsoft Support. Also in case of support issues which are related to the setting and Indexer itself.

What follows are just the known steps to set this up.

The Windows indexer Backoff can be set by Local Group Policy, which is not available on several Windows Versions or Registry Editor. 

Edit by Computers group policy

To enable disabling Windows indexer Backoff by Local Group Policy, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type "gpedit.msc" in the Run dialog box and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
3. In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following directory: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search.

4. In the Search folder, double-click on the "Disable indexer backoff" policy.

5. In the policy window, select the "Enabled" option.

6. Click on the "Apply" button and then click on "OK" to save the changes.
7. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.
Once you have completed these steps, the Windows indexer Backoff will be disabled on your system.  Possibly a restart of the computer will be required.

Enable by Registry Editor:

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type "regedit" in the Run dialog box and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search
4. Right-click on the Windows Search key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the new value "DisableBackoff" and set its value to 1.
6. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.