It appears to me that on a server with an indexed network share (Desktop Experience and Search Indexing roles/features installed), if you access the share directly on the server using its drive path, you can search the folders using the index, which is much faster and supports finding words inside of the files in seconds). However, if you access the same shared folder via its network path from the server itself, the server ignores the index. I have this experience/problem across all shared folders on the Windows 2012 R2 Server. Details and my most specific goal follows.
In addition to a laptop, I frequently work directly on a Windows Server 2012 R2 computer. We have Redirected Folders set up on DFS (for failover redundancy) so that my Documents folder is in:\\network\redirections\user\documents. This all works fine on Windows 7 and 8 client computers connected to the network via Offline Files.
The problem is on the server itself. The server has Desktop Experience enabled and Windows Search is installed. If I navigate manually through the DFS root folder to my documents folder, I can search and it properly uses the index. This proves the location is properly indexed. However, if I access the folders through the official "Documents" folder from the Folder Redirection (a network share pointing to the same server computer I'm working on), it performs an un-indexed search (slow and ignores file contents, but does find files eventually if the search term is in their filename). Is there a way to force the server to use the indexed search on the Redirected Folders (my Documents folder in particular) when working on that server when logged in locally on that server?
I suspect a workaround would be to go into the Registry and manually change the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders to point to the local DFS folder instead of the network share name, but at least one problem with this is then if I save files with links to other files (e.g., a linked Excel table in a PowerPoint, a mail merge to Access database in Word, etc.) on the server computer, those links will point to d:\DFSroot\... (a physical drive on the computer) instead of \\network\redirections\user\... (a universally accessible network path) and so none of the other computers will be able to find the linked files, defeating one of the major benefits of using Redirected Folders.
I can't believe that I need to choose between indexed searching and proper path names in saved files. Surely there is a way to use an indexed search on the server itself?
If you need any more info to help me troubleshoot, please let me know.
Thanks for any help,
Colin