If I allow of the next templates by way of gpedit.msc, they apply appropriately:

Pc ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesWindows ComponentsSearch
 Default excluded paths
 Default listed paths
 Stop indexing sure paths

Nevertheless when setting the corresponding registry keys, they’re ignored utterly (even after a reboot), besides if I apply one in every of these later manually. It appears the WSearch service (SearchIndexer.exe) does not learn the insurance policies till some perform triggers it to.

For instance, to illustrate I wish to exclude C:Customers, with this batch script:

internet cease WSearch && sc config WSearch begin= disabled
reg add "HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows SearchDefaultExcludedPaths" /v "%SYSTEMDRIVEpercentUsers" /t REG_SZ /d "%SYSTEMDRIVEpercentUsers" /f
reg add "HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows SearchCurrentPoliciesDefaultExcludedPaths" /v "%SYSTEMDRIVEpercentUsers" /t REG_SZ /d "%SYSTEMDRIVEpercentUsers" /f
sc config WSearch begin= demand && internet begin WSearch

It does not get utilized until, to illustrate, I add one other listing to Default listed paths by way of the Group Coverage Editor.

I’ve efficiently eliminated this rule by deleting the corresponding key in HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows SearchCrawlScopeManagerWindowsSystemIndexWorkingSetRules however it is a bit messy as a result of it’s important to edit permissions and such. This is able to be a extra cleaner, customary approach of attaining the identical.