Notes Search Across Apps Stops Working with Notes R11 or Notes R12 Upgrade

Mindwatering Incorporated

Author: Tripp W Black

Created: 07/16/2023 at 02:48 PM

 

Category:
Using Lotus Notes
Issue Troubleshooting

Issue:
Full text search from the top toolbar in Notes no longer returns information. Only the "Search This View" functionality remains at the top of a Notes view.


Solution:
MS Windows 10 includes an app called AppLocker, used to defend against enemy software. Including in its defenses against non-MS software, is a defense agains the DTSearch.dll of the HCL Notes client.

No, the DTSearch.dll from HCL is not a virus. Although MS has a long history of these kinds of accidents happening continuously against their competitor products, it may seem intentional because that we were told the story of Peter and the Wolf. It is also likely that they don't test their code's interactions with other software. Software is changing quickly. All to say, unless your computer just caught a bad bug, the DTSearch.dll will not be harmful.

The fix is to whitelist the DTSearch.dll w/in to the AppLocker's whitelist.
Notes:
- AppLocker doesn't do DLL rules by default. The program allows All DLLs if the logged in user is a member of BUILTIN\administrator. For regular users (in Everyone group), the %windir% path is allowed and the %programfiles% path are allowed. All other paths are blocked.
- MS learn site indicates that enabling DLL rules may cause "reduction in performance"
- The file is located in the program path: ..\Notes\Data\workspace\.config\org.eclipse.osgi\768\0\.cp\DTsearch.dll
- In our case, our client was installed a LONG time ago and has been upgraded in place since the XP days. (c:\Notes\...)
- Rather than enabling DLL Rules, it probably would be preferred, to reinstall Notes in the %ProgramFiles% path. So for our Individual PCs, we simply added Notes as the exception. This seemed to have also whitelisted all files underneath.


GPO Method:
If you are managing multiple MS Windows workstations, which is typical, the best way is to fix it globally in the AD GPO and send it down to all the workstations:

Search --> Group Policy Editor (or Edit Group Policy Control Panel)
Once in the editor, chose Computer Configuration --> Policies --> Windows Settings --> Security Settings --> Application Control Policies --> AppLocker.

Once in AppLocker, right click Executable Rules and add a new rule.


Individual PC method:
Search --> Edit Group Policy Control Panel.
Once in the editor, choose Local Computer Policy --> Windows Settings --> Security Settings --> Application Control Policies --> AppLocker.
Once in AppLocker, right click Executable Rules, and click "Create New Rule..."
Hide details for Path to Create New Rule:Path to Create New Rule:
Path to Create New Rule:


Once you click Create New Rule button, you get the Create Executable Rules wizard dialog to walk you through creating the rule.
a. Click Next if you don't see the Permissions tab on the left.
b. On the Permissions tab, leave the Action to Allow, and the User or Group to Everyone. Click Next.
c. On the Conditions tab, select Path. Click Next.
- With the Path sub-tab on the left, select the Notes path. Click OK.
- with the Exception sub-tab on the left, we wanted no expections, so we clicked Next.
d. We didn't like the name being the path, so we:
- copied the Name value to the Description field. (e.g. %OSDRIVE%\Notes\* )
- for Name, we entered Notes. Click Create.

Note:
If you don't have default rules, you can click Yes to create them now.

Hide details for Result with Rule Created:Result with Rule Created:
Result with Rule Created:
Rule Created Example


Restart the Notes client and try again.




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