For some reason my “indexing options” link and icon have gone missing from my control panel in Windows Vista. Even typing the name in the start menu search doesn’t make a difference, it has simply disappeared.

Unfortunately, after many hours of searching, I can’t seem to do anything to restore this icon. Luckily though, it’s still possible to run the indexing options control panel, albeit through a command prompt. For those of you that are stuck with the exact same issue, here’s how you get access to the indexing options control panel:

1. Click the Start button and type CMD.
2. When CMD.exe appears in the list, right click and choose “run as administrator”
3. In the command prompt window, type the following “control.exe srchadmin.dll”
4. Hit return and the indexing options control panel should pop up for you!

UPDATE:
Thanks to Dotnetshadow for this!!!

In regedit go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Cpls

Add New Expandable String Value (REG_EXPAND_SZ)
Name: SearchAdmin
Value: %SystemRoot%\System32\srchadmin.dll

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Tags: Command Prompt, Microsoft Windows, User Account Control, Windows