How to change the default timeout period for the Web Search

Cause

Your users are reporting that they are receiving a message from the Exclaimer Mail Archiver Web Search that they have been logged out due to inactivity when they leave the Web Search logged-in for a period of time. Or, your security compliance officer has asked that for security reasons the session expires in a shorter period of time.

Explanation

By default, when your users leave the Exclaimer Mail Archiver Web Search logged in and unattended, their session will timeout and they will be prompted to login after a period of time. This is for security reasons - it prevents unauthorized users from being able to search your email archive if for example a computer is left unlocked in the office, or if your user logs in from a public internet cafe. The timeouts are different depending on whether the user selects they are using a Public or Private computer on the Exclaimer Mail Archiver Web Search login screen.
The timeouts by default are:

• Public Computer: 15 minutes
• Private Computer: 8 hours

In specific scenarios you may wish to increase or decrease the timeout periods from their default values. The steps below explain how to achieve this.

Resolution

Warning: Following these steps involves making changes to your Windows Registry. Exclaimer strongly recommend backing up your Registry before completing these steps. The following Microsoft article may assist you in this.

1. Click Start, and then Run
2. Enter regedit and click OK
3. The Registry Editor appears
4. By expanding the nodes in the tree inside the left pane, navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Exclaimer Ltd\Mail Archiver 1.0\WebSearch
   
5. In the right pane, right-click and select New, DWORD (32-bit) Value
   
6. You are asked to enter a name for the value, enter PrivateComputerTimeout to set the timeout for a Private computer
7. Double-click the value to edit it. Select the Base as Decimal and enter the value in minutes you wish to timeout after. For example, for 15 minutes:
   
8. Click OK
9. Perform an IISReset for the change to take effect:
   • Click Start, and then Run
   • Enter iisreset and click OK

Note: The steps above set the timeout for a Private Computer. To set the timeout for a Public Computer repeat the steps above, but substitute the name PrivateComputerTimeout for PublicComputerTimeout during step 6.