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Windows Search normally treats words that differ only by accents as the same: with diacritic sensitivity off, resume and résumé match alike. You can control this behavior through the local setting or, on supported managed devices, the Windows Search policy Allow use of diacritics. The right route depends on whether your PC is managed and whether you are configuring Windows for everyday use or a search catalog for software.
What Windows Search does with accents
Microsoft says the Windows Search engine and catalog are insensitive to diacritics by default. Diacritics include accent marks that alter a letter, such as the acute accent in é. In the default behavior, resume and résumé are treated as the same word. This concerns matching in the Windows Search catalog; it does not change text in your files, keyboard input, or which folders are indexed. Microsoft Learn: Diacritic sensitivity in searches.
Choose the control that fits your PC
| Control | Who it is for | What it changes | Important caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Control Panel setting | Someone using a PC that is not centrally managed | Local behavior for words differing only by diacritics | Microsoft’s policy documentation establishes that this local setting is used when policy is unconfigured, but the sources do not confirm a current click-by-click path to it. |
| Group Policy or MDM | An administrator managing supported Windows devices | Whether diacritic variants are treated as distinct at device policy level | Supported Windows editions and versions apply; policy may supersede the local setting. |
| Catalog Manager | A developer configuring a Windows Search catalog | Catalog diacritic sensitivity through a programming interface | It is not an ordinary consumer Settings page. |
Change the setting on an individual PC
When the Allow use of diacritics policy is not configured, Windows uses the local setting configured through Control Panel. Microsoft’s policy documentation describes the default local behavior as treating words that differ only by diacritics as the same. However, the available Microsoft guidance does not establish a reliable current click-by-click Control Panel route to that specific control, so avoid relying on an unverified menu sequence.
The Windows indexing page does document Settings > Privacy & security > Search as a route to indexing options. That area covers such matters as indexed locations and file types, not the diacritic-sensitivity control. See Microsoft Support: Search indexing in Windows.
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Set the policy on a managed Windows device
For an organization-managed device, an administrator can configure Allow use of diacritics in Group Policy at Computer Configuration > Windows Components > Search > Allow use of diacritics. Enabling the policy makes words that differ only by diacritics distinct; disabling it treats them as identical. If the policy is unconfigured, the local Control Panel setting applies. A configured device policy can therefore take precedence over what a user selected locally.
- Policy value:
AllowUsingDiacritics, underSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search. - MDM policy URI:
./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Search/AllowUsingDiacritics. - Documented scope: Windows 10 version 1607 and later, on Pro, Enterprise, Education, and IoT Enterprise editions.
- Values:
0and1; enabling the policy allows variants with different diacritics to be treated as distinct.
Microsoft documents the policy’s scope and mapping in Search Policy CSP. If you cannot change the setting on a work or school PC, ask the administrator responsible for its policies.
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For developers: catalog and query behavior
Microsoft’s Windows Search documentation describes changing catalog sensitivity through Catalog Manager. This is an API-level control for software developers, not a general Windows Settings option. In FREETEXT and CONTAINS clauses, query terms with diacritics are normalized at query time as they are at index time; Microsoft also notes that matching against the catalog is always diacritic sensitive. The documentation identifies exceptions for character ranges 0x2e81-f8ff and 0x1100-0x11ff. These details describe the documented catalog/query behavior, not necessarily every Windows Search surface or third-party application. See Diacritic sensitivity in searches.
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Windows Search uses language-specific resources, including word breakers and stemmers, during indexing and query processing. That language processing is related context, but it is separate from choosing indexed locations or file-content settings. Microsoft discusses it in Miscellaneous linguistic and Unicode considerations.
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Check indexing separately if results are still missing
Diacritic sensitivity and index coverage are different issues. Windows can index file names, paths, and properties, and it can index contents for supported text file types when the relevant content option is selected. Confirm that the searched location is included and that the file type is configured to index content if you expect results from inside files. The File Types tab’s properties-only versus properties-and-content choices govern indexing scope, not whether accents distinguish otherwise matching words. Microsoft explains these controls in its Windows indexing guide.
If you have changed indexing configuration and still need to refresh the index, Microsoft documents rebuilding it as general troubleshooting guidance:
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- Windows 10: Settings > Search > Searching Windows > Advanced Search Indexer Settings > Advanced > Rebuild.
- Windows 11: Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows > Advanced indexing options > Advanced > Rebuild.
Microsoft says rebuilding can take up to 24 hours. Its troubleshooting guidance does not specifically establish that changing diacritic sensitivity requires a rebuild. See Troubleshoot Windows Search performance.
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