Change default search settings?

You would need to change the site banner widget's search logic itself to achieve what you want.  There is no configuration for it.

Can you elaborate on what you mean? How do you change the search logic?

You have to customize the widget code in the site banner that is doing all the search logic.  I would recommend reviewing our developer training in the Documentation area

Would this be the same widget I would customize to remove all COMMENTS from the search?  BUT I would still like the forum area to allow search of all forum content?

To exclude specific content from being searchable, you can go to Administration > Site > Search, go to the "Include" tab, and uncheck content you don't want to be searchable.

For example, disabling comments would exclude comments from search results. Note that comments and forum threads/replies are different content types, so disabling comments will not affect forum content.

Thanks Ben, I don't have the "Include" tab.  The only tabs I have are Synonyms and Exceptions.

I don't have their either. I'm on 11.0.0.7924.

That was added in 11.1.0.9731 

So only able to have this option if upgrade to 11.1?  How would I accomplish this on my current platform? I'm on 11.0.1.9083.  

So only able to have this option if upgrade to 11.1?  How would I accomplish this on my current platform? I'm on 11.0.1.9083.  

bridgettw said:

So only able to have this option if upgrade to 11.1? 

Yes, 11.x is updated with regular service releases. The latest 11.x is recommended as it includes other minor feature improvements and bug fixes.

bridgettw said:

How would I accomplish this on my current platform?

In 11.0, you would need to modify the queries at the point they occur -- which means modifying the implementation of the Site Banner (for inline search) and the Search Result List widget (for advanced/full search) to exclude comments from results at the points where the Search API is accessed.

The recommendation of upgrading is preferred due to additional enhancements and fixes as well as the fact these are removed from the index altogether (perf), but you can force a condition on all queries that removes comments.

For banner you can append ' -type:comment' on ~line 18 in searchquery.jsm.

For advanced search, edit Search Result widget ~line 182 to '$searchQuery.Add("Query", "$query -type:comment")'.

When you do upgrade just remove these edits.