Start 10 search stopped working

from Stardock Forums

Start 10 v 1.56. The "search programs and files" search at the bottom of the start menu has stopped working.

I type in there (for example) cmd and it says searching... but nothing happens.

I have been troubleshooting Windows search (stopping/starting service etc) but all appears OK. In fact if I enable the Cortana search box on the taskbar and type the same it finds it instantly. 

So it seems to be specific to the Start 10 start menu search.

Any ideas?

5,505 views 8 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for the info. I had tried all of the Windows Search steps (with the exception of re-registering Cortana - Cortana search is working fine).

Just done the purge and reinstall but the problem persists.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Do you have Windowblinds installed? If you do, could you try different theme that come with Windowblinds.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

No.

Have now realised that whilst Cortana text search works OK, windows search doesn't. All appears to be working fine, services running etc, but if I use Windows Explorer and search in a folder I just get the very slow green progress across the address bar and nothing happens (even in a folder with one file in and searching for that file!).

So, obviously a wider issue with search than the Start 10 start menu search. 

Puzzling though as I have run all the Windows Search troubleshooting etc. Ran sfc/scannow and DISM but they find nothing wrong. Equally puzzling as Cortana search works.

One thing that is not working though is if I go to Indexing Options and try to rebuild the index. Nothing happens.

So I am a bit stuck!

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Failing hard drive?

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

A late update to this to report on how it was resolved.

As I discovered, it was a wider issue with Windows Search (not a Start 10 issue). Puzzling as Search service was running and I could browse and search (via Windows Explorer) my Nasbox on the network, but not anything on the laptop itself! Indexing would not work and there were apparently no index locations.

Found that a bunch or Search registry keys were completely missing. I expected DISM to sort that out but it and SFC reported all okay.

In older versions of Windows you could deselct Search as a Windows component and then reselect it to re-install. Not in Windows 10 but that got me thinking....

SOLUTION: download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool and do an "inplace upgrade" of Windows 10. Essentially a re-install but it leaves all of your applications and files intact. Sorted! 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Rege, I hope you see this, thanks bro cant tell you how much i appreciate it.  Been stumped for few days now and its my main work PC.   I didnt want to have to reformat since reinstall is such a PITA its to the point where was considering going Hyper-v and just take the performance hit