If you’re having problems using Search on Windows 10, we have here some effective methods that are going to help you fix this problem.
You may not need to try them all; just work your way down until you hit the one that works for you:
- Perform a clean boot
- Restart the Search process
- Modify Windows Search service
- Rebuild search index
- Run the built-in troubleshooter
1: Perform a clean boot
If you haven’t tried rebooting the PC, you should do so to rule out any glitches. If a hard reset doesn’t fix the issue, you can do a clean boot to start Windows with only the essential services and programs, which is a common method to check for software conflicts.
Here’s how:
- On your keyboard, press Win+R (the Windows logo key and the r key) at the same time to invoke the Run box. Type or paste msconfig and click OK.
- In the pop-up window, navigate to the Services tab and check the box next to Hide all Microsoft services.
- Uncheck all the services EXCEPT those belong to your hardware manufacturers, such as Realtek, AMD, NVIDIA, Logitech and Intel. Then click OK to apply the changes.
- On your keyboard, press Ctrl, Shift and Esc at the same time to open Task Manager, then navigate to the Startup tab.
- One at a time, select any programs you suspect might be interfering, and click Disable.
- Restart your PC.
If Windows Search works after a clean boot, you might be looking a software conflict and you can then run some tests to determine the culprit.
If the problem is still there, check out the next fix.
2: Restart the Search process
1) At the bottom of your computer desktop, right-click the task bar and select Task Manager.
2) Select the Details tab. Look for any of the following processes:
- SearchUI.exe
- SearchApp.exe
(If you can’t find any of them, chances are your Windows Search service has been disabled. You can jump to the next fix to do a quick check.)
3) Then select the process and click End task. Now you can check if Windows Search is working.
3: Check the Windows Search service
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time, then type services.msc in the search box and press Enter.
2) Press W key to quickly locate Windows Search, and then right-click it and select Properties.
3) Change the Startup type to Automatic, and then click OK to save the change and exit.
4) Restart your computer after this.
4: Rebuild search index
Windows uses the indexing service to improve the search speed and efficiency. Rebuilding the Windows search index can fix some common search-related issues. You can give it a go and see if it helps.
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time, type in control and press Enter.
2) Select Indexing Options. (If you can’t find it, try changing your view to Small icons.)
3) Click Advanced.
4) In the new window, click Rebuild under the Troubleshooting category.
You will be seeing this notification window, just click OK to continue.
5: Run the built-in troubleshooter
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time, type in control and press Enter.
2) View by Small icons, then click Troubleshooting.
3) Click View all.
4) Click Search and Indexing.
5) Click Next.
6) Tick the box or boxes for the appropriate troubleshooting process you see. Then click Next to continue.
7) When the troubleshooting process finishes, Windows 10 should be able to tell you what went wrong and what you can do to fix it.
Last but not the least
If the above options still cannot help you fix the Windows Search issue in Windows 10, you might need to perform a Reset or Refresh of your Windows.
If you need more help, here are the detailed tutorial:
How to Reset Widows 10?
How to Refresh Windows 10?
How to downgrade Windows 10 to Windows 7/ 8 / 8.1?
