The search feature on the start menu or taskbar as well as the file explorer are the most convenient means of looking up apps and files in your system. However, since this feature relies on many processes and services, it may stop working if the corresponding processes encounter any problems.
In such situations, the search app may not work at all or it may not help you search for all the items or contents in your system. In either case, you will need to check all the components involved in a search process and troubleshoot any issues with them.
Restart Windows Explorer and Some Other Apps
The search process on Windows depends on a few processes such asWindows Explorer,Search Indexer, andCTF Loader.
So, any issues with any of these programs can prevent the search from working properly or working at all. You can restart these services to take care of any temporary issues with them.
Run Search and Indexing Troubleshooter
Windows comes with a dedicated troubleshooter for the search and indexing process that checks for issues with all the components involved in this process. It will also try to automatically resolve any problems it is able to detect. Even if it can’t do so, it will still show the problem, which you can try resolving yourself using the relevant method in this article.
Check Some Windows Services
If the Windows Search service is not working, the search engine won’t be able to look for your files, folders as well as many apps. So you need to make sure that it starts properly.
Rebuild Search Index
If your search is not showing all the files and folders you need, your system likely has not indexed them. In such cases, you need to rebuild the search index while including all drives.
It may take a long time for the index to be rebuilt depending on the number of your files and folders. You can keep track of the progress on the Indexing Options program.
Update or Rollback Windows
Sometimes, there may be minor bugs in the Windows update that prevent processes like the search engine from working properly. If this issue starts occurring right after an update and does not go away after a restart, you need to report it to Microsoft and then wait for further updates or bug fixes.
After Microsoft rolls out an update that addresses this issue, you need toinstall itas soon as possible.
If no further updates are available, you can roll back the system by uninstalling the latest Windows update.
Reset Windows Search
If the above methods were not enough to resolve your issue, your only remaining option is to reset the Windows Search altogether. Since the search feature is integrated with multiple system packages and components, Microsoft has provided a Powershell script for this purpose.
