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I have problem with Windows 10 Enterprise N x64. When I press "Start" and start to type application name it never finds it.

I can't even find applications like "Calculator", "Microsoft Word" or any other. Just moving dots and I let it run for 30 minutes without any success.

PS. There is chance that this will not work for you if you did upgrade instead of clean install of Windows 10. But you can always try.

This are my indexing options. Indexing Options

stevenvh
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Hooch
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    Looks like I'm not the only one with this problem then! Can't wait for the answer.. – xstnc Jul 30 '15 at 14:55
  • @xstnc I posted my own answer (Can't accept it now) that I figured by reading posts regarding similar issues in previous Windows versions. You can give it a try. It worked for me. – Hooch Jul 30 '15 at 19:50
  • Didn't seem to do anything for me at first. Didn't try a reboot. I will check later today and upvote if it did help! @Hooch – xstnc Jul 31 '15 at 08:54
  • Since I am having a lot of trouble with Windows 10 search, I posted [this feature suggestion](https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/9252939-search-everywhere-interface). If you end up here, you might want to vote on it. – Jesko Hüttenhain Aug 11 '15 at 10:31
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    I found that if you go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and open the shortcut "Search", it opens the "Search Everywhere" feature from Win 8, and there all the apps appear, so it has to be a bug in the new search UI of win 10, and not in the indexing options. I just wish that "win + s" could open "Search Everywhere" instead of Cortana. – Augusto Barreto Aug 11 '15 at 17:52
  • I have the same problems. However the problem is interminent – user4234 Oct 20 '15 at 04:09
  • This also happens if you turn of UAC. mabe its turned of? – Stian Størstfeskar Andersen Oct 25 '15 at 21:45
  • I found that if you restart Cortana it works for the first search. If you close the pane and search again it will not work. – Faiz Jan 07 '17 at 08:53
  • A critical part you left out: is this computer on a domain? Search functionality can be disabled, either partially or fully, using Group Policy. That's how it is at our organization. The only thing we can search for is OneNote files – InterLinked Apr 19 '17 at 20:27
  • I have new information that is definitely relevant for the Creator's Update and possibly relevant for earlier versions of Windows 10 - I have posted a new answer. – Xharlie May 13 '17 at 15:48
  • windows XP works pretty well – clankill3r Sep 26 '20 at 16:09

13 Answers13

123

I have no idea why or what I have broken in the process. But here is what worked for me.

  1. Ctrl+Shift+Right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and clicking "Exit Explorer" (or kill it via Task Manager if that doesn't work).

  2. Delete this registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

  1. Start process Explorer.exe via Task Manager.

This is one of many answers posted here. Feel free to try other people's suggestions. If you combine all answers in one I'll accept your answer.

enter image description here

Method for Creator's update Check out this answer.

Hooch
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    For me does not work :/ – Ev0oD Aug 01 '15 at 10:07
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    Worked for me! Before this, Windows couldn't even find `cmd.exe`. I wonder what caused this. – Andomar Aug 04 '15 at 09:24
  • @Andomar I have no idea. What is strange is that I restored that key today and search is still working. Windows 10 is really buggy release for production release. – Hooch Aug 04 '15 at 09:34
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    Simply killing Explorer and restarting did it for me. Expanded instructions for bringing back your taskbar at http://superuser.com/a/313998/197108 – Noumenon Sep 05 '15 at 19:29
  • Doesn't work for me, somehow. – aIKid Sep 23 '15 at 09:14
  • @aIKid Try other methods. Some methods work for some and other methods work for others. Keep trying and remember to post answer if you figure it out. – Hooch Sep 24 '15 at 11:46
  • Works on my Windows 10 upgraded from Windows 7. Thank you! – Alberto Oct 26 '15 at 11:14
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    This worked for me, but only after restarting Windows after having deleted the key. Simply restarting explorer.exe didn't do it for me! (+1!) – Bram Vanroy Oct 27 '15 at 15:07
  • I cant open regedit to delete the registry key. It says "The extended attributes are inconsistent"... What to do???? – olefrank Nov 10 '15 at 09:46
  • For me it was enough to kill and start the ``explorer.exe`` process. Luckily no need for manipulating the reg. – BAERUS Nov 14 '15 at 20:41
  • If you're not logged in as an administrator, you need to open `regedit` with administrator privileges. After stopping `explorer.exe` in Task Manager, go to `File` -> `Run new task`, and run `cmd`. Then in the new Command Prompt window, run `powershell` and then run `Start-Process regedit -Verb RunAs` – GreenRaccoon23 Nov 15 '15 at 19:21
  • Well this is the first time I truly regret doing something from SU. I lost all my quick start icons :O – Jamie Hutber Mar 16 '16 at 10:20
  • For 64bit OS's, the Key to delete is in the WOW64Node, `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}` – turkinator May 09 '16 at 18:25
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    This worked for me, but can I just point out how bizarre it is – Jared Beach May 27 '16 at 12:56
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    @JaredBeach Yes you can. That is some next level "male cow poop". – Hooch Jun 01 '16 at 09:35
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    Please don't advise people to kill explorer.exe if it is still responding. Instead advise them to exit explorer. In Windows 10 this is (apparently) done by Ctrl+Shift+Right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and clicking "Exit Explorer". That feature exists for precisely this sort of thing. – Kevin Cathcart Jul 13 '16 at 15:47
  • Thanks this worked great. However the suggestion from Augusto Barreto did not! – TV Mohini Sep 20 '16 at 15:00
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    @KevinCathcart, but this doesn't actually shut down explorer.exe, it looks like it is just hidden (the process is still running). Also, how do you get it back, as you can't just start explorer.exe again (because it is already running). – David Murdoch Sep 29 '16 at 14:47
  • @DavidMurdoch: It should exit the main (desktop) instance of explorer.exe, but it might leave some other instances running. I thought it closed them when I last tried, but it might vary by windows version. In any case to restart windows explorer you spawn it using any method. I usually open task manager with CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and then use the the File->run new task menu item. Whenever explorer.exe starts it checks to see if there is another copy providing the taskbar and desktop folder features. If not the newly opened explorer is used for that. – Kevin Cathcart Sep 29 '16 at 19:27
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    @kevincathcart, that's what I'm saying, it doesn't bring back the taskbar when you start a new explorer process in Windows 10. – David Murdoch Sep 29 '16 at 19:29
  • It's worked for me. Windows 10 build 10240 – Vinh Tran Jun 16 '17 at 04:28
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    Have to say, this entire post is absolutely terrible advice, at least on versions later then 1607. I am currently engaging in a system recovery, because the start menu does not even appear after following this advice. – Matt Clark Jul 18 '17 at 13:36
  • Work but I have to do it 1-2 time a day :/ Any way to automate everything ? – n0tis Jul 30 '17 at 19:40
  • For those like me who deleted this w/o backup, these are the contents of the key (make a `.reg` file and paste this inside): `Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}] "GroupBy"="System.StartMenu.Group" "LogicalViewMode"=dword:00000001 "Name"="NoName" "Order"=dword:00000000 "PrimaryProperty"="System.StartMenu.Group" "SortByList"="prop:-System.Search.Rank;-System.DateModified;System.ItemNameDisplay"` – Dev-iL Sep 12 '17 at 19:00
  • What does this do? I would rather not edit a registry key without knowing what it does. – Strategy Thinker Sep 16 '17 at 19:38
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    Nice spelling mistake in the screenshot :D – Matthew Cawley Sep 19 '17 at 20:49
  • This worked for me, thank you. This issue was driving me nuts. +1 and Favorited. – MichaelK Nov 14 '18 at 08:33
  • I need to reboot because the explorer doesn't start correctly. After that, it works. – Daniel Argüelles Jun 08 '19 at 13:50
92

Disabling the "Let apps run in the background" toggle on the "Background apps" page of the new Windows Privacy settings causes start-menu search to break, at least on Windows 10 with the Creator's Update!

I recently reinstalled Windows 10 with the Creator's Update on three machines. After installing Windows, my first step on all of the machines was to click through all the pages under Settings -> Privacy, disabling every single toggle. Included among these was the "Let apps run in the background" setting on the Background apps page.

Soon, thereafter, I noticed that newly installed applications would not show up in the start-menu search - either through win+S or by simply starting to type when the start-menu had focus. On all machines, some results would show and others would be missing. Newly installed stuff would not show. On one, typing google or chrom would yield nothing but the full word, chrome, would show "execute command". At one point, one machine would only complete notepad and the result could not be clicked or activated.

This thread helped me to learn that creating a new local-administrator user on the machines would temporarily solve the issue - thanks! Unfortunately, the problem would ocurr again and so I started trying to track down when, precisely, it started happening. I did this with a process involving many, many restarts and repeatedly installing and uninstalling 7-zip.

I was pleased to discover that my registry hacks that disable Cortana's web-search and windows-store search were not responsible - they were my first guess. Hacking out other parts of Windows didn't break the search; neither did my power-shell script that uninstalls all the bloatware that ships with Windows 10: Facebook, Twitter, XING, Keeper, the list goes on. (This stuff is also automatically reinstalled, repeatedly, and reinstalled for new user accounts.)

Finally, I tracked the problem to this privacy setting - another thing that is user-account specific!

My tests show that you can still disable all applications from running in the background as long as the primary toggle at the top of the "Background apps" page remains On. Here's a screenshot of my settings with start-menu search working:

Working Privacy Settings

All the rest of the privacy toggles can be switched off, on all the other pages.

And, lastly, it seems that if the "Let apps run in the background" toggle is Off, turning it on again and restarting appears to repair the start-menu search although it seems to take a while before the results are 100% again.

Of the solutions listed on this question, only the suggestion to create a new local user account worked and that only until I once again switched off this problematic toggle.

If you don't see the let "apps run in the background" toggle, you can still enable it via the registry. To do so;

  1. Press windows logo key + R to open the run dialog. Type "regedit" then press enter.
  2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications
  3. Right click on BackgroundAccessApplications, and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it GlobalUserDisabled and set its value to 0.
  4. Restart.
n00b
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Xharlie
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    Thank you. This worked for me with the Creator's update. – jordanbtucker May 13 '17 at 19:28
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    THANK YOU! Absolute life saver. Microsoft is so frustrating sometimes. – fIwJlxSzApHEZIl May 17 '17 at 02:18
  • Has this been submitted to connect? – Marlon May 26 '17 at 23:04
  • @Marlon: I haven't submitted it. In my extensive experience, this is *not* the sort of thing that Microsoft fix. – Xharlie May 29 '17 at 10:59
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    Thanks a heap! +1 good answer - esp for also mentioning that the registry tweaks were not responsible. I too created a new profile.. – Jeremy J Wong Jun 06 '17 at 11:05
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    Well, this UI makes no sense. Anyone would expect a master switch put on top of several more specific switches to control only said switches, and not some totally unrelated and basic feature of the OS. It's Microsoft being Microsoft, I guess. – Hey Jul 09 '17 at 11:23
  • Holy F... Xharlie, you are a total lifesaver! This has been driving me crazy for forever and of course nothing worked (I never tried creating a new user as that's just for the weak : ). It did make sense that it was Creator's update related as it did break around that time. Super props for tracking down the actual cause, such a rare thing. Thanks! – gl- Oct 27 '17 at 16:49
  • I did not see this option in the UI, but I was able to enable it via the registry following the instructions here; https://www.top-password.com/blog/prevent-windows-10-apps-from-running-in-the-background/ . I have edited your answer to include these steps for those that dont have the UI option. Also, I dont know if it helped, but I simultaneously enabled the "Microsoft.Windows.Cortana..." key under the same registry folder (they were set to disabled, and disabledbyuser to 1, and I changed them to 0). – n00b Nov 08 '17 at 13:51
  • Solved it for me. I'm on the Fall Creators Update 1709. Thanks so much. – mikew Nov 13 '17 at 15:47
  • Solved for me as well. I am on 1709 as well. Many Thanks! – humanfly Dec 04 '17 at 20:10
  • Thank you for putting the time in to discover this (must have taken ages!), works perfectly. Sort your shit out Microsoft. – brettwhiteman Dec 20 '17 at 23:42
  • Been trying to fix this for months, even made 2 full reinstalls which took me like a week (because of all my programs and settings), I kinda have given up and I found this. Thank you so much. – Dan Dec 27 '17 at 20:37
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    This is the answer! – udog Apr 18 '18 at 14:48
  • Why is this a thing, Microsoft? – Scott Aug 09 '18 at 01:26
  • This worked for me! Windows 10 Version 1803 – ToastyMallows Sep 02 '18 at 18:32
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    This key did not work, but deleting another one did. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppPrivacy\LetAppsRunInBackground – Aaron Nov 26 '19 at 20:54
  • Thanks so much, this is the answer for me as well. All the other "rebuild index" tips were useless, but for some reason this odd privacy setting fixes it (Win 10 Version 20H2) – Sigmatics Feb 07 '21 at 10:02
  • God bless you sir. You are an absolute legend. I'm not sure if this is the exact cause of my problem, but I suspect it may be related to having run Chris Titus's windows 10 debloater (or whatever it's called these days) – Thick_propheT Jul 28 '22 at 06:24
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Found a solution here: Cortana not finding Desktop apps when searching for them

Here is the relevant part:

I reinstalled Cortana using the following procedure:

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window (press win + X, and then press A)
  2. Type start powershell and press enter

  3. Run the command (in one line):

    Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

After 30 seconds the problem was solved on my machine. Incredible.

randers
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Augusto Barreto
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    Same here, behaviour was different from OP because mine would find default apps but not ones I'd installed (like Word, Excel etc) and which I could find in the All Apps list. This fixed it for me, thanks! – DannyT Oct 14 '15 at 17:16
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    It may seem absurd, but this helps even when **Cortana is NOT supported** in your language or country. Just give it a try. – Radek Pech Oct 20 '15 at 11:25
  • for additional reference, cross-posted from http://superuser.com/a/955713 – drzaus Feb 24 '16 at 20:22
  • The command appears to have corrupted my ability to even access "Indexing Options" http://superuser.com/questions/1064718/windows-10-indexing-options-cannot-be-accessed-and-windows-search-is-not-workin – LonnieBest Apr 13 '16 at 16:50
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    This question was about `Windows Search` , Not `Cortana`. i have samen problem but i stoped and uninstalled `cortana` , im using normail windows search now – SAYE Mar 17 '17 at 10:03
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    This did not work for me. (with Creator's Update) – Xharlie May 13 '17 at 15:49
  • This works for me with Creator's Update. – datu-puti Jul 19 '17 at 15:37
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    @AbbasNikzad Windows Search in Windows 10 is handled by Cortana, whether or not you use the AI functionality of it. – AStopher Aug 08 '17 at 12:01
  • Thanks this worked, but if anyone is having errors make sure you close explorer, not just cortana as it automatically reopens. – Baibro Jun 08 '18 at 04:36
  • My issue was that pressing Windows key and then starting to type application names to search for them would just result in a large completely black rectangle and no search results. This answer fixed the problem for me. – Dennis Soemers Mar 16 '19 at 13:44
  • Pefect man!!Thank you so much! – Davinder Kumar May 25 '20 at 12:28
  • This throws an error for me going `Add-AppxPackage : Cannot find path 'C:\AppXManifest.xml' because it does not exist.` Apparently build 2004 requires a different instruction: `Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}` – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Oct 15 '20 at 16:25
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For those who make their way here, but for whom the accepted answer doesn't work, I got this type of application searching to work with the following steps:

  1. Go to Indexing Options in the Control Panel (you can just search for 'index').
  2. Click the Modify button to get the Indexed Locations window.
  3. Expand your OS disk and check the checkboxes for Program Files and Program Files (x86).

It may take a few minutes for everything to start working the way you're hoping for.

Karim Temple
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    7 and 8 seem to be doing this by automatically including C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu in Indexed Locations, and 10 does not. So my method as posted above is kind of a brute-force method, but I chose it because sometimes I install things without an "Add To The Start Menu" option (which makes this application search even more useful). – Karim Temple Aug 05 '15 at 14:00
  • For me everything there was correct. – Hooch Aug 14 '15 at 07:40
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    @KarimTemple - Sir, you advised the people to use the search ("[...]you can just search for 'index'[...]) in your answer to a question, which explains that op doesn't find anything in the search ... lol – ˈvɔlə Feb 17 '16 at 08:35
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    @Wolle Good point! Sorry! I was able to search for Indexing Options so I guess the nature of my issue was slightly different. – Karim Temple Feb 18 '16 at 13:20
  • I had this issue on an upgrade install of Win10 from Win8.1 and also on another machine with fresh Win10 install. I could search for 'index' as @KarimTemple found. – AnneTheAgile May 25 '16 at 09:47
  • This did not work for me. (with Creator's Update) – Xharlie May 13 '17 at 15:49
  • I also did: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth Ref: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_store/updated-to-windows-10-no-apps-in-start-menu-will/0f5e640e-c0a1-4603-b866-d5e223611a46?auth=1 – hB0 Oct 09 '17 at 07:06
11

I had the same issue. My solution for this was to:

  1. Go to Indexing Options

    Indexing Options

  2. Chose Advanced

    Advanced Options

  3. Then choose to Rebuild the index

    Rebuild Index

That fixed it right away.

KyleMit
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ziptie
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How I solved my problem:

The service Windows Search was disabled somehow, I believe I have disabled it using msconfig without knowing about the consequences.

However, try to run services.msc and make sure Windows Search is enabled and started. You should see the result immediately.

Good luck!

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  • This was what I discovered. Windows Search is disabled by default, in Windows 10. – ironywrit Aug 10 '15 at 23:13
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    This was precisely the issue for me too, on a fresh Windows 10 install. The Windows Search service was disabled. However it wasn't Windows' fault, it was the software "Samsung Magician" that ships with Samsung SSDs. It disables the Windows Search service as part of its optimizations. – jlh Nov 03 '15 at 09:54
  • @ironywrit: It's actually enabled by default (Automatic Start Delay). – surfasb Oct 31 '16 at 17:13
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I am just adding a summary based on my own experience.

Augusto's answer works for me but only temporarily. Just reinstall cortana. Go to powershell and type

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

After a while the stuff went the way it used to be. Sometimes, if I type zend, zend studio will show up. Sometimes not.

I am also using one of the comment as another answer in case that didn't work for you.

I found that if you go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and open the shortcut "Search", it opens the "Search Everywhere" feature from Win 8, and there all the apps appear, so it has to be a bug in the new search UI of win 10, and not in the indexing options. I just wish that "win + s" could open "Search Everywhere" instead of Cortana. – Augusto Barreto Aug 11 at 17:52

That is written by augusto again. BOTH of this works for me.

I did rebuilding index and other solutions. That didn't work or only work temporarily.

Thanks Augusto. I think I should add my own answer so everybody knows which solutions work in my case and probably on their cases either.

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    You should use comments for this things, otherwise you just add noise. One may also think you do this to harvest reputation for yourself with other's solutions. – Enos May 05 '19 at 06:33
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Local administrator account was the issue

I was building a Windows 10 Pro SOE based on x64 1607 when I came across the start menu search not finding any applications.

To be specific, as stated above in a couple posts, i could find default pre-installed applications but not anything new, eg. when I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, I would get no results when searching "Adobe" or "Acrobat" or "Reader".

I tried all of the suggestions above but unfortunately nothing worked.

I realised that the issue was specific to the builtin local administrator account. When I tried the same thing with multiple new users on the system my searches were working as expected. I suspect it's related to how some UWP apps (calc, edge) can't run under the local administrator account, maybe Cortana / Windows Search is broken for the local administrator.

astraburgan
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    Yes. Same here. But how to solve this? – Leonel Feb 15 '17 at 00:13
  • The problem is Cortana. If it's not activated or not working, the Search won't work. In my case it wasn't active because my Windows is in English but my Location settings were for Brazil. Once I changed it to United States everythin worked. – Leonel Feb 15 '17 at 02:07
  • Creating a new local user account *does* solve the problem but the reason it does is because the new user account has the default "*Privacy*" settings. I have identified which of these is related to the problem - see my new answer. (Even with the new user account, turning off the offending setting will cause the problem to occurr again.) – Xharlie May 13 '17 at 15:54
4

In short if you are exhausted like me

create a new local admin user

And because I have recently reset my Windows 10 with keep my files option and everything was new it was not a bad solution and I forgot my previous Windows live account and started enjoying a clean and fast new user.

After trying a few solutions from here and there I finally created a new local Administrator Account and now everything works very fast and perfect. I tried below unsuccessful solutions before creating new account

  • Resetting Cortana with powershell commands
  • Disabling Cortana with Group Policy
  • Rebuilding search indexes and added many extra start and programs files

My Problem starts when my previous windows 10 with anniversary updates and my connected windows live user account encountered lots of BSOD and because of mix of maybe following events

  • Driver booster updates all my drivers and restoring was not avaiable
  • Visual studio 2017 install and lastest Windows 10 SDK and emulator which was required for UWP development

I have to add that in my situation Calculator apps and other win settings and builtin apps were shown in search by any other installed apps were not searched no matter how hard i tried.

Iman
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  • I disabled Cortana using a local group policy and experienced, that _some_ applications were indexed and found, while others were not, e.g. the cygwin terminal. Very odd. After removing the Cortana-block in GP, everything works again like a charm. Great idea! – Jinxed Jul 10 '17 at 16:53
4

This answer is my own discovery on Windows 10 Pro 1703 x64. (That's Creators Update, folks.) I had to resort to it because, to my surprise, the answer by Augusto Barreto did not work for me. Without further ado:

  1. Do either of the following:
    • Create a new temporary user account with Administrative privileges, log out of your current account (very important) and log into the temporary account
    • Start your computer in Windows Recovery Environment

  2. Delete, rename or move the following folder:

    C:\Users\[Your username]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy

    Note: In Windows Recovery Environment, C: can sometimes become D:, E: or even F:, depending on your computer's configuration.

  3. Log back into your original account.

Cortana will not work immediately. (It is busy recreating the folder you just deleted.) But when it does, everything will be alright. Don't forget to delete the temporary user account.

Important notice: By the time I reached the conclusion to do this, I had ascertained that Windows Search Indexer was working okay and it was Cortana's problem that didn't show the result well. My evidence was that Cortana could find literally everything else (including my music) and searches from File Explorer worked well.

  • After trying every solution this was the only one who solved my problem (windows version 1709), I knew of this folder but didn't think of deleting it, great idea! – GGG Jan 16 '18 at 16:12
  • After all trying, this solved. (win10 ver 1903). Not quite sure (other operation not restart computer). – yurenchen Aug 03 '20 at 16:16
2

I solved it this way.

  • Open Control Panel.
  • Open Indexing Options.
  • At the bottom there is Troubleshoot search and indexing.
  • Click on it and select the 2 top options in the next window.
  • Let the system run a diagnostic and select a fix.
karel
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GreenZ
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    *Troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem*, even with Administrator permission. – dakab Sep 13 '17 at 16:22
-1

I found a way to work this out by following a suggestion on this link.

Just copy the contents of the old start menu from 

    C:\Windows.old\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

to

    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

as apparently only the to programs were copied during the installation, but the missing ones could be found in "All Users".

I even prematurely removed all the contents of the Windows.old folder, but managed to recover the contents of the folder using Recuva. You can use it too if this is the case for you too. However, useless for SSD. Fortunately I copied the contents first to a HDD before I removed and I could recover the files from there.

I copied it all there and in a few seconds everything was working as it should.

Ev0oD
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-2

Turning Cortana off helped me. However, once a month or so I will find that Search stops working again. Then I find "Cortana" in Task Manager and kill it. That works immediately.

Noumenon
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    This does not "turn off" Cortana this just kills the process. This also would only make search work until a system reboot happened. This answer seems incomplete. – Ramhound Oct 16 '15 at 11:27
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    I edited to address your concerns. This lasts longer than one reboot simply because the problem doesn't crop up on every reboot for me, only occasionally once I turned off Cortana with its on/off switch. – Noumenon Oct 16 '15 at 13:05
  • kill 'Cortana' make my search work! – qun May 19 '16 at 02:33