Windows 10: Cortana won't index apps except those pre-installed on my laptop

If I search for a desktop application or a Windows app in Cortana, Cortana won't find it unless it is one of the ones that came pre-installed on my machine.

I have seen reports of similar problems from 2015 which were apparently fixed by a Windows update, but I am already many updates beyond that. I have also followed the instructions here involving the command Code: Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}[/quote] but this didn't help. Any ideas?

:)

 

Cortana serach results include deleted files (not in recycling bin)

My files are also quite old, they were deleted in March 2015.

Anyway, I found a way of getting around the problem: I use Cortana with a different Microsoft account. As the problem seems to be related to OneDrive and all my OneDrive files are synced locally anyway, I don't really need the online indexing.

That way I can use Cortana (although it's been an inconvenience to recreate reminders, home and work location etc) without having those wrong OneDrive results (the new account I have linked has no files on OneDrive whatsover and I just intend to use it for
this specific purpose).

This is a rather dirty workaround that won't help those who are really interested in having their OneDrive indexed for Cortana, but it might help you

 

Various Windows Apps not working

I tried every suggestion on these boards from SFC and DISM to running every troubleshooter under the sun...all to no avail. My issues began when I upgraded from Windows 7 to 10 many, many months ago and was logged into my Microsoft account. I got hit
with the Start Menu/Cortana/Windows Store issue and those "Other" apps showed up. They were the pre-installed metro apps that I could not access from that point on. The only thing that fixed my laptop was doing a System Restore.

 

Hi, have you changed the default Windows search Indexing Options (Windows search indexing)?

And to note: exe and other executable files are not found by Cortana search, should that be a factor.

Can you give an example of a failed search string?

 

Thanks for replying.

No, I haven't touched the search indexing options. Examples of searches that fail are "affinity", which ought to find Affinity Photo, and "sketchable", which ought to find the Windows Store app of the same name. However "skype" and "notepad" both work, these having been preinstalled by the manufacturer.

 

Does a search, using Cortana, of files that are indexed (i.e. not shortcuts in the start menu) give almost instant results?

And do the items you're trying to find appear on Win 10's start menu?

This is something others have encountered, as you may have found:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...4-2e53c90309cb
(no answer!)

And does the number reported thus:
You can see how many start menu entries you currently have by running the following from a powershell command box:

Get-StartApps | measure

look reasonable?

Finally for now what's your Windows build?
Windows key + R, winver

 

Yes, Cortana indexes my files and folders just fine. The programs I am looking for do appear in the Start menu and that command you gave me says there are about 220 items there, which sounds about right. That page at the Microsoft forum seems to describe my issue exactly. The build is 14393.693.

 

What's the status of the Windows search service? (Should be running, automatic, delayed start)

Try these steps:
1. Go to Indexing Options, remove the user folder and the start menu folder (which can be found under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu). To do so, hidden files must be displayed.
Clicked OK and close.

Re-open Indexing Options, add the two folders again, click Advanced and enabled "Index encrypted files"; click Rebuild.

2. Reset Indexing Options to default. Here's a method: How can I make Windows 10 search my settings/control panel items? - Super User

3. Someone suggested this: Is UAC disabled? If so, re-enable UAC and then rebuild the index.

4. Another report: After upgrading to Windows 10, Cortana search was not finding applications for me because the Samsung Magician software I installed for my SSD drive was configured to Maximum Reliability mode, which disabled indexing service/search. In order get Cortana to find applications installed on my machine again, I needed to change to Maximum Reliability mode in the Samsung Magician software. This answer will be helpful for anyone with Samsung SSD and Samsung Magician software.

Source: Cortana Search is not finding applications on Windows 10 - Super User

 

I couldn't disable start menu searching in indexing options, but I did try to delete the registry keys suggested. However I was not able to do this as administrator. Apparently I need to be logged in as system. I tried using psexec.exe from Sysinternals, but that didn't work. I submitted the link for the alternative registry editor mentioned in the instructions to Virustotal and got some positives. So I'm a bit nervous about continuing trying to delete those registry keys.

That said, I have discovered that the start menu searching is only broken for one particular user. When I log in as a different user I can find all the applications in the Start menu. This suggests that the indexing itself works. I am wondering whether the problem is connected to me having renamed my user folder (from the name automatically generated by Windows to one that is more meaningful for sharing on my local network). That said, I've had no other problems that I've noticed related to changing the name of my user folder.

 

I finally worked out how to delete the registry entries (right click on the key and change the permissions for system), but they didn't regenerate properly. Whereas before there were many entries in each subkey, now there were only two in each. So I have restored the old keys.

 

Renaming your user folder is destructive.

Rename user folder?

 

Oh well. Creating a new account and deleting the old account twice is probably the only way to go then *Sad And this time I need to make sure I create the final account as a local account first before converting it to my Microsoft account. Thanks very much for your help!

 

No problem.

If you had disk images prior to making that change you could have restored your PC that way quite easily and quickly.
I don't know if System Restore would have helped.

We recommend using e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage for images to save you PC, your data and your sanity - even if your disk fails.

Suggestion for any future posts- include any history that might be relevant.

 

Yes, Macrium is a good suggestion. In fact I had already decided on it as a backup strategy and was waiting for a hard disk to arrive through the post in order to implement it when you commented. On the other hand it might not have helped me too much in this case because a fair amount of time had passed between when I changed the user folder name and when I noticed the problem. Moving my files to another admin's folder, deleting my account and starting again with a local account before linking it to a Microsoft account worked (although the add new user function being broken in settings made it more difficult).

 

Glad it's resolved and you'll be more secure now.