Windows 10: Start Menu not showing search results for documents

Whenever I search for a document using the Start Menu, there are no search results. Apps show up fine. If I actually go into Explorer and search in a storage device's directory, it will show. But just never in the Start Menu. It's really irritating.


Why is this? I rebuilt my Indexing. It took some time and it completed. I searched online and put in a few PowerShell commands. I deleted a registry entry, also. Apparently that helps. It was:



HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FolderTypes\ {ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}\TopViews\ {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}.



I restarted my system. Still didn't resolve the issue. Is there a surefire fix for this? I've seen many people having the same thing in search results. Unfortunately they had more luck than I have.

:)

 

Certain apps don't show in search results

Some of my applications don't show in search results when I search for them.

E.g. Visual Studio, it shows only a local directory named "Visual Studio 2017" but it doensn't show the application itself.

Some other applications are listed as wrong version (already uninstalled), and some others dont't show at all (e.g. Putty)

I've already rebuilt the index and ran sfc /scannow several times, and got shortcuts for the apps in both

• %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

and

• %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

I'm running Windows 10 Pro Version 1607 (Build 14393.1358)

Any suggestions?

 

Start menu Search can't click on search results leading to Settings pages + Settings search results not loading

After I installed the Creator's Update (Version 1703, OS Build 15063.296), I found some results in start menu search being not clickable (i.e., no repsonse when clicking on them) while other results being fine.

I tried everything I could find by google:

• Restart Cortana through task manager
• Restart WSearch service through services.msc
• Rebuild windows search index
• Reinstall/Re-register windows apps through Dism.exe
• Modify windows registry

Nothing workable.

However, when logged in with another account, I found the start menu search working fine.

Then I read this article (http://www.urtech.ca/2016/08/solved-video-how-to-hard-reset-or-remove-cortana-in-windows-10/) and follow his steps 1-3:

• Create a new administrator on your Window 10 and sign in as that user
• Delete (or rename) C:\Users\<PROBLEM USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
• Sign back in as the PROBLEM USER
• Open PowerShell as an admin and type (or paste)
  
  Add-AppxPackage -Path “C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register

I didn't walk through all 4 steps, cause when I logged in with the "PROBLEM USER" I found everthing was okay.

I guess the start menu search (or cortana search) works as following procedures:

• Build a private database, including start menu programs, control panel items, etc.
• When users try to search something, it starts from the private database
• Then it shows the results queried from WSearch databases

Hence, if something wrong with the items in its private database, the result is not clickable. Clear its private database will fix the problems.

 

Start menu Search can't click on search results leading to Settings pages + Settings search results not loading

Thanks a lot, I've been experiencing this issue for a long time and it was driving me crazy!

The only point is, I didn't do step 4 because after I logged back to my user account the problem was solved.

It seems that deleting the Cortana folder triggers some kind of reindexing job which solves this issue.

I hope Microsoft comes up with a built-in solution for this scenario that allows users to call the reindex operation for Cortana. or at least they can make this as part of the troubleshooting options.

Once again thanks, you've made my day.