Windows 10: "We're getting search ready" error - Windows/Cortana Search

This is really interesting….
I also have the user folders relocated to another drive and I also updated from 8.1 to 10…

Before I do this whole procedure I would like to ask the other users with the same problem whether they also had their user folders relocated, which seems to be the problem.

Thank you…

 

No. They were in their default location.
C:¥Users

However it happened to me when I added new locations to the index. After fixing the issue, I've added them back but so far so good.

 

Ok thank you.

The last questions now in order to start applying your solution:

• c:\programdata\microsoft\windows search --> what is the name of the folder I should delete there?
• Go to the registry and go to Windows Search … --> can you give me the exact key?
• Edit indexing and add back the non-user stuff (like the Start Menu) --> when I uncheck everything the Start Menu stays there… Is this also the case with you?
• Have you changed the registry from 0 to 1 after reboot?

Thanks

 

Hi there, answers below. These locations are more accurate (copying them exactly):

1. c:\programdata\microsoft\windows search --> what is the name of the folder I should delete there?

C:\programdata\Microsoft\Search... then delete the Data directory in there

(Note that programdata is a hidden directory)

2. Go to the registry and go to Windows Search … --> can you give me the exact key?

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSearch, the key is SetupCompletedSuccessfully

3. Edit indexing and add back the non-user stuff (like the Start Menu) --> when I uncheck everything the Start Menu stays there… Is this also the case with you?

I think that may be correct, don't remember 100% due to sleep depravation! The main key is just to get all of your user stuff out of the index (and as much as possible to save time)

4. Have you changed the registry from 0 to 1 after reboot?

No, it changes itself back to 1 after it rebuilds your index

Best of luck, let us know how it goes!

 

Great news eisenb11,

That's the beauty of these forums, sometimes a solution requires seeding (I posted some suggestions, you thought of additional or related things).

Good work! You are now the expert in this area *Tongue

You are most welcome.

Bill
.

 

The just released update names files related to searching. So they might have fixed something

 

Hello,

No luck at all!!!
Not only it didn’t work but additionally I lost from the index the possibility to search OneNote, Sticky Notes, Outlook, Internet Explorer history etc…


I have never before made an upgrade of windows from the older to newer….
I only did clean installs in order to avoid similar problems that I knew that everybody had…


It looks like I will have to reinstall everything….

 

Don't be so eager, this has happened to 2 of my clean installs so far. Ironically my upgrade and very first clean install never had such issue.

I'll try more of this threads solutions, but so far indexing on its own does nothing for me.

Don't clean install yet if this is the only trouble you're having with your windows 10 upgrade, as it happens no matter how it was installed. Very tricky and unpredictable bug.

 

Same problem here, been ongoing for a few weeks. I'm convinced it has something to do with user group rights with a local vs online account, though I can't quite seem to nail down the exact issue. I say that because Cortana worked beautifully for me in build 10240 for about a week, but then the entire taskbar/startmenu suddenly became unresponsive... in troubleshooting I learned that it was symptomatic of using the default online admin account as your primary user account and to fix it I had to create a new local admin user account and then abandon & delete the online admin user I had been using. The new admin account (local) worked fine (and still does), except that Cortana can't index or search locally. I suspect the default online user profile is somehow tied to Cortana's file/folder access rights and changing or deleting that user mucks up C: drive access rights for the indexer?

Or I'm completely chasing shadows from having spent WAY too many hours troubleshooting Windows in the past few weeks? *Winklol

 

Mine still has the outlook and internet history options available, but I don't index these. Are you saying that these items are no longer appearing in the checklist of stuff to select for indexing?

The actions that I performed should only affect the index and not the index options...?

 

I thought about this and wonder if that is all you really have to do - reset the setup complete flag.

Here are two registry files that modify the value on that key.
Run one to tell Windows that Search setup is not complete (....No.reg) and the other to tell Windows that Search setup is complete (...Yes.reg)

srchSetupCompleteNo.reg sets the value to 0 - this is the one that does what eisenb11 prescribes
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search]
"SetupCompletedSuccessfully"=dword:00000000
srchSetupCompleteYes.reg sets the value to 1
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search]
"SetupCompletedSuccessfully"=dword:00000001
Restart Explorer after merging the file.
See: explorer.exe Process - Restart in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Yes! They are just gone!!!
But I solved it by restoring my pc to a previous date.

Thanks for this post! If this problem happens also with clean installs most probably you saved me a day or two… *Thumbs

There is an improvement that I just noticed… if I search "wallpaper" I do get the settings results when I click on “My stuff”, something that was not the case before.
Off course the message "we're getting search ready" is still there…

If someone without this problem searches "wallpaper" does it get the settings results in the first screen?

 

Attached is a picture of what happens what I search for wallpaper.

 

I tried something similar to that while searching for a solution. I stopped the service, deleted the index, flipped the flag, then restarted the service, which rebuilt the index and flipped the flag back then rebooted when done. In my case it didn't solve the problem.

 

I honestly never had this issue the very first upgrade and the very first clean install I ever had, but I've clean installed 5 times since then with this issue appearing right away every single time. It even affects my local accounts, and no amount of indexing or rebuilding changes a thing.
I've tried every solution in this Topic btw.

Search finally works for me tonight on my 3rd clean install of the day. Still don't know what made this one special.
My Index is just default
My User Libraries were moved, and windows search finds programs in there too
Cortana no longer JUST finds apps saying "run command" under them. If you see that, you know it's still broken. Your apps should show up before you type out their every letter if Search is working right.
Changing my PC name didn't distrub her either, still works after renaming the PC.

At first, started with a local account, clean install, and it still had the search errors. Not just a new user, I mean I wiped the drive clean and installed all over again properly.
Couldn't find anything but Windows Apps or apps installed through Windows Update, such as my AMD GPU control panel. Anything else I installed never showed.

I activated Cortana by signing in to my Microsoft Account and all. Just like that, she found all of my apps and programs, and everyone I've installed after that. I've installed over 30 programs now, every app I use, and I can search them all now (granted they're in the start menu or other area of the default index)

In other installations, signing in didn't work, and converting back to a local account could never fix it. In fact, Windows Search would break if I ever left my Microsoft account or removed the first Microsoft Account signed into on the entire OS installation.

It's as if Cortana ties herself to the index with the first Microsoft Account that signs into a user, and reverting back to a local account forever dooms that user's chance at having a working search bar.
Deleting the first Admin account to sign into Microsoft also doomed every subsequent local and even other microsoft accounts I tried to sign into with several new users.
This is the only conclusion I can come to after only having it work the first microsoft account only. a

I either see Windows Search broken dead on arrival, straight out of the gates of Windows installation for both local and microsoft accounts
or
I see it work, but only for the first Microsoft Account owner, and that user can never be tampered with, or the every other use loses their ability to search.

If you guys solve this any other way, or have experienced anything similarly/differently, please let me know, because I'm balancing on a tightrope right now with my current install, backing it up 2 times a day, and hoping I don't have to waste another afternoon reinstalling Windows 10. I'm inches away from returning to 8.1 for this very feature, as I cannot use Windows without searching/
I am NEVER going to try and switch back to a local account or delete my user until this blows over or I see some guaranteed and widespread solutions, as well as healthy updates from Microsoft themselves.

P.S.
If you hate microsoft accounts, you can skip the password sign-in and jump straight to desktop using "control userpasswords2" in an Admin-permission Command Prompt (navigate to one fast using Windows+X)
This takes you to a screen with a checkbox allowing you to skip sign-ins with all users, even Microsoft Accounts.
Just make sure that when it asks for your password to verify this change, that you use your Microsoft Account password, and not your local account password, or it will make you sign in anyways at startup.

If you verify with the wrong password or leave it blank, it creates this odd second user with your same name that doesn't exist when you boot up to the sign-in screen. I first thought it made a second user from inserting my local password from the checkbox, but the you never see the that 'clone' user again. It's a glitch. Windows wasn't ready for people to force their way to the desktop, haha.
Just use your Microsoft Account Password when unchecking the box and disregard all above as it won't happen to you.


Second Temporary fix, and most important:
SEARCH EVERYWHERE STILL EXISTS from 8.1. There is no hotkey that I know of, but you can create one that targets Search.exe, located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Search.exe. Works like a charm, but a little inconvenient to use without a hotkey.
Windows should have let you switch Cortana/Search Bar and Search Everything with Windows+S