Windows 10: Windows Search Feature Not Working Properly

Hello,

I came to request help with a recent issue that has made using my computer far more difficult.

I run Windows 10 on an HP and for some odd reason, my search feature will not work.

It's been going on for a few weeks now, and I've been using Cortana for a while in place, but for some things Cortana doesn't work, such as having to type in more vague code to access files that need to be tweaked to mod video games.

When I try to use the search feature, I can type the first letter before it freezes for a split second and closes out completely. It does the same whether I click on it or use the Windows key.

Help would be appreciated. Thank you.




:)

 

Windows Search Feature Not Working Properly

Hello,

I don't know what happened, but I tried to search for the calculator again the other day, and it suddenly worked. Unfortunately, I won't be around that computer for many months, as I'm studying abroad. Hopefully, this problem doesn't come back to haunt me.

Thanks!

 

Windows Search Feature Not Working Properly

Hello,

I've been Googling a lot to try to fix this problem that I recently discovered, but nothing seems to be working. It started maybe a week ago, and I discovered it when I wanted to search for the calculator. I work a lot on my computer, and therefore I use
the calculator a lot as well. I remember that all my desktop programs had been pushed to the left (I sort them into two categories, one on the left and one on the right). This may or may not be related to the issue I'm experiencing now. I also cannot access
Settings through the Windows menu (including subcategories in Settings). I've tried these fixes:

• Look for corrupted system files (no corrupted files found)
• Expand the indexing area (to include all folders)
• Troubleshoot the search and indexing feature
  • It says: "invalid permissions on windows search directories", but when I try to change the owner to my admin user, nothing changes
• 
  Reinstall Cortana
  

I hope someone out there can help me! :O

Here are my system specs:

Windows 10 Home x64

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz

RAM: 32 GB

EDIT:

Tried troubleshooting Windows Store, without it solving my problem.

 

Hi, first thing to try to see if this is a user profile issue or perhaps a conflicting program is to check this with another user account.

If you don't have one, create one for test purposes.

If Cortana works properly then, Windows is likely to be ok. If not, try a clean boot to check for 3rd party conflicts.

If that doesn't work, try re-registering Cortana.

Tutorial section, use the command for Cortana, observing the instructions at the start of that section.
Apps - Reinstall and Re-register in Windows 8 and 10

Does file explorer search work? (Note: Cortana file search only finds indexed files, will not find executables, and is really rather limited, and doesn't support regular expressions).

For really fast effective searches use:
Locate32
Ultrasearch
Everything by Void tools

(free, find anything across all internal disks and partitions, find-as-you-type indexed results with very good file specifications by data, size, extension, regular expression....).

 

The primary reason I need my search feature to be fixed is to access files that have to be searched through the search feature, such as things like %appdata% to tweak data in game files. For some odd reason, this usually works fine with the Windows key search but not with the file explorer search. Do the search softwares you listed support those types of searches?

 

Hi, example using Locate32:




Feel free to try the other programs.

File Explorer:




The difference? The first (specified 'everywhere' - all disks/partitions) was instant.
The second took several minutes, and I started from 'Roaming' (on an SSD).