Windows 10: WSearch service not starting

After updating to win11 22h2, I think the WSearch service is not starting, When I try to start the service, It says Error 5 Access Denied, Error 2 for Failing to read the description occurs in the Service description section. When I looked into the properties of the searchindexer.exe file, I saw that permission windows say it must have read permissions, I tried permitting it, but it said permission denied, All dependent services are working just fine.Laptop: Asus VivoBook X515UA-M515UA 1. Tried fixing and reinstating group policy and registry values to default and still the same error,2.

:)

 

service named "Windows Search" does not exist; WSearch service - "Error 5: Access is denied"

In an Administrator Command Prompt see what you get from

sc.exe qc wsearch

and

sc.exe queryex wsearch

and

sc.exe qdescription wsearch

(since that seems to be a problem)

A PowerShell alternative is

Get-Service wsearch | fl *

Unfortunately (surprisingly) that doesn't show the Description.



HTH

Robert Aldwinckle

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wsearch won't start, error 5 access denied

I guess when the service itself has an issue, it renames itself to the "Service name" instead of "Display name".





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Try these suggestions:
c# - windows could not start service on local computer error 5 access is denied - Stack Overflow

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Another idea, similar to: DHCP Client service Error 5: Access is denied


1) Open Registry Editor and go to:
2) Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WSearch
3) Right click WSearch, and press Permissions...
Do all these look similar on your computer? If not, then make them similar and restart your computer:



After the computer restarts, see if Windows Search works

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Here are search results for having an exactly the same Permissions error for a Service:
"windows could not start the "+"error 5 access is denied" - Search

This could widen the horizon of different possibilities that you can try to fix the error if none of the above worked.

 

service named "Windows Search" does not exist; WSearch service - "Error 5: Access is denied"

The service is not starting at all so it never stops, abruptly or not.

C:\Users\Brian>sc.exe qdescription wsearch

[SC] QueryServiceConfig2 SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: wsearch

DESCRIPTION: This should be Windows Search

C:\Users\Brian>net start wsearch

System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

C:\Users\Brian>sc.exe queryex wsearch

SERVICE_NAME: wsearch

TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS

STATE : 1 STOPPED

WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)

SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)

CHECKPOINT : 0x0

WAIT_HINT : 0x7d0

PID : 0

FLAGS :