Search in Windows 10 not working? Here's how to fix it

Search in Windows 10 not working? Here's how to fix it

When you have installed Windows 10 you are accustomed to the presence of Cortana and the convenient search through the Start menu: just type the beginning of the name of a file, an app or whatever to find it immediately available and ready to click!


However, it may happen that, suddenly, the search stop working, causing the loading icon to appear but without returning any results.

A restart of the computer is enough to get things back to normal, but is not always an applicable solution: Below we will therefore see two methods to get out of the way when the search in Windows 10 does not work. Before continuing, it must be emphasized that the first method is effective only if Cortana is active on the system (and therefore takes care of managing searches).


Preliminary information

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Search in Windows 10 does not work: how to fix

Method 1: restart Cortana

We award the key combination CTRL + Shift + ESC to show the activity manager Windows 10, then - if the view is minimal - click on "More details" at the bottom of the panel.


An apparently more complex panel will appear: for convenience we can click once on the field Your name to sort processes alphabetically; now, under the heading "Processi in background”, we seek the process Cortana.

We right-click on the Cortana process and select End Activity: the process will then be terminated and automatically restarted immediately afterwards. If everything went well, the search will now work again! If this is not the case (or if Cortana was not running on the system), you can rebuild the file index by following the next method.

Method 2: rebuild the file index

Press the key combination WIN + R and, inside it, write the command

control / name Microsoft.IndexingOptions

followed by Enter. The control panel window related to file indexing. From there, click on Advanced. 

Now click on New Index under "Troubleshooting": keep in mind that, exactly as you will be notified by the operating system, the procedure for rebuilding the index can take a long time and that until its conclusion i search results may not include all files or programs. Confirm your intention to proceed by clicking on "Ok". In the main panel you will now be shown the status of file indexing.


If you want you can also close the window (indexing will continue in the background), however for realize that the procedure has been completed you will have to reopen the previous panel. Once the file indexing is complete, the search will resume working as usual.

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