Window 10 start menu search not working?

Sometimes when attempting to search for items in the Window 10 start menu, no results are shown. This happens when you are searching for files, programs, registries or other Window 10 features.

Solutions to fix the issue

Here are some fixes which will fix this issue.

Fix 1: Restart your system

The very first thing you need to try is to restart your computer or laptop. Once it is done, check if the start menu search is working fine or not. If not, please try the next fix.

Fix 2: Try re-registering the Cortana once again

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Local Disk (C:) Windows -> System 32 -> WindowsPowerShell -> v1.0
2. Right click on the powershell.exe with blue logo, and then choose “Run as administrator”.
3. A console will appear like the below one.
4. Type the following command in the console and press enter: Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
5. When you have entered the command and it has finished its execution, you need to close the PowerShell.
6. Now restart your computer or laptop. The error will be fixed and the search should now be working fine.

Fix 3: Disable or restart third party antivirus and enable windows firewall.

You need to disable and completely remove all the third party antivirus software from your device. Avast is one such antivirus which causes this issue sometimes, so uninstall it first. If you don’t want to do that, you can also disable the Avast shield temporarily which should get the start menu search back.

The next thing is to enable Windows Firewall.

1. Go to Start Menu.
2. Open Control Panel -> System and security -> Windows Defender Firewall
3. Make sure that Windows Firewall is enabled and set to “On” mode from the window you will see on your screen as shown in the above image.

Fix 4: Run Windows Troubleshooter

The Simplest solution is to use the tools which are built in by Windows and one such tool is Windows Troubleshooter.

1. Press the Windows button from your keyboard and navigate to Control Panel.
2. Now go to “Troubleshooting” -> System and security.
3. Select “Search and Indexing” and then click next from the troubleshooter window on your screen.
4. Now you need to select the check box on the left side of “Files don’t appear in search results” as shown in the below image.
5. Click the “Next” button to run the scan which will automatically attempt to fix the problem.

Fix 5: Restart windows explorer

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to jump straight to the Task Manager.
2. Click “More details” in the bottom left corner.
3. It should be already selected but if it is not selected already, then scroll down to “Window Explorer”.
4. Right click on it and choose the “Restart” option as shown in the below image.
5. Wait for a second, it will look like your computer might crash. But after that your Start Menu search button should be fixed.

Fix 6: Restart Cortana process.

It is possible that Cortana is responsible for the weird behavior of the Start menu search. So follow the steps defined below to restart the Cortana process to solve the problem.

1. Right click on task bar and then click “Task Manager”.
2. As soon as the Task Manager is opened, navigate to the Processes tab. Now you need to find the Cortana process in the list and then terminate it by clicking the “End Task” button.
3. This will restart the Cortana process and will solve the start menu search problem.

Conclusion

So this is how you can fix the start menu search issue. So, what are your views on this? Do let us know in the comments below!