Windows Search and/or Indexing Broken

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moromis

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Sep 2, 2015
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Hi,

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and have encountered an interesting problem. I realized it initially when I would press start and begin to type a program's name in order to run it, as I was doing with Windows 7, but it would not find any results and would prompt me to Google the program. I found it strange but didn't think much of it.

Once I started looking into the issue, I noticed when I go to Indexing Options it says "Indexing is not running." When trying to rebuild indexing, it gives the message about how it will take a while, and then does nothing. So I decided to look into Windows Search.

Windows Search is not and will not run. First: If I go to services.msc and try to start the Windows Search service, it tells me that "The Windows Search service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs."

So I tried through an elevated cmd prompt: "net start wsearch" gives me error 15:

"C:\WINDOWS\system32>net start wsearch
The Windows Search service is starting..
The Windows Search service could not be started.


A system error has occurred.


System error 15 has occurred.


The system cannot find the drive specified."

Finally, and perhaps the strangest thing, one post told me to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows Search \ SetupCompletedSuccessfully and change the value to 0. However, the only thing in the registry under Windows Search is a Preferences folder. There are no keys there. So to me it looks as though Windows Search does not currently exist on my computer.

So of course I run sfc /scannow. Unfortunately, it tells me:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow


Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some
of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Solution
Hello,

Please try the following;

- Try to delete all of the files associated with search indexing in Windows by deleting everything inside these folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Temp

If you do not see these folders, you need to turn on viewing for hidden folders by going to Windows Explorer or This PC and then choose Options. Go to the View tab and scroll down till you see “Show hidden files and folders“. You should now be able to see the ProgramData folder.

Make a backup of the files in the directories before deleting them just in case, but they really are not that important. If you get an Access is Denied message when trying to delete the files, you will...

Slashgeek

Admirable
Hello,

Please try the following;

- Try to delete all of the files associated with search indexing in Windows by deleting everything inside these folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Temp

If you do not see these folders, you need to turn on viewing for hidden folders by going to Windows Explorer or This PC and then choose Options. Go to the View tab and scroll down till you see “Show hidden files and folders“. You should now be able to see the ProgramData folder.

Make a backup of the files in the directories before deleting them just in case, but they really are not that important. If you get an Access is Denied message when trying to delete the files, you will first need to stop the Window Search Index service by going to Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, and then click on Services.

The service should be called Windows Search or Windows Searcher. Double click on the service and click Stop.
After you delete the files, restart the computer and the index will be rebuilt and hopefully your error will be gone!
 
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moromis

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Sep 2, 2015
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4,510
First: there are no files in the \Temp folder.

Second: when I delete the files in \Applications\Windows, it merely recreates them.

I tried rebooting regardless of the files coming back, but nothing changed, search is still dead.
 

moromis

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Sep 2, 2015
3
0
4,510
Alright, so your answer was actually correct, but I had to finagle user permissions on my drives and subfolders (programdata) in order to delete it. After doing that and deleting the contents of those folders, Windows Search magically started. I stopped it and deleted everything in the folders again (since it was all recreated right after I deleted it), then I restarted my computer. I am rebuilding the Index and all looks to be well again. Strange problem.
 
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