Start menu and search not working

Question

_{Wednesday, November 21, 2018 2:05 PM | 1 vote}

Hi, 

After upgrading from 1803 to 1809 my start menu search stops randomly working.

When I press the win-key and start to type a program's name the start menu goes gray and unresponsive. Pressing esc will bring it back to life, but I cannot search anything. 

Also the clicking the search button (the magnifying glass) does nothing.

So I guess we are dealing with yet another MS quality update. Any ideas how to fix this POS?

All replies (7)

_{Wednesday, November 21, 2018 11:31 PM}

Kindly go through:

Troubleshoot problems with the Start menu or Cortana

S.Sengupta,Microsoft MVP Windows and Devices for IT, Windows Insider MVP

_{Wednesday, November 21, 2018 11:40 PM}

I have seen weird things when the Windows Search service is off or not working, try to restart the service.

_{Thursday, November 22, 2018 9:32 AM | 1 vote}

Didnt help at all. Yes, if I reboot the machine the problem goes away for awhile, but I cannot keep restarting my computer several times a day.

Restarting windows search does not help.

_{Saturday, November 24, 2018 4:39 PM}

Hi,

Based on your description, I suggest you:

1、Run Windows Troubleshooter

A. Navigate to the Control Panel (click Start, then scroll down the Windows System folder and we’ll find it there).

B. Change the view to “Large icons” then click “Troubleshooting -> System and Security -> Search and Indexing”.

2、** **Sometimes Cortana is a likely culprit for the Start menu search not working. So try to re-register Cortana:

open the Windows File Explorer and navigate to the following location: C:Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0.

Right-click “powershell.exe,” and then click “Run as administrator.”

Execute the following command and then restart the computer:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

3、Rebuild your Index

A. Open Control Panel and change the view again to ‘Small Icons’.

B. Click on ‘Indexing Options’. 

C. In the Indexing Options, click on ‘Advanced’. 

D. Click on ‘Rebuild’

E. Click on OK to start the Rebuilding process.

If the issue still persists, use SFC /SCANNOW to check if any corrupted system files.

Hope it could be helpful.

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_{Tuesday, November 27, 2018 4:55 PM}

Hi,
Was your issue solved?
If yes, would you like to share your solution in order that other community members could find the helpful reply quickly.
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
Best Regards，

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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_{Wednesday, December 5, 2018 12:24 PM}

HI, sorry, have been busy.

Problem still exists. Run SCF / SCANNOW, no problems found, run windows troubleshooter, no problems found in search or indexing.

However, there is a slight change in start menu behavior. Now it wont turn gray and wont go unresponsive, it just does nothing when I start to type the name of the program I want to run.

_{Monday, January 14, 2019 7:30 AM}

Worked two days after rebuilding the index, now broken again