What you will achieve

Repair broken Windows Search so Start menu, taskbar search, and File Explorer find apps, settings, and files again — working through service restarts, index rebuilds, and Search reset in order.

1) Quick checks first

Restart the PC — Search host processes crash silently after long uptime.
Open Settings → Privacy & security → Searching Windows and confirm Search permissions allow searching libraries and Outlook if you use them.
Verify the index location is not on a disconnected drive under Find my files → Advanced indexing options.

2) Restart Windows Search service

Open Admin PowerShell:

Stop-Service WSearch -Force
Start-Service WSearch

Test search for a known app (for example Notepad). If still empty, continue.

3) Rebuild the search index

Open Settings → Privacy & security → Searching Windows → Advanced indexing options.
Click Advanced → Rebuild on the Index Settings tab.
Confirm — rebuild can take hours on large drives; use the PC normally while it runs.
Check Indexing Status — wait until item count stabilises before judging results.

4) Review indexed locations and exclusions

In Advanced Indexing Options, click Modify.
Ensure Users folders you search are checked — especially Documents, Desktop, Downloads if needed.
Remove overly broad exclusions under Indexing Options → Advanced → File Types if custom filters block file types you expect.

5) Reset Search app (Windows 11)

Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
Search Windows Search or locate search-related components; for the Start experience, reset via:

Get-AppxPackage *Windows.Search* | Reset-AppxPackage

Run in Admin PowerShell. Sign out and back in, then test again.

6) Run Search troubleshooter

Settings → System → Troubleshoot → Other troubleshooters → Search and Indexing — apply fixes for “Files don’t appear in search results”. If disk usage hits 100% during indexing, address storage performance separately — heavy indexing on failing drives makes search appear broken.

7) Disable and re-enable search indexing

Last resort before in-place repair:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search" /v AllowIndexingEncryptedStoresOrItems /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Remove the key if you added it for testing. Reboot, rebuild index from section 3, and test with a unique filename you create after rebuild completes — searching for old files before indexing finishes gives false negatives.