search bar not working on Windows 11 Home edition

Question

search bar not working on Windows 11 Home edition

denis sammons 0

Hi guys, hope you can help with this one.

The search bar located on the taskbar has stopped working. A blank box appears with a line travelling under the area you write your search request.

I have tried the following.

checked the task bar settings. they were ok.

Task Manager- Details tab-SearchHost.exe-End task unsuccesful

                                      -Explorer.exe-Restart      unsuccesful

Settings-indexing options -advanced bar- index settings-trouble shooting- rebuild. unsuccesful

services.msc-windows search- running and set to automatic. unsuccesful

Registry Editor-hkey local machine-system-current control set-services-WpnService-Start- change the value to 4. unsuccesful

I restarted after each attempt witout any luck.

Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.

many thanks

Denis

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Based on the steps already tried, the next supported actions are to use the built‑in Windows Search troubleshooter, then reset or regenerate Windows Search.

Run the Windows Search troubleshooter
- Select Start > Settings > Privacy & Security > Troubleshoot.
- Select Searching Windows and then Indexer troubleshooter.
- Let it detect and fix any issues it finds.
Restart the Windows Search process from Task Manager
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and select Task Manager.
- Go to the Details tab.
- Right‑click SearchHost.exe and select End task.
- Confirm End process. The next time a search is run, Windows Search will automatically start again.
Reset Windows Search (Windows 11 / Windows 10 1903 or later)
- Open an elevated PowerShell window (Run as administrator).
- Check the execution policy:
```
     Get-ExecutionPolicy
```
- If it is not Unrestricted, record the current value, then run:
```
     Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
```
  Confirm the warning with Y and Enter.
- After changing the policy, close PowerShell, then follow the documented script method to reset Windows Search as described in the Windows Search troubleshooting article.
- When finished, restore the original execution policy value if it was changed.
Regenerate the Windows Search app data (advanced) Use this only if the previous steps do not resolve the issue.
- Sign out and sign in with another account, or use Windows Recovery Environment as indicated.
- For Windows 11, delete the folder:
  - %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy
- While signed in with the affected account, open Registry Editor and go to:
  - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
- Delete the Search key.
- Open an elevated PowerShell window and run:
```
     Add-AppxPackage -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
```
- Restart the computer and test the search bar again. This restarts search indexing and regenerates the registry key and AppData folder.

If the problem persists after these steps, submit feedback via Feedback Hub under Desktop Environment > Search with details and screenshots so the issue can be investigated further.

References:

Answer 2

DaveM121 869.3K Independent Advisor

1

If all those troubleshooting steps you performed have not resolved the problem, click your Start Button then just type rstrui and press Enter.

That will open the System Restore utility, check if you have a System Restore point dated before the search bar problem started, if so, that will be the best option.

2

If that does not resolve the problem, open the Settings App.

Go to System - Recovery.

Click the Reinstall Now' button in the 'Fix problems with Windows Updates' section, then wait for that process to complete, this process will not affect your files, settings or installed apps.

denis sammons 0 Reputation points

2026-04-10T22:50:33.7166667+00:00

Hi Dave,

Thank you for responding to my desperate call for help.

Solution 1. click start button, type rstrui, press enter.

unfortunately when I click the Start Button and start to type the box becomes blank (the app icons vanish) and the line starts crossing the box under the search area.

Solution 2. System recovery.

completed system recovery to a previous time when everything had been working properly.

unfortunately this also failed to correct the problem.

Since my Windows Home Edition is protected by "Managed By Your Organization" There are alot of settings i'm unable to change. I've tried to change this setting but are stopped by many greyed out areas in the settings.

Any additional help you can think of would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Denis
denis sammons 0 Reputation points

2026-04-10T23:07:12.7666667+00:00

Hi Dave,

just finished sending you my reply and restarted one more time and the problem was gone. I'm now a happy guy. thank you .

If you have any foolproof solutions to getting out of the "Managed By Your Organization" settings I would love to here them. Its such a frustrating setting.

Kind Regard

Denis
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DaveM121 869.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-04-11T05:16:35.55+00:00

Sorry, I was offline.

For the 'Managed by your Organization' problem in the Settings app, try this fix.

Click your Start Button, then just type cmd

On the resulting list, right click Command Prompt and select 'run as Administrator'

Paste each of these commands into Command one at a time and press Enter, wait for each command to complete, before running the next command, if you receive an error on any command, ignore that and continue to the next command.

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableAntiSpyware

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost" /f

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Policies" /f

reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Policies" /f

Then, close Command Prompt and restart (not shut down) your PC.

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search bar not working on Windows 11 Home edition

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