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Windows File Explorer Search giving me instant results and now has advanced search

Anonymous
2023-12-19T00:59:00+00:00

Recently my pc did an update,and currently running Windows 10 Home Version 22H2 with OS build 19045.3803. Ever since it updated I've noticed that the windows file explorer search bar acted differently than what I was used to. Now when I type a single letter into the search box within file explorer it immediately pops up results. I do not like that. Before I had to finish typing and hit enter.

Another thing is when I used to search with "size:" it would be in white text, now that text turns blue and it shows up options.

Another issue I'm having is that it no longer remembers my search history when I click in the search box.

Instead I have to expand the ribbon and go to search tools and find it there.

This is an image I found online, but It used to work exactly like this:

I used to be able to just click in the box and it would remember. Now that is gone.

Another thing that changed was I could type "datemodified:" and nothing would pop up, I had to type it in manually. Now it pops up a whole calendar interface I've never seen before:

How can I revert back or is there an option to change to how things used to work? I do not like these new changes. It happened the moment it did that update.
Here are my current settings:

Prior to the update, I have never once changed any of these settings. Any fix to this? I especially want my recent searches to be findable under the search bar. Not sure why it stopped.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Les Ferch 10,341 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2023-12-19T07:20:07+00:00

This is a change Microsoft has pushed out as of build 3758 and higher. It appears that this was done to comply with EU requirements to decouple Bing search from Windows. Rather than update Explorer with new code, Microsoft simply rolled everyone back to the pre-1909, version of the address / search bar. That may actually be the preference for many users, but it was done with absolutely no mention of this change in the release notes.

You can get back the previous adddress / search bar by re-enabling feature 18755234:

  1. Download and extract ViveTool.
  2. Type cmd in Windows search and select Run as Administrator.
  3. CD to the folder that contains vivetool.exe.
  4. Enter this command:

vivetool /enable /id:18755234

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Answer accepted by question author

Paulo GM 67,400 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2023-12-19T01:47:43+00:00

Hi Geo, I am Paulo and I'd like to help.

I have experienced the same issue with search history no longer showing when I click on the search bar. This is a bug caused by KB5032278 and I was able to confirm it with the help of another user who experienced the same problem. Check your Update history and uninstall it.

To uninstall the update,

https://support.microsoft.com/windows/c77b8f9b-...

This is thread from another region:

https://answers.microsoft.com/es-es/windows/for...

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  1. Les Ferch 10,341 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-01-08T20:57:57+00:00

    These steps have been run successfully by thousands of people. Since you didn't post a screenshot, I don't know if it's a simple matter of a command line error or something less trivial. If you can provide more details, I can probably provide more direct help.

    And please understand that I'm just another user trying to help. I'm not paid in any way or have any affiliation with Microsoft.

    Here are expanded steps that should help if the issue was being in the wrong folder or if your PC's feature registry key is corrupted:

    1. Open Windows Updates and ensure there are no outstanding updates.
    2. Download and extract ViveTool.
    3. Type cmd in Windows search and select Run as Administrator.
    4. CD to the folder that contains vivetool.exe. For example:

    cd %userprofile%\downloads\vivetool-v0.3.3 5. Enter this command:

    vivetool /fullreset 6. Restart your PC 7. Repeat steps 3 and 4 and then enter:

    vivetool /enable /id:18755234 8. Restart your PC again

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  2. Paulo GM 67,400 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-12-19T16:07:41+00:00

    You are very welcome. I'm glad you were able to uninstall the faulty update. Great! :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-19T16:06:30+00:00

    Thanks for the reply! and you were correct. However, mine was a different number. I had to uninstall KB5033372 and I got my search history back to working! Thanks.

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