Windows 11 Search Doesn't Find App. Shortcuts Under "Start Menu" Folder

uncertain235 0 Reputation points
2024-05-16T12:41:14.67+00:00

Had originally submitted this question to https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all but "Rota.Y - MSFT Microsoft Agent | Moderator" suggested I submit it here.

My Windows 11 PC/Desktop machine is in a state where windows Search, as invoked by “windows-Key <search text>”, isn’t working right.  

If I put a shortcut to an app. into. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu then search doesn’t find it. However, this problem only occurs for one local user account, let’s call it “user3”. For other logins, like “user1”, an admin local account, or “user2”, another non-admin local account, there are no search problems. 

This problem started recently. Was working fine before. 

Don’t know what caused it but have been wondering if it was triggered by changing behavior of Windows 11 Calendar app. I activated “Try the New Outlook” in Calendar, which led to the local user3 account becoming attached to my Microsoft account. I didn’t want that, so switched it back later. But now I’m stuck with Search not working right in that one account. I don’t know for a fact that the search breakage was related to the Calendar thing. Just speculating.

In any case, am now in a state where, for this local account “user 3”, Search doesn’t find shortcuts in Start Menu or Start Menu / Programs. I did try rebuilding the search index but that had no effect. I actually didn’t expect it to have any effect since Start Menu is a machine global folder and searching it works fine for the other accounts.

I also tried “sfc /scannow” and “DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth”. But they found nothing.

Another thing I noticed was that if I put shortcuts on the user3 desktop, search finds them OK. Almost like Search from user3 can find things in its own file space but not in a machine wide file space like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu.

OS version is Win11 23H2 build 22631.3593.

What I’m experiencing is a little bit like this

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-10-search-option-doesnt-find-apps/8ef14b63-f727-40b9-b59f-699ecb02efef

But I’ve tried what was suggested there and it had no affect.

Any ideas?

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  1. Wesley Li 10,410 Reputation points
    2024-05-23T10:04:40.6966667+00:00

    Hello

    I noticed you have tried to rebuild the indexing.

    Have you tried to run the built-in tool to diagnostic automatically.

    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\All Categories\Search and Indexing.

    Since the issue only occurred with the specific account, there could be permission issue.

    When you search, check whethere there is any error recorded in Event Viewer\Window logs\Applications, System or in Applications and Services\Microsoft\Windows\Apps, Appsmodule-Runtime

    We may consider to re-create the account.

    Fix a corrupted user profile in Windows - Microsoft Support

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