Searching issues

Question

When searching for something general like “sackroots purses and handbags” nothing happens - the screen is blank. I have been having this issue for sever weeks. I have deleted my history and cache, rebooted the modem and restarted the laptop many times. I feel this happened around the time of a September 11, 2024 update (which can’t be deleted). My home page either doesn’t appear or is slow in booting up. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Hi Carol Peterson1

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Based on your description, I understand how you feel when you search for something through the search bar and nothing comes up and the screen goes blank!

You have tried very many solutions and commend your problem solving skills and thinking!

I see that your board of choice is Microsoft Edge, what search engine are you using? Is it Bing? Or some other search engine?

I will give you some options and hopefully solve your problem successfully! However, the first reply may not be able to solve your problem successfully due to the different aspects of troubleshooting required for this issue, so please understand and provide more information (pictures would be great!) in your reply. Thank you very much!

Option 1: If you have extensions or plug-ins in your Edge browser, please disable them all. Then restart Edge and see if the problem persists.

Option 2: Let's try resetting the Edge browser to see if there might be some settings that are causing the problem.

Open Edge browser -> click “...” button in the top right corner -> “Settings” -> on the left sidebar select “Reset settings” -> “Restore settings to their default values”.

Restart Edge when the reset is complete.

Option 3: We tried searching in privacy mode to see if the problem still exists.

Open Edge browser -> click “...” button in the top right corner -> “New InPrivate window”

Option 4: We tried using another browser to see if the search problem still exists.

For example, Chrome, Firefox, and so on.

Assuming that the problem persists with other browsers, we can now determine that the problem is not caused by the browser, further narrowing down the number of browsers that are causing the problem.

Option 5: We try to completely reset the network from the command line.

Click on “Windows Logo Key” to open the search bar -> Type “cmd” in the search bar and open it with administrator privileges -> Please enter the following commands

ipconfig /release 

ipconfig /renew 

ipconfig /flushdns 

ipconfig /registerdns 

netsh int ip reset 

netsh winsock reset 

netsh winhttp reset proxy 

Option 6: Sometimes third-party antivirus programs and firewall settings block certain websites or features. Temporarily disable antivirus programs and all types of firewalls to see if that solves the problem.

Disclaimer: Temporarily turn off antivirus protection. However, keep in mind that if you do so, your device may be vulnerable to threats. So please turn it on immediately once issue fixed.

Option 7: The problem may be caused by a corrupt or missing user account profile that you are currently using.

Let's try creating a new local administrator account and logging in to see if the problem persists.

Click “Windows Logo Key” to open the search bar -> Type “cmd” in the search bar and open it with administrator privileges -> Please enter the following commands

net user USERNAME PASSWORD /add

net localgroup administrators USERNAME /add

Please note: USERNAME PASSWORD can be replaced with your preferred account name and password, if you don't need a password you can leave out the PASSWORD.

I sincerely hope that the above solution will solve your problem. Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems or still can't solve them. (Photos related to the question would be great!).

I looking forward to hearing back from you. 

Best Regards

Arthur Sheng | Microsoft Community Support Specialist