"Search" task missing

Question

At about 6PM yesterday my PC started running poorly/slowly due to some weird issue, however I figured out a fix, but even though I fixed the other problems, I am unable to open my search bar, when I click on it a black box will appear, then disappear after 2 seconds. And I can't end the "search" task in task manager since the "search" task isn't even there. I've tried searching on it on google, YouTube, literally every site I could think of, and no fixes. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hello ItzL,

Thank you for updating me with that information. I apologize that this did not resolve the issue.

Please try this.

Login to the new user account

Open File explorer then Under View > Show hidden items

Navigate to this folder

C:\Users<username of the main account>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings

Delete all files inside

Once deleted, Restart your computer then login to your main account.

If this does not work, please do the same in the following paths below

C:\Users<username of the main account>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings

C:\Users<username of the main account>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings

Kind regards,

John DeV

Independent Advisor

Answer 2

Hello ItzL,

Good day! I'm John Dev a Windows user like you and I'll be happy to assist you today. I know this has been difficult for you, Rest assured, I'm going to do my best to help you. What is your current Windows operating system and version? Press Windows key+R to open Run then type: winver

Please let me know if you have tried the methods below.

Method 1.

Press Windows key+R to open Run then type or copy paste the path below. Hit Enter.

C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe

Method 2.

**Please try to check first this support article.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/w...

Method 3.

**Please try to run SFC and DISM to check for any system errors and corrupted files.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/usi...

After that, restart your computer

Note: You can open Command Prompt as administrator by doing this,

Press Windows key+R to open Run then type: cmd

Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run as administrator

Proceed with the commands inside the support article

Method 4.

**Repair all Windows apps via PowerShell

Windows key+X then select Windows PowerShell (Admin)

Copy and paste the command below one at a time then press Enter. Please ignore the red errors and let the process complete.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode}

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Restart your computer

Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.

Kind regards,

John DeV

Independent Advisor

Answer 3

Hey again

The new administrator account has helped my issue, I can use the search bar again so thank you.

But I do still have a question, will I have to login and redownload all of my pictures/games on my pc again on the new account? I noticed that the gb on my disks are the same, but my background was different and my apps placement.

(Edit)

The administrator account did help, but I would like to keep using my main account due to all my programs and other stuff. Is there a solution for that?

Answer 4

Hello ItzL,

Thank you for updating me with that information. I apologize that the above methods did not resolve the issue.

Please try creating a new local administrator account then check if the issue still persists.

Press Windows key+R to open Run then type: cmd

Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to Run as administrator

At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

net user USER_NAME PASSWORD /add

In the above command make sure to change USER_NAME and PASSWORD with the credentials you want to use for the new user account.

For example: net user John 1234 /add

After that, Please type the following command to add the newly created account to the Administrators group and press Enter:

net localgroup administrators USER_ACCOUNT /add

For example: net localgroup administrators John /add

Sign-out then login to the new administrator account.

Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.

Kind regards,

John DeV

Independent Advisor

Answer 5

Hey there.

I really appreciate the quick respond but unfortunately none of them work, i've tried all of the methods already, double checked to see if it'd work or not, and it's still broken the "search" thing is still missing.

And the "cft.mon" doesn't work at all nothing pops up if I attempt to run the command

The version i'm on is called "Version 21H2, OS Build 19044. 1387"