How to Fix Windows 11 Search Not Working (7 Fixes in the Right Order)

Windows 11 search not working fix tutorial: search box won't open, can't type, or shows no results

If Windows 11 search is not working, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to the Details tab, end the SearchHost.exe process, then click the search box again so Windows starts a fresh copy. That is Microsoft’s documented fix and it clears most stuck search boxes. If it still fails, restart the Windows Search service, rebuild the index, then run DISM and SFC.

Applies to: Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) and Windows 10 (22H2) | Last updated: August 28, 2026

Fix Windows Search Not Working on Windows 10/11

Key Takeaways

  • On Windows 11 the search window is its own small app, SearchHost.exe, and it gets stuck. Ending it from Task Manager > Details and clicking the search box again is Microsoft’s own documented fix, and it is the one that works most often.
  • If search opens but you cannot type into it, the part of Windows that handles text input has stopped. Press Windows + R, type ctfmon.exe and press Enter to relaunch it.
  • A blank box, a box that loads forever, or results that are mostly web junk are the same problem: the search box goes off to Bing every time you type, and when that lookup fails the whole box hangs. Turning off cloud content search in Settings, or disabling Bing results with Winhance, fixes it.
  • If search opens fine but cannot find your files and apps, that is the indexer. Check the Windows Search service is set to Automatic in services.msc, then rebuild the index from Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows.
  • Run DISM before SFC, not the other way round. Microsoft’s own instructions say so, and SFC followed by a restart is the step that finally sorts search out for a surprising number of people.

Quick Steps

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, open the Details tab, right-click SearchHost.exe and choose End task. Then click the search box so Windows starts it again.
  2. While you are in Task Manager, go to Processes, right-click Windows Explorer and restart it. If that does nothing, restart the PC (Restart, not Shut down).
  3. Cannot type in the box? Press Windows + R, type ctfmon.exe, press Enter.
  4. Blank box or web junk? Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Search permissions and switch off both Cloud content search toggles. To remove Bing results entirely, set Bing Search Results in Start Menu to Disabled in Winhance.
  5. Cannot find files? Press Windows + R, type services.msc, open Windows Search, set Startup type to Automatic (or Automatic with Delayed Start) and click Start.
  6. Still no results? Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows > Advanced indexing options > Advanced > Rebuild. Give it up to a couple of hours.
  7. Box still will not open? In Terminal (Admin), run Microsoft’s re-register command below, restart, then run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth followed by sfc /scannow, and restart once more.

In This Guide

On Windows 11 the search window is not part of the taskbar. It is its own little app, and it runs as a process called SearchHost.exe. That process gets stuck, and when it does the search box will not open, or it opens and does nothing. So the first thing to try is to end it and let Windows start a fresh copy.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager and go to the Details tab. Find SearchHost.exe in the list, right-click it, and click End task. The search window closes. Now click the search box on the taskbar again, and Windows starts a new copy of it. This is Microsoft’s own documented step on its Fix problems in Windows Search page, which says that the next time you search, Windows Search starts automatically. In a lot of cases, that is the whole fix.

While you are in Task Manager, it is worth restarting Windows Explorer too, because the taskbar and the Start menu both live inside the Explorer process. Go to the Processes tab, find Windows Explorer, right-click it and restart it. Your taskbar flashes for a moment and comes back. If the search box was hanging because Explorer was hanging, this clears it.

And then there is the old-fashioned version: restart the PC. I do mean Restart, not Shut down. On a modern Windows machine those two are not the same thing, and only the restart gives search a properly clean start.

Fix 2: Search Opens but You Cannot Type Into It

This one looks like a broken search box, but it is not really search at all. A small part of Windows handles typing into text boxes like this one, and when it is not running you can click the search box all day and nothing goes in. The keyboard works everywhere else, which is what makes it so confusing.

Press Windows + R, type ctfmon.exe, and press Enter. That relaunches the text input part of Windows, and the search box takes typing again straight away. No restart needed.

File Explorer showing ctfmon.exe in C:\\Windows\\System32 ready to be sent as a shortcut to the Startup folder

If it keeps happening after every reboot, the version of this fix from my older guide still works: open C:\Windows\System32, right-click ctfmon.exe, choose Send to > Desktop (create shortcut), then press Windows + R, type shell:startup, press Enter, and drag that shortcut into the Startup folder. Windows then launches it for you at every sign-in.

Fix 3: Blank Box, Endless Loading, or Mostly Web Results

If search opens but loads forever, or you get a blank white box, or what comes back is mostly web results and junk, these are all the same problem. The Windows 11 search box goes off to Bing every time you type. When that online lookup fails or stalls, the whole box hangs with it, and your local results never get a chance to show up. This is the cause behind more “search is broken” complaints than people realise, and most guides skip straight past it.

Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Search permissions. There is a Cloud content search section with one toggle for your Microsoft account and one for work or school accounts. Switch both of them off. Microsoft’s Windows Search and privacy page covers what those toggles control if you want the detail.

If you want the web results gone completely, there is a policy for that in the registry. The easier way is Winhance, my free Windows enhancement utility. Under Start Menu Settings there is an option called Bing Search Results in Start Menu. Set it to Disabled and Winhance writes that policy for you. Search gets noticeably quicker as well, because it stops waiting on Bing before it shows you anything.

Note: Depending on the build of Windows 11 you are on, you may find Microsoft has started adding a switch for this inside the Settings app itself. Have a look in Settings before you reach for anything else, because on newer builds it may already be there.

Fix 4: Search Opens Fine but Cannot Find Your Files or Apps

When the box works, takes typing, and simply comes back with nothing for files and apps you know are there, the problem is the indexer. And the first thing to check is the Windows Search service, because that service builds and maintains the index. If it is stopped, search has nothing to look in.

Windows Services dialog showing Windows Search service properties with Startup type set to Automatic Delayed Start

Press Windows + R, type services.msc, press Enter, and scroll down to Windows Search. Double-click it. Startup type should be Automatic or Automatic (Delayed Start), not Manual and not Disabled. If the service status says Stopped, click Start, then Apply and OK. Search usually starts finding things again within a minute or two, without a restart.

Tip: If search went flaky right after you ran a debloating or optimisation tool, this service is the first place to look. Winhance’s recommended setting for the Windows Search Indexing Service is Manual, which saves resources on a gaming PC but means the index is not always kept up to date. If you used that recommendation and search stopped finding files, set this service back to Automatic.

Fix 5: Rebuild the Search Index

If the service is running and search still cannot find things, the index itself may be broken, so you rebuild it. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows. At the top you can choose between Classic, which indexes your Documents, Pictures, Music and desktop, and Enhanced, which indexes your whole PC. Classic is fine for most people; pick Enhanced if you keep files in odd places and want search to find them.

Scroll down to the advanced indexing options, click Advanced, and then click Rebuild. Windows throws the old index away and starts again from scratch. Microsoft’s search indexing FAQ says a fresh index can take up to a couple of hours, so leave the PC on and give it a while before you judge whether it worked. Apps and Settings results still show up while it is running; file results come back as the index fills in.

Note: Do not go looking for the old Search and Indexing troubleshooter. Microsoft lists it on the removed side of its MSDT troubleshooter deprecation page, with no Get Help replacement. If a guide tells you to run it, that guide is out of date.

Fix 6: Re-Register the Search App

If you have done all of the above and the search box still will not open at all, there are two bigger fixes left. The first is to re-register the search app itself, which puts its package back the way Windows expects it to be.

Right-click the Start button and open Terminal (Admin). Then paste in the command from Microsoft’s own Fix problems in Windows Search page. This is the Windows 11 version:

Add-AppxPackage -Path "C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register

Press Enter, let it finish, and restart the PC. You will see other one-liners floating around for this, usually built on Reset-AppxPackage and aimed at a different package name. I have stuck with the command Microsoft publishes, because it targets the package Windows 11 actually uses for search.

Fix 7: Repair the Windows System Files (DISM, Then SFC)

The last fix is to check the Windows system files themselves. In that same admin terminal, run DISM first:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Let it finish completely. Then run the System File Checker:

sfc /scannow
Admin Command Prompt running SFC scannow on Windows 11 with progress shown at the bottom

Then restart once more. The order matters. Microsoft’s System File Checker page says you should run DISM before SFC, because DISM repairs the component store that SFC pulls its clean copies from. Run them the other way round and SFC can end up repairing files from a damaged source. An earlier version of this guide had them backwards, and that is worth owning up to.

SFC followed by a restart is the step that finally sorts search out for a surprising number of people, so do not skip it just because it comes last. It fixes a lot more than search, too. I go through both commands, what each one actually does, and why the order matters in SFC scannow on Windows 11: why running it first is the problem.

If the Search Box Is Missing From the Taskbar Entirely

Windows 10 taskbar context menu showing Search options to enable Show search icon or Show search box

One case that is not a broken search at all: the box or icon has simply been hidden. On Windows 11, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and set Search to the search icon, the icon with a label, or the full search box. On Windows 10, right-click an empty part of the taskbar, open the Search menu, and choose Show search icon or Show search box. The change is instant, and search itself was fine the whole time.

Last Resort: An In-Place Upgrade Keeps Your Files and Apps

Windows 11 in-place upgrade setup screen showing the Keep personal files and apps option

If all seven fixes fail, the most thorough repair short of a clean install is an in-place upgrade. You run Windows Setup from inside Windows using the matching ISO, choose to keep your personal files and apps, and Setup replaces every system file while leaving your stuff alone. Download the ISO using my Windows 11 ISO guide, mount it, run setup.exe, and pick Keep personal files and apps when asked. The full walkthrough is in my in-place upgrade guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Windows 11 search keep breaking?

Because several separate things have to work at once: the SearchHost.exe process that draws the box, the text input part of Windows that lets you type into it, the online Bing lookup that runs every time you type, and the Windows Search service that maintains the index. Any one of them stalling looks like “search is broken” from the outside. That is why the fixes above go in the order they do, from the cheapest to the most thorough.

Will DISM or SFC delete my files?

No. Both commands only touch protected Windows system files. Your documents, photos and installed apps are not part of what they scan or repair. The only things that change are damaged system files, which get replaced with clean copies.

Should I turn off Bing in Windows Search?

If your search box comes up blank or hangs while loading, yes, because the Bing lookup is usually what it is waiting on. Even on a healthy PC, turning it off makes search faster and keeps web suggestions out of your results. The Cloud content search toggles are under Settings > Privacy & security > Search permissions, and Winhance’s Bing Search Results in Start Menu setting removes web results completely.

Do these fixes work on Windows 10?

Mostly, yes. On Windows 10 the search process is called SearchUI.exe rather than SearchHost.exe, and Microsoft’s fix page names both. The ctfmon relaunch, the Windows Search service check, the index rebuild and the DISM and SFC commands are identical. Only the Settings pages are laid out differently.

What if search worked yesterday and broke today?

Start with Fix 1, because a stuck SearchHost.exe is the most likely cause of a sudden break. If it broke right after a Windows update installed overnight, check Settings > Windows Update > Update history, and if the timing lines up, my guide on uninstalling a Windows 11 update walks you through removing it.

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