Windows Search Not Working? Try One Process First

You press the Windows key and start typing the name of an app you use daily. The box stays empty. Or it opens as a blank white rectangle with nothing in it. Or results appear and clicking one does nothing at all.

Search failing is a small fault with an outsized cost. I use it to open almost everything, and I expect you do too.

The quick answer is that ending a single process fixes a large share of these. It takes thirty seconds. Microsoft documents it.

If it comes back, the rest of this page tells apart three faults that look identical and need different answers.

The thirty second version

Documented by Microsoft, and it is Solution 4 on its own troubleshooting page.

Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose Task Manager. Then open the Details tab.

Find SearchHost.exe on Windows 11, or SearchUI.exe on Windows 10. Right-click it and choose End task. Confirm at the prompt.

Nothing visible happens. That is expected. Microsoft's own note explains why: "The next time that you search, Windows Search automatically starts."

Press the Windows key and type something. In most cases it now works.

⭐ Bookmark this page first if search is how you got here. Microsoft prints that same warning on its own version, and it is good advice.

If it comes back within the hour

Then you have a recurring fault rather than a one-off hang. The process kill is a patch, not a repair.

Work down the rest of this page in order. But first, notice what kind of failure you have. It changes which section is worth your time.

Results are wrong or missing, but the box works. That is an indexing problem, and the index sections below are yours. If the whole machine is slow as well, two numbers explain most of that and neither is search.

The box opens blank and stays blank. That is a rendering problem, not an indexing one, and it has its own section further down.

Nothing opens at all when you press the key. That is closest to the process fault above, and the reset script is your next stop. If other apps are dead too, settle whether it is you or an outage before you go further.

Update, because this one genuinely gets fixed

Unglamorous and easy to skip. It is Microsoft's second solution rather than its last.

Go to Settings, Windows Update, and Check for updates. Install everything offered, including anything sitting under optional updates, and restart if it asks.

Search is a shipped component that gets patched like any other. A build with a known search bug is a real thing. Waiting it out is sometimes the whole fix.

Ours, and marked as ours: do this before the heavier steps below, not after. Half of them are undone by the next cumulative update anyway.

Run the troubleshooter, and read what it tells you

There is a search-specific troubleshooter. The useful part is often its diagnosis rather than its repair.

Open a Command Prompt window and run Microsoft's documented line:

msdt.exe -ep WindowsHelp id SearchDiagnostic

Work through it and select the problems that apply to you.

⭐ Read the result even when it fixes nothing. One owner's run came back naming "Incorrect permissions on Windows Search directories", which is a far more specific starting point than a blank box.

Microsoft also notes that on Windows 10 version 1903 and later the search troubleshooter can fire by itself, and that it "resets Windows Search to the default experience" when it does.

So if your search suddenly looks plainer than it did, that may be why, and nothing is broken.

Rebuild the index, if results are the problem

Only worth doing when the box works and the answers are wrong. It does nothing for a blank window.

Search for Indexing Options, open it, choose Advanced, and select Rebuild.

⚠️ This takes hours on a large drive and search gets worse while it runs, because it is answering from a half-built index. Start it when you are finishing for the day.

Microsoft's own reassurance about the related reset is worth carrying over here: it "doesn't affect your files", though it "may temporarily affect the relevance of search results".

Reset Windows Search with Microsoft's script

This is Solution 5, and it is a proper reset rather than a nudge. Microsoft ships a signed PowerShell script for it.

Download ResetWindowsSearchBox.ps1 from Microsoft's own download page, save it locally, right-click it and choose Run with PowerShell.

There is a catch that stops most people, and Microsoft documents it. The script will not run unless your execution policy allows it.

Check with `Get-ExecutionPolicy` in an elevated PowerShell window. If it is not Unrestricted, note the current value, then run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

⛔ Write the old value down and put it back afterwards. Microsoft's page walks you through restoring it, and leaving the policy loose is a real change to how your machine treats scripts.

If you see "Cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system", that is the policy, and this is why.

The blank box, which is a different fault

If search opens as an empty white rectangle, the search process is running and the interface inside it is not drawing. Indexing is not your problem.

Two things are worth trying before anything drastic. The first is the WebView2 runtime. It draws part of that window.

Go to Settings, Apps, Installed apps, find Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, choose Modify, then Repair, and restart afterwards.

The second is Microsoft's Solution 6, which rebuilds the search package from scratch. It edits the registry, so read the warning before you start.

Delete the folder `%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy` on Windows 11. On Windows 10 the folder is named `Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy` instead.

Then delete the `Search` key under `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search`, and re-register the package from an elevated PowerShell window:

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

⚠️ Back the registry up first. Microsoft's page carries the warning in bold and it is not decoration.

Microsoft also gives one clean test before you do any of this: check whether search works on a brand new user account. If it does, the fault is in your profile and not in Windows.

What one owner tried before anything worked

This is the part I would want to read first. It saves you repeating somebody else's six evenings.

An owner posted on 17 December 2025 with search completely dead on Windows 11 version 25H2. SearchHost.exe was launching and rendering a blank window.

What he had already done, and none of it helped: re-registering ctfmon.exe, updating to the latest build, restarting the Windows Search service, rebuilding the index and fixing its permissions, running the search troubleshooter, and running DISM, SFC and chkdsk.

That is the entire standard ladder, including everything above this section. If you have already worked through it, you are standing where he was.

Confirmed by the owner the following day, 18 December 2025, in his own words: "I'd like to confirm that Step 3 (the in-place component repair / in-place upgrade) successfully resolved the issue. After completing the in-place upgrade while keeping files and apps, the Search UI started rendering normally again."

⭐ Why it worked when SFC and DISM did not is the useful part. Those tools repair files they can detect as damaged. An in-place upgrade replaces the whole of `C:\Windows` regardless, so it catches corruption that never gets flagged.

The in-place upgrade, which keeps your files

The last resort on this page, and it is far less frightening than it sounds. It does not wipe your machine.

Download the official Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft and double-click it to mount it. Run setup.exe from the mounted drive.

When it asks, choose to keep personal files and apps. Let it finish.

Your files, your programs and your settings stay. Windows itself is replaced with fresh copies underneath them.

⚠️ Back up anyway. Any operation that rewrites the whole system folder deserves a backup first, and the owner above was working on an Insider build where this class of corruption is more common.

The odd one, which costs nothing

Microsoft's first solution on that page is the one nobody expects, and it is free to try.

Type `services.msc` into the search box on the taskbar, if you can reach it, and open the Services console.

Right-click Windows Font Cache Service and choose Stop. Try searching. Then go back and choose Start.

Why a font cache should have anything to do with search is not explained on the page. It sits at position one anyway, which suggests it fixed enough cases to earn the spot.

Ours, and marked as ours: try it early precisely because it makes no sense. Thirty seconds spent on something illogical beats two hours spent on something reasonable that does not apply to you.

Status: written 22 August 2026 against Windows 11 and 10. Microsoft's search troubleshooting article carries the original KB number 4520146 and was last revised on its own site in February 2026. Every command quoted here is taken from that page.

How do I fix Windows search when it stops working?

End SearchHost.exe on Windows 11, or SearchUI.exe on Windows 10, from the Details tab of Task Manager. Search restarts itself the next time you use it. Microsoft documents this as a solution, and it clears a large share of these faults in about thirty seconds.

Why is my Windows 11 search bar blank?

A blank white box means the search process is running but its interface is not drawing, which is a rendering fault rather than an indexing one. Repair the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime first, then rebuild the search package. Rebuilding the index will not help this symptom.

Does rebuilding the search index delete anything?

No. Microsoft states that resetting search does not affect your files, though it may temporarily affect how relevant your results are. The rebuild can take hours on a large drive, and search performs worse while it is running.

Will an in-place upgrade erase my programs?

Not if you choose to keep personal files and apps when setup asks. It replaces the Windows folder with fresh copies and leaves your files, programs and settings in place. One owner confirmed in December 2025 that it fixed a blank search bar after DISM, SFC and chkdsk had all found nothing.

The Short Version

• End SearchHost.exe on 11, or SearchUI.exe on 10, before anything else. Thirty seconds.
• Decide which fault you have: wrong results, a blank box, or nothing opening at all.
• Rebuilding the index only helps wrong results. It does nothing for a blank window.
• Microsoft's reset script needs the execution policy changed, and changed back afterwards.
• A blank box is a rendering fault. Repair WebView2, then rebuild the search package.
• One owner ran the entire standard ladder with no result, and an in-place upgrade fixed it.
• The Font Cache service is Microsoft's first solution and costs nothing to try.

Where to Next

Go and end that one process now. It is thirty seconds, it changes no settings, and it is the single highest-return step on this page.

If search works but the whole machine has slowed, two numbers explain most of it and one of them is the drive. If it is one app rather than search misbehaving, three tests that separate your machine from an outage will save you the evening.

And if the process kill fixes yours but it keeps coming back, tell me how long it lasts in a comment. That interval is a clue I would like more examples of.