Deleted Files Keep Coming Up In Start Menu Search Results?
Feb 10, 2016
Many times when I search from the Start Menu, results come up for files that have been deleted or moved but the old path is listed in the results (so that clicking it throws me a "File cannot be found" type error).
I first noticed this when I moved a folder of PDF manuals to a new location. The titles of these files will come up when searching from the Start Menu but the paths are linked to the original locations and so Windows can't "find" the file when I click on it in the search results.
I did a CCleaner sweep of my system and even tried rebuilding the search index but cannot correct this nonsense. What's going on?
When I go to search something like "photoshop" Adobe Photoshop CC should pop up. But I only get results from searching on Bing and not from searching the computer locally.
Search in Windows new start menu is annoying, each time web search using bing results are also shown, which is really unwanted.
Using :: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search We can enable the following 3 options to disable web search:
Do not allow web search Don’t search the web or display web results in Search Don’t search the web or display web results in Search over
However, as usual I'm looking for a way to do this via registry.
This is referring to the blue "Search Everywhere" panel that slides out from the right, not Cortana or the Start Menu search box.
When I type into it, it'll list my local files on the top, then web results underneath. Clicking any listed local file will open that file, but clicking on any web results doesn't do anything.
Example: If I type in "ASUS", it'll show any file on my PC with ASUS in the name. Under those results, it then lists results from the web like the ASUS website and other ASUS related results like Google or Bing does. Any local document in the list will open from the search results, but no web links will open (nothing happens when clicked on).
When I "search my stuff" from the start menu, some files that I know to be indexed never show up in the results. And at the top of the search window, it reads: "These results may be incomplete, search is still indexing your stuff."
I've rebuilt the search index, which says it finished successfully, indexing 3000-something items, but the problem remains.
I got Windows 10 home a few months now. No problems whatsoever with the installation or setup/usage and it'd fast and bug free. My problem happened just last week...
I used to press the WIN key & S to search for files. Or i can press the START button and just start typing. It will search for my files & search the internet (cortana search). Now nothing happens when i search.
When i press WIN+S, and type something, it just sit's there doing nothing, but it seems like Cortana is thinking or about to give out information, but nothing happens at all. Same as on the start menu. I type out something and no information is given, it wont search for any of my files or nothing.
I am at a lost. In the past, it worked perfectly, like Windows 8.1. Press START, & type.
When I Installed Win 10, if I wanted to quickly access one of those 6 Win 10 PC 'Folders' (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos), I would just had to type in the folder in the start menu search box, press Enter and it would access the folder.As soon as I changed the folders' original location, this 'typing shortcut' did not work anymore.is it even possible to make typing shortcuts to folders or files in the search box? (i.e typing "x" for a specific folder named "y")
when i search from the start menu, all i want to find is applications (desktop apps, metro apps, shortcus to apps in the all-applications menu) and settings, not files and folders. (i already disabled the web search there).
i still want to be able to search files when searching from antoher places, just not when searching from the start menu, so disabling the index is not an option for me.
I have two drives, an SSD (with Windows on) and a hard drive (with all my files on).
When using the start menu to search for something, it will only show results that are on my SSD. This is annoying as the majority of the things I'm looking for when searching are on my HDD, so I have to open explorer and go through all my documents trying to find the single file I'm looking for.
I was previously advised to change my indexing options. I've changed my indexing options to include my hard drive when searching, but it has still not changed.
Win 10 Enterprise. Worked fine for a couple of days, but now I cannot seem to bring up the start menu and start typing anything. It will not search. I also tried in the search box or spyglass... I just click on it and nothing happens. It is a major inconvenience. I don't want to do a restore and keep my files, because there is a HUGE list of applications I will then need to restore. I also tried to click on Cortana, but clicking the app does nothing, doesn't even bring it up.
I tried re-indexing search items, I tried the search troubleshooter. I have rebooted, I have installed all updates. Someone on another forum said kill the Cortana task... well there isn't one running.
I'm running the RTM on a netbook and have noticed that, unlike in Windows 7/8/8.1, I'm no longer able to hit Start and type in an executable. I have a bunch of portable apps that I typically type in and pull up. Now, the Start menu search pulls up ever OTHER file except the executable. It's very annoying and don't see why this shouldn't work.
What's worse, is if I pin the app to the start menu, it doesn't search it then. Say, I pin "puttyportable.exe" as a shortcut (and rename it to just PuTTY) to the start menu. Typing in "putty" gives me nothing - just the same associated files that were in the puttyportable folder (ini files, etc).
I installed Windows 10 very recently and I like it, but I have a VERY BIG show-stopper: when I try to do search in the start menu, it's terrible; it cannot even find an application that I have manually pinned to start. I didn't have any such problem with Windows 8.1. I have also installed some other desktop applications, for example GitHub for Windows, but when I start to to type "Git...", it only finds "GitHub" and it cannot find "Git Shell" and I have to go to all programs, find "G", then expand the folder for this application and run that application.
how to fix the search function in Windows 10? It's not showing any results. So far I already tried the following but to no avail. Rebuild indexing, scannow cmd, chdsk /r,.
When I search for something in the search bar, now I am only getting web results. I am not getting computer related items. For example, if I search for printers, I only get web results about printers. I am not getting anything about the printers I have installed on this computer. This is a recent development. I guess I will add this to the list!
I love Windows 10 but its Search Box functionality is a step backwards from Windows 7. As in Windows 7, is there a way to retain Search Box results so I can return to the results if the first file or folder I open isn't the one I want? This was easy in Windows 7 but I can't find a way to do it in Windows 10. The search box results disappear now after I load a file or folder so I have to perform another search from scratch.
Let me try to explain differently:
1. Click the Start button
2. In the search box, type "Microsoft"
3. Click "My Stuff" to limit the search to your computer
4. In the "Show" drop-down box, click "Documents"
5. Click "See All" and select a document
You'll notice that document opens but the search results window is lost so it's impossible to return to it if the first document isn't the one you want, necessitating another search from the beginning which is very frustrating. In Windows 7, the search results window would remain open in a minimized state so it could be activated to open additional documents.
How some of the search results just lead to the settings app opening with the name of the search result in its search bar, but nothing in the results of the app? What I'm talking about is, search up "Show me tips about windows", "turn auto brightness on or off" or "turn on device discovery".
So I tend to have a habit of quickly typing an app name in the search box by the Start Button in Windows 10. This 99% of the time results in the app being the top answer and a simple return will open the program. However I find a program I have installed, Atom, shares it's name with a Windows/Dos command, and the command is in the top position that defaults to the return key, forcing me to use the mouse or the arrow key to press down 1 time to select the app. How can I reorder the search box to place Applications to the top result, rather than commands?
Yesterday I upgraded two Dell laptops and my desktop machine to Windows 10.
1. Search - On my two Dell laptops if I search for, say, User Account Control, at the top of the search results I will get a local result saying Change User Account Control settings. That result will be in grey. But on my desktop machine, if I enter the same search, I don't get any grey result at the top. All I can get on that machine is web results. I don't know what's different. I have initialized Cortana on all three machines the same way (I think). Why I am not getting local results on the desktop machine?
2. One of my Dell laptops has a fingerprint reader. It was working for logins when I had Windows 7 on the machine. Now that I have Windows 10 on the machine I cannot figure out how to get the reader working again.
I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64 bit edition. I upgraded from Windows 8 pro.When I search for non-apps, such as "power options", the search results appear properly. However, when I click on the power options search result (with the icon), nothing happens. Clicking on "settings" and "windows mobility center" does work. And if I search for "control panel" and select the result, that works fine, since the search result is an app.
I've tried doing an in-place repair install of Windows 10 pro, but that didn't work. And I've tried deleting and rebuilding the search index.
As a workaround, I installed Stardock's Start10. Start10's search results work, but only from within it's own Windows 7 and Modern themes. for a Windows 10 function (such as device manager), from within Windows 10 native search function on the toolbar, isn't selectable unless what I search for is an app.
if my language settings are USA, then search in Settings works.But if I change the display language to British English, I get the well-known "Search results aren't quite ready yet, but we're working on getting them together".Cortana search works (although I may be prompted to set language when changing language as above).
I have tried to find every case where language settings need to be changed to British English, and downloaded UK language packs and speech. Even when everything I can find is set to UK English, search in Settings fails.However, if I revert to US English, it works.I have read fixes about turning Cortana off and reinstalling apps - but this is usually where both Cortana isn't working and this message appears. This does not seem to apply in my case, and surely it should not be necessary to do that merely to support changing language.
Before upgrading, I could search for things like Device Manager or Driver Update, and I could locate it, now nothing turns up at all. Nothing for device manager. No results for "driver" I think before it had a result for driver updates by default.There are results for printer, which is nice. I know there should be something similar for Device Manager.
I got the free Windows 10 upgrade yesterday and everything seemed to work really well until I tried using the Search Bar.The problem is that although search results are returned (The indexing seems to be correct) the images displayed under the Photos section are mostly missing their thumbnails which makes the feature pretty useless.Some images have thumbnails but most don't and it isn't any specific file type that does or not display it just seems random.