Search Bar Not Working Now!

[RiffRaff 10]

Fun and games with Win10 (Home 19041) 'search' bar.

 

According to Task Manager-Services, WSearch is running (automatic), but the Search Bar isn't allowing any text entry.

Again according to TM-Details this time, SearchApp.exe (aka Searchui.exe depending on 10 version) is 'suspended'.  

Right click it, 'End Task', it reappears after a few seconds and now shows 'Running'...but a few seconds later it reverts to 'suspended'.

From what I read, this is a common problem with 10, with various 'solutions' on numerous sites, including re-indexing using powershell (admin).
I've tried them all to no avail.
A temporary solution is to run windows\cftmon every time you boot, but I'd prefer to find a better one.

 

After a few hours of messing, here's what it boils down to -

 

1. Booting into Safe Mode does allow text to be entered.

 

2. Rebooting to normal mode, I created a new local user - no password, basic installation. Tried the search bar - no joy.

 

My mind's a bit of a whirl, frankly!
I should know what the above hints at...but I can't think of what next to assume/do!
Any ideas welcome!
 

[Ghozer 112]

It will show as 'Suspended' when it's not doing anything... ask it to do something, it will kick to "Running" while it does whatever....
'Suspended' services/apps are usually loaded ready to go, but not actually doing something, so kinda like being on pause...
(mine's sat here "Suspended" atm, as well as a few other processes)

What is actually happening with the search? and do you mean the search from the Start Menu, or the one at the top right corner when browsing "This PC" and folders etc...?

Depending which, would depend on the possible causes and solutions,
The Start menu search, searches online, and also uses Cortana, so if either of these are not working correctly, it will cause delays/hangs in the search..
The file and folder search, Can often take a while, especially if there are lots of files to look through, all totally depends on the circumstances..

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Ghozer

[RiffRaff 10]

1 hour ago, Ghozer said:

It will show as 'Suspended' when it's not doing anything... ask it to do something, it will kick to "Running" while it does whatever....
'Suspended' services/apps are usually loaded ready to go, but not actually doing something, so kinda like being on pause...
(mine's sat here "Suspended" atm, as well as a few other processes)

What is actually happening with the search? and do you mean the search from the Start Menu, or the one at the top right corner when browsing "This PC" and folders etc...?

Depending which, would depend on the possible causes and solutions,
The Start menu search, searches online, and also uses Cortana, so if either of these are not working correctly, it will cause delays/hangs in the search..
The file and folder search, Can often take a while, especially if there are lots of files to look through, all totally depends on the circumstances..

 

Evening, Ghozer....thanks for responding.

That sorts the 'suspended' business, then! Thanks for that.

Yes, it's the Search box next to the Start button....clicked, it opens a window showing "Top Apps" and a cursor appears in the white box.

What's happening?

Nothing!

In short, you can type what you like, but no text appears. (Ironically, I hadn't realised I used it that much until I couldn't!)

I've never actually used Cortana, but it is shown as 'enabled' in Task Manager, Start-up.

(I've just this minute clicked the Cortana button, and it's asked me to "sign in", so I'm guessing it's literally the first time.)

However, in TM's Details list it's shown as Disabled under the UAC virtualisation column. (What?!)

 

Any help?

 

 

[swarfendor437 14]

Did this start playing up after you installed Midori? Just a quick word of advice about Midori - at present there is no way of uninstalling extensions after you have installed them so be careful what you install, i.e, if you have used the same extensions in Firefox then go ahead and install them but don't try something that you are not happy with. I've removed Midori and reinstalled it on Linux and it still has the extension I installed that I didn't want!

[RiffRaff 10]

42 minutes ago, swarfendor437 said:

Did this start playing up after you installed Midori? Just a quick word of advice about Midori - at present there is no way of uninstalling extensions after you have installed them so be careful what you install, i.e, if you have used the same extensions in Firefox then go ahead and install them but don't try something that you are not happy with. I've removed Midori and reinstalled it on Linux and it still has the extension I installed that I didn't want!

Nope - didn't like the look of Midori, so for the minute I'm using Brave instead of Firefox.

It hasn't helped the video business, and I'm still stuck with the no-text search box problem.

I've checked everything I could find as likely causes according to google, and run full Bitdefender and Malwarebytes just in case.

I'm still convinced it's something to do with Flash...

 

[Ghozer 112]

Asside from  backing up, and just doing a fresh install of Windows, or without being sat at the machine, I can't really suggest anything

It could simply be that your machine (CPU / HDD) are aging, and slow(ish)...

 

[RiffRaff 10]

3 hours ago, Ghozer said:

Asside from  backing up, and just doing a fresh install of Windows, or without being sat at the machine, I can't really suggest anything

It could simply be that your machine (CPU / HDD) are aging, and slow(ish)...

 

...together with me!

[swarfendor437 14]

See if any solutions here help:

 

https://www.wintips.org/fix-cannot-type-in-windows-10-search-bar/

 

https://thegeekpage.com/fix-unable-to-type-in-windows-10-search-bar/

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_cortana-winpc/windows-10-search-bar-will-not-accept-text-or-open/1f2d9c20-bff0-4dbd-bf6a-e56a68820ba8

 

[swarfendor437 14]

21 hours ago, RiffRaff said:

Nope - didn't like the look of Midori, so for the minute I'm using Brave instead of Firefox.

It hasn't helped the video business, and I'm still stuck with the no-text search box problem.

I've checked everything I could find as likely causes according to google, and run full Bitdefender and Malwarebytes just in case.

I'm still convinced it's something to do with Flash...

 

Just read that Brave uses more battery power as hardware acceleration is on by default - some other Browsers to consider:

 

https://blogs.systweak.com/best-lightweight-browsers-for-windows/

[whiteowl 54]

I had exactly the same problem about 6 months ago - it was something to do with Cortana. I went down the troubleshooting path and that fixed it for me.

 

From Swarfendor437's post :

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_cortana-winpc/windows-10-search-bar-will-not-accept-text-or-open/1f2d9c20-bff0-4dbd-bf6a-e56a68820ba8

[RiffRaff 10]

3 hours ago, whiteowl said:

I had exactly the same problem about 6 months ago - it was something to do with Cortana. I went down the troubleshooting path and that fixed it for me.

 

From Swarfendor437's post :

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_cortana-winpc/windows-10-search-bar-will-not-accept-text-or-open/1f2d9c20-bff0-4dbd-bf6a-e56a68820ba8

Way beyond this, mate, but thank you anyway!

 

[RiffRaff 10]

3 hours ago, swarfendor437 said:

Just read that Brave uses more battery power as hardware acceleration is on by default - some other Browsers to consider:

 

https://blogs.systweak.com/best-lightweight-browsers-for-windows/

Yes, spotted that too...but you can alter it.

As I said, I'm still veering towards the removal of Flash being the culprit...in particular, Flash player.

The problems hit "overnight" - up to that point, videos didn't stall/break up/falter in any way.

In the mists of time, when I used to produce many *.swf and *'fla files, whenever player was superceded by a new version you'd supposedly uninstall by the usual methods before installing the new build...but it wasn't uninstalled - at least, not in full.

There were different "versions" of player - and I don't remember why/how. Again from memory, you had to sometimes download a separate uninstaller from Macromedia/Adobe.