Windows 8 search is not working properly.

[pcRat]

I can't find anything on another drive from Search either.
Unless I go to Computer and type in that Search box. It works for me until someone finds the cure.

 

[dweebken]

Try doing a Refresh http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2293-refresh-windows-8-a.html

I'm having the same problem as the OP. Doing a Refresh means I have to reinstall nearly everything. Why? because the following are deleted/removed from the system on "refresh":
All installed 3rd party desktop programs (not Store apps). A list of removed apps will be saved on your desktop after the refresh is finished to let you know which programs were removed.
What windows user can afford to do that? It'd take weeks for me to get all my 3rd party desktop programs reinstalled and reconfigured, so that's not an option. I assume even MS Office 2013 Pro is classed as an External App for this exercise, and I have heaps others.

On my machine, I have two x 256 GB SSDs (the boot/system drive and a data drive). Indexing appears to be working (I can delete and rebuild the index and watch the count go up) but I never get search results in File Explorer. Not even for file names that are in the folder that's currently open. I have Win 8 Pro, 64 Bit, with 8 GB ram and a Core i7 processor.
It used to work, when I first set it up, and the locations I want indexed are included, but something broke it. No way to figure out what.

 

[Ronc]

Since you're interested in a basic feature of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) that has nothing to do with apps or the start screen you don't have to limit your troubleshooting to "Windows 8". I'm sure there will be many hits in google for things like "Windows search broken". A lot a issues in Windows can be fixed with running "sfc /scannow" at a command prompt. It looks for bad Windows files and tries to restore them from a special store where original copies of the files are saved. Also, you might be suspicious of malware, which can be approached with scans like Windows 8 Defender and the free Malwarebytes.

 

[dweebken]

Since you're interested in a basic feature of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) that has nothing to do with apps or the start screen you don't have to limit your troubleshooting to "Windows 8". I'm sure there will be many hits in google for things like "Windows search broken". A lot a issues in Windows can be fixed with running "sfc /scannow" at a command prompt. It looks for bad Windows files and tries to restore them from a special store where original copies of the files are saved. Also, you might be suspicious of malware, which can be approached with scans like Windows 8 Defender and the free Malwarebytes.

Thanks for the reply, it was actually very helpful! Prior to posting I had googled and Binged for help on this for a couple of weeks and was going nowhere fast. Your suggestion to use SFC /scannow solved the problem and its working again. BTW, I'm using Trend Micro Titanium Max securrity, and had run full system scans too, MalwareBytes keeps getting flagged as incompatible with my system, but it was getting no results either.
Thanks again.

 

[amicose]

I have a similar problem. Metro search shows no results at all.However I have StartIsBack installed and win7 style file search works perfectly well

 

[Ronc]

I have a similar problem. Metro search shows no results at all.However I have StartIsBack installed and win7 style file search works perfectly well

Just curious about StartIsBack compared to Start Menu 8 IObit Start Menu 8 Free download, Bring Start Menu back to Windows 8 . The latter has a built-in search box that looks like Windows 7 search but can't find saved websites (*.url files) a.k.a. "Internet Shortcuts" so I need to use either File Explorer Search or IE's Address Bar Search for them. Does StartIsBack's search box include and find Internet Shortcuts the way Windows 7's Start Menu Search does?

 

[SIW2]

I don't have startisback atm. I expect it does because it uses the remaining start menu code in 8 that hadn't been removed.


Sadly, MS have removed that code in the leaked versions - so it may not be there in 8.1

They may put something else in though, in an attempt to revive flagging sales.

 

[amicose]

I should add that I also disabled libraries using an automated registry hack designed for win7. In Indexing Options I chose to index the custom folders I use in preference to Libraries.
I installed a trial of Start8 today and search is working fine there also. I don't have any url files but I guess you could trial either Start8 or StartIsBack and see if they work for you.

 

[Ronc]

I should add that I also disabled libraries using an automated registry hack designed for win7. In Indexing Options I chose to index the custom folders I use in preference to Libraries.
I installed a trial of Start8 today and search is working fine there also. I don't have any url files but I guess you could trial either Start8 or StartIsBack and see if they work for you.

If you are now trying Start8 (different from Startisback and Start Menu 8) I guess you were not satisfied with Startisback. What was wrong with Startisback? My problem with Start Menu 8 is that it's sometimes slow to respond (20 seconds to pop up the menu) since the latest "upgrade".

BTW, I also disabled Libraries as I did for Win7. It's my understanding that indexing should not effect the search results, only the speed of the search. Also, since Windows has two Favorites folders, I should mention that while I disabled Libraries and Favorites, I did not remove the user folder called "Favorites" which IE uses to save websites. So my question remains, can you use the Start Menu's search box to find "Internet Shortcut" files which is what they are called in File Explorer Details View under the "Type" column.

 

[amicose]

StartIsBack wasn't showing icons for metro apps. Otherwise it's great, every bit as good as Start8. Both programs have fully functional trials so you can see if they work for you.

I just reenabled libraries to see if Metro file search would show results again. It does. Does anyone know how to get metro search to show files outside of libraries?