Search bar in Windows Explorer won't function

Alt68er

Member
Hi,
a few days ago I clean-installed an NTLite"ned" Windows 10 1909 plus currently available Updates from MS and did a remove reinstalls with NTLite.-
Today I first wanted to use the search in the explorer and noted that the search bar won't let me input anything.
After searching for this I found some hints to set BingSearchEnabled (in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search) to 1. But that did not help.
I enclose the preset I used and kindly ask the community or nuhi to have a look on it and - if possible - to tell me which setting causes this poblem ...
1000 thanks in advance and a nice weekend to all.
Peter
 
Hi,
in the meantime I did some experiments; the last one was to restart the installation from scratch. The result is: THE BEHAVIOR IS NOT A BUG IN NTLITE !!!
In detail:
1. clean new installation of the NLited Win 10.1909 - result: the explorer search works well for all users.
2. installing updates (some drivers, some virus definition files and KBs 4524101, 4516115, and 4517389 - result: all okay.
3. restart - result: all okay
4. Windows claims that it is missing "important quality and security updates"; searching them it showed me again the KB4517389 and I installed it again.
5. restart - result: SEARCH FIELD IN EXPLORER DOESN'T ACCEPT ANY INPUT ANYMORE.
A remove reinstalls with NTLite did not help.

Does anyone know,
1. why the same update is installed twice, and
2. what happened and how can I repair the search-field's mis-behavior?

I would appreciate your help a lot!
Nice weekend,
Peter
 
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Hi Peter,

will check this in a day or two in detail as I saw something similar here.

1. that can be due to feature config, order of update integration, or simply an artifact of component removal
2. I doubt it's Windows, I'm thinking it's the combination of removals + updates, then Remove Reinstalls didn't clean all the returned (or new) pieces
 
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After a deeep investigation, it is Cortana removal, suddenly it is needed in 1909 for Shell Search to work.

So, keep it for now, disable Cortana and its settings instead under Settings.

Good news, from 20H1, at least how the Previews behave now, Cortana can be removed with even the Start Menu search working, finally.
Will see if this 1909 situation is just a bug on their part, after each cumulative update I'll recheck it.


Thanks.
 
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Many thanks for your investigation and information about.-

But nevertheless I want to point out again, that this behavior came up only after the second installation of KB4517389.

Additionally I now found out, that the misfunction of the search-field is present only with the users setup already by NTlite's unattended installation of Windows 10. A user, newly created within Windows can make use of the search field as usual.-

May that there is a coherence between NTlitening and KB4517389.-

Today I newly installed 10 19363.418 from a newly from MS downloaded 10 ISO with the above KB4517389 already included and here the bug exists from the beginning for the automatically created users. A user created within Windows works fine ...

Please don't consider this information as bug-report but only as information of what I found out.

Nice weekend,
Peter
 
Thanks for the extra info.

Btw Explorer search works with Cortana removed in 1909 if UAC is disabled! (via EnableLUA setting in the tool, or removing UAC, soft disabling from Windows will not help)

So in 1909 currently either there is a bug in Windows or requires a special removal step.

I tried now to create a user via the Settings - Account - Other accounts, and logged on to it, same issue.
How do you create users, and were you maybe disabling UAC when it started working?
 
Thanks for your informations!

Sorry, I did not report correctly. I did not really create the user in Windows, I only activated it, i.e. the built in admin account. And for that account it search works well.

UAC always was, is and will be active.

I just tried to create a real new user within Windows; this user has the same problem ...

So it seems I have 2 chances only at this time:

reinstall Windows without having removed Cortana via NTlite, or

live with the missing search in the xplorer.

Have a nice weekend and thanks again for having spent time for the investigations!

Peter
 
Nuhi,

I've found a better (?) solution for the problem.

The problem is originated by search amendments Microsoft added to the explorer which I cannot explain in English, sorry.

But there is a nice small app called "mach2"; download mach2.

Unzip the archive, start Powershell, navigate to the folder where reside the unzipped files of mach2, insert .\mach2.exe disable 18755234, and reboot the PC. Done.

If one really wants the new search function it can be reenabled the same way by replacing the argument disable by enable.

Hope this is of interest for you and - may be - for others.

Regards,
Peter
 
This is a very interesting info, Alt68er!
By the way, if for this specific issue disabling uac helps, I found out that uac off kills printing from edge.
This is true on 1809,1903 and 1909.
Nuhi,whenever you have the chance, can you please check it?
I think it is a windows bug but maybe it is worth to double check.

Fil
 
Same problem with Windows 1909 clean install and repair install could not type in Explorer search box. The problem turned out to be a newer version of the Asmedia usb driver I had integrated into the iso. Reverted to a previous version of the Asmedia driver in the OS and with that driver the Explorer search box accepts input from mouse attached to the Asmedia usb port.
 
Nuhi,

I've found a better (?) solution for the problem.

The problem is originated by search amendments Microsoft added to the explorer which I cannot explain in English, sorry.

But there is a nice small app called "mach2"; download mach2.

Unzip the archive, start Powershell, navigate to the folder where reside the unzipped files of mach2, insert .\mach2.exe disable 18755234, and reboot the PC. Done.

If one really wants the new search function it can be reenabled the same way by replacing the argument disable by enable.

Hope this is of interest for you and - may be - for others.

Regards,
Peter
Only restart explorer.exe process, is good ;)
 
After installation of Nov19 update on my Win10, the explorer's search bar also stopped working (doesn't let me input in it anything at all). Still haven't found a solution how to fix that :(
 
After installation of Nov19 update on my Win10, the explorer's search bar also stopped working (doesn't let me input in it anything at all). Still haven't found a solution how to fix that :(

when i run windows update, it installed same cumulative update again which i was integrated to iso already. and search is fixed...

windows search is working fine in vanilla iso. i'm sure its about ntltie nuhi .. and as i said before cortana is disabled from settings but not deleted as component.
 
when i run windows update, it installed same cumulative update again which i was integrated to iso already. and search is fixed...

windows search is working fine in vanilla iso. i'm sure its about ntltie nuhi .. and as i said before cortana is disabled from settings but not deleted as component.

I have that problem after installing an untouched Windows 10 1903 image but after restarting the PC/VM for the first time I no longer have it.
 
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