File Explorer Search Box in Win 11

bobhalverson · Jun 4, 2022

I upgraded to Win 11 and had to revert back to Win 10.
The Search function in Win 11 did *not* work for me -- had trouble putting in search terms.
It's been a while -- don't remember if I had issues hand-typing search terms or using copy/paste.
Anyway, I'm able to get File Explorer search to work in Win 10, so I'm sticking to that for now.
My questions are:
1. Has this been acknowledged as an issue and fixed?
2. Does the Winaero Tweaker fix File Explorer search like it does in Win 10?

Berton · Jun 4, 2022

New computer last month came with WIn10 Pro and immediately Upgraded to Win11 Pro, no issues with the Search box in File Explorer or the Search icon on the Taskbar.

glasskuter · Jun 4, 2022

For me there seems to be no difference using explorer search in 11 than was with 10. We might could offer more advise if we had more specific details. Perhaps when you had 11 there was an issue with indexing. 10 is going to be supported for 3 1/2 more years so, if that's what you are comfortable with, use it until then and upgrade to 11 at that time.

Max K · Jun 9, 2022

I have similar problem, and I am still using Windows 11. The problem I have with file explorer search is that it only works for text files, but I need to search keywords in my MS Word docs. It worked in Windows 10, not sure why it's not working in windows 11.

glasskuter · Jun 9, 2022

There were a number of reports on feedback hub and also here. Win 11 File Explorer searches not finding contents of .doc and .docx files (unless search string is in the filename) - Milo

What build are you running.

I can report it it now working for me. I'm on release channel 22000.708

glockster · Jun 10, 2022

I've noticed lately that both the start menu and search stop working, usually after I've RDP'd from my laptop to my desktop machine. Not sure if this is a known issue, but "Get-Process explorer | Stop-Process" seems to work (but not sure why you can't just "Stop-Process explorer", it throws a input object error). Huge pain in the butt to continually have to do that, but until Microsoft decides it's important enough to fix, it's one way of getting it working without having to reboot your computer.

edit - apparently the process name isn't a positional parameter and you need to specify -Name (Stop-Process -Name explorer).

Max K · Jun 10, 2022

Thanks for the info, I also noticed that the search can find the keyword if it's part of the file name. I updated to Windows 11 KB5013943 on 5/14/22, but it is the same issue. I am updating the newest one KB5014019, hopefully that will work for searching the doc or docx document.

idgat · Jun 11, 2022

I have NEVER found the search facility in any version(s) of Windows Explorer to be reliable and/or accurate.

On the other hand, flawless/faultless
UltraSearch
Agent Ransack
Everything

There, that should upset the purists. Heaven forfend the misguided perception of the purity and infallibility of Windows should be tainted with 3rd party alternatives

Berton · Jun 11, 2022

idgat said:
Heaven forfend the misguided perception of the purity and infallibility of Windows should be tainted with 3rd party alternatives

But then there are some of us who have to keep a Windows computer pretty much as designed so as to be able to help clients who do not 'customize' their machines. Since I had no computers that could run Win11 when it came out back in October I purchased a new Notebook and now 6 months later got a new Desktop, all working good even with some old programs such as Lotus SmartSuite 9.8.

Max K · Jun 11, 2022

Max K said:
Thanks for the info, I also noticed that the search can find the keyword if it's part of the file name. I updated to Windows 11 KB5013943 on 5/14/22, but it is the same issue. I am updating the newest one KB5014019, hopefully that will work for searching the doc or docx document.

I updated the latest windows 11 release (KB5014019), It doesn't work. Well, it searches the keyword in the file name well. I just need to go to each word docs and search for the keyword myself. I am retired, I got plenty of time....
This is not the first time I deal with problems from Windows. but windows 11 is certainly the most annoying, the only reason I upgraded to windows11 was because I wanted the frequent pop-up window to stop showing up.

Max K · Jun 13, 2022

Max K said:
I updated the latest windows 11 release (KB5014019), It doesn't work. Well, it searches the keyword in the file name well. I just need to go to each word docs and search for the keyword myself. I am retired, I got plenty of time....
This is not the first time I deal with problems from Windows. but windows 11 is certainly the most annoying, the only reason I upgraded to windows11 was because I wanted the frequent pop-up window to stop showing up.

Just downloaded dnGrep, a free App for PC so I can do the keyword search. It works well.

bobhalverson · Jun 13, 2022

I'm not a software engineer, but it seems like File Explorer is a hammer & chisel part of Windows.
It amazes me that with all the horsepower Microsoft has, they can't make it work right.
Especially considering it worked fine for years...

Berton · Jun 13, 2022

bobhalverson said:
I'm not a software engineer, but it seems like File Explorer is a hammer & chisel part of Windows.
It amazes me that with all the horsepower Microsoft has, they can't make it work right.
Especially considering it worked fine for years...

Windows has never been perfect for every one of the millions or more using it, same for the many flavors of Linux or Mac OS X/newer macOS, guess that's part of why GeoWorks and OS 2 and Linspire never stayed around.