No Windows Search Function

Hi all. First off—The new name for these forums is pretty cool, I like it. Anyway, my pc seems to be acting up and I am unsure why. I cannot use the Windows search at all, for one. I can open it, the little dog is sitting there and I can enter text but as soon as I hit "search", it freezes. Only when I click the red X exit thing do I get a message about the program not responding. And, there never is that bit about sending Microsoft the error report. Also, tho it's not happened lately, for no reason I was getting the " we are sorry but windows had to close this program.." or whatever it says, out of the blue with that 'send error report' thing coming up. All very odd. Best as I know my machine is clean, and it seems to run fine, apart from this. Ideas?? Thank You. Rick

Hi Rick-G… Search Indexing being enabled is the usual suspect when one sees this issue. Open the Search applet and click the "Change Preferences" link (above the dog). Expand (green arrow) "With Indexing Service (for faster local searches)" and make sure the button next to "No, do not enable Indexing Service" is selected. Apply any changes you made and try the search again. wannabe1

Well son of a gun–that was it! Many thanks, wannabe1. Another question pops into mind tho—why did that particular setting change? At least I assume it did, since the search function worked ok before. Does any kind of malware cause this, or did I just do something stupid ? Again—Thanks for the help. Rick

Glad that did the trick. The most common cause is clicking on "Yes, but make future searches faster" link in the Search Results window and selecting it without thinking about it. I've heard there is also a Windows Update that enabled indexing on some platforms.

Hey wannabe1, Nice fix, Well done! Regards paws

Thanks for the kind words, paws.

I agree with Paws. Nice work Wannabe1! Your instructions are clear, and your expanations/education of the poster, is very well put. Hope you decide to hang around and help more as you are able. Best Regards, Doug