6 easy ways to solve the problem of Win11 search bar not being able to use!

The search bar cannot be used
“Hello, after installing the Windows 11 system, I found that the Win11 search bar cannot be used or even opened. I am currently unable to search for any content and clicking on the Win11 search box has not responded. I would like to know if anyone else has encountered this situation? Also, how can I solve this problem?”

How to solve the problem of Win11 search bar not being able to be used?
With the official release of Windows 11, many users have upgraded their operating systems. But after installing the Win11 system, people found that it had some issues. For example, the Win11 search bar cannot be used, which greatly affects the user experience. How can we solve the problem that the Windows search bar cannot be used?

When Windows search is not working, you can first try restarting your computer as this can solve most of the problems on your computer. If it still doesn’t work, you can follow the following solution to fix it.

✔ Method 1. Restart Windows Search
Windows 11 provides search services through the SearchHost program. When you do not use the search function, it will automatically hang in the background. Therefore, you can close the program and restart it to see if the search function is working properly.

1. Press the “Ctrl+Shift+Esc” keys on the keyboard to open the Task Manager.
2. After opening the Task Manager, locate SearchHostexe from the detailed information, right-click, and select “End Task”.

SearchHostexe

3. Select “End Process” in the pop-up prompt box, and it will automatically restart.
4. Open the desktop search again and check if it is working properly.

✔ Method 2. Use Windows to search for troubleshooting
Windows 11, like the previous Windows 10 operating system, has built-in troubleshooting features. We can use it to fix some Windows issues.

1. Click on the Windows icon, then select “Settings”.
2. Scroll down the system page and select “Troubleshooting”.

Troubleshooting

3. Select “Other troubleshooting” and then click the “Run” button next to “Search and Index”.

Search and Index

4. In the search and index window, select the issue you encountered while using the search function. Then, click “Next” again.

Search and Index

5. Now, wait for Windows to resolve the issue. If prompted, please make relevant changes. After running the troubleshooting program, check if the Win11 search bar cannot be used and if the issue is resolved.

✔ Method 3. Restart the Windows Search service
If the Win11 search bar still cannot be used, it may be because the Windows search service has been disabled in some cases. Then we can restart it, which will allow Windows search to reload from scratch.

1. Press Win+R to open the runtime box. Enter “services. msc” and press Enter.
2. In the open service window, locate Windows Search and double-click the service.

Windows Search

3. In the open Windows Search Properties window, click the “Stop” button, then click the “Start” button to restart the Windows Search service. Afterwards, exit the service and check again if the Win11 search bar can be used.

Windows Search Properties Window

✔ Method 4. Rebuild search index
Windows indexing is a process of quickly performing searches and displaying results. If there is a problem with your search function, rebuilding the search index can help solve the problem of Win11 search bar being unusable. The following are the detailed steps:

1. Go to Windows Settings and select “Privacy and Security” on the left side of the settings window.
2. Select “Search Windows” in the right pane.

Search Windows

3. Scroll down the screen and select “Advanced Indexing Options”.

Advanced Indexing Options

4. At the bottom of the index options window, select “Advanced”.

Advanced Indexing Options

5. Click the “Rebuild” button next to “Delete and Rebuild Index”.

reconstruction

6. Select “OK” in the pop-up prompt box, and Windows will now start rebuilding the index. Completing this process will take some time, depending on the amount of data stored on the system.

✔ Method 5. Upgrade system drivers to optimize Windows 11 performance
As is well known, solid-state drives have better read and write speeds than mechanical hard drives. Using a solid-state drive to store a Windows system can greatly speed up the computer’s operation and enable quick display of search results. Therefore, replacing the hard drive is a good way to solve the slow search bar in Windows 11.

Aomei Partition Assistant is a versatile tool software that can migrate operating systems to solid-state drives without losing data. With it, you can easily migrate all data from mechanical hard drives to solid-state drives. And its operation is simple, suitable for computer novices.

More importantly, the Aomei partition assistant also has many practical functions. For example, it allows you to recover lost partitions, convert primary partitions to logical drives without losing data, securely clone systems from MBR to GPT hard drives, and so on. Next, we will proceed to the specific operational steps:

Free download

Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP

Download, install, and run the Aomei Partition Assistant, then click on “Migrate System to Solid State Drive” on the main interface, and follow the instructions to continue.

Migration system to solid-state drive

✔ Method 6. Check for Windows updates
If none of the above methods work, it is likely that Windows itself has an error. In this case, you should try updating Windows, as each new version will resolve many previously undiscovered errors.

1. Click on the Windows icon on the desktop and select “Settings”.
2. Select “Windows Update” at the bottom.

Windows Update

3. Click “Check for updates”, if there are any updates, please download and install. After completion, restart the computer and check if the search bar issue has been resolved.

Windows Update

summary
Now, do you know the reason why the Win11 search bar cannot be used and how to solve it? This article provides you with some effective methods that you can try one by one.

In addition to migrating the operating system to a solid-state drive, the Aomei Partition Assistant mentioned above can also be used to solve other problems, such as: inability to delete files on a portable hard drive, rebuilding MBR to fix computer startup issues, and securely erasing solid-state drives.