Windows Search not working, Start Menu corrupted

[pryme]

After some Windows updates, my search does not seem to find anything not on C drive. I have multiple games installed on a secondary harddrive (E) through steam, and other programs, however the only stuff it seems to find is what there is either a shortcut to on my desktop, or only programs installed on C drive. The start menu is also corrupted. Indexing Options also does not lead anywhere and has a missing thumbnail in Control Panel. The troubleshooter for search indexing doesn't even appear in settings, and an error comes up when I try to access advanced search index options ({26ee0668-a00a-44d7-9371-beb064c98683}). If I don't have a shortcut to the program, I can't start it without navigating to the installation folder because the search doesn't pick it up. Even in my installed programs list through both windows & ccleaner, many programs and games are not showing up if they are installed on the E drive which is just making it confusing and annoying to navigate through. I've tried DISM and SFC commands and checking some registry entries with bing and cortana but nothing has helped.

Also seems like windows has trouble finding files when I try to open them AND images are not opening, have no thumbnails, AND videos come up with codec error messages.

Really unlucky with all this garbage lol so many issues with Windows

 

[Wolfie]

Hi pryme,

what version of Win 10 do you have?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

 

[Trouble]

You may also want to consider that there may be some corruption of your user profile.
Perhaps try creating (for testing purposes) a new local account as a member of the local administrators group and log on locally with that account to see if the symptoms you describe above persist.

 

[sjoblom]

I had similar issues with my wifes PC. I restarted it with a recovery CD and chosed to go back to the last restore point. That solved the strange behaviour. So if you have a restore point to revert to, try that