How To Re-enable Search Indexing In Windows 10?

Please excuse how long-winded this description of my problem is. I just wanted to describe everything I’ve tried – to no avail – to correct this problem, in order to save time for any possible respondents who may have otherwise suggested things I had already tried.

The problem described below started recently. It may have been after Windows 10 automatically installed some updates, or after I switched from ‘regular’ Microsoft Office to the Microsoft 365 subscription service (under which Office is resident on Microsoft’s servers, rather than on end-users’ own computers).

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Windows’ search indexing used to work on my computer, but it has now stopped working

Trying to re-enable search indexing (to search for text content within files/documents on my computer) isn’t working.

I’ve found many pages online describing how to do this in Windows 10, but none of them seem to apply to my version of Windows 10, Windows 10 Home Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.1110). Apparently the instructions I found pertained to Legacy versions of Windows 10, but mine is the newer Chromium version.

So I did the following:

Searching in Cortana under the Apps tab, I entered “Control Panel,” and the Control Panel App was shown. Then, under the Recent list, I clicked on File Explorer Options. The File Explorer Options window appeared, and I clicked on its Search tab. Under “When searching non-indexed locations,” “Always search file names and contents” was already enabled (checked). So I disabled it, then clicked on Apply and then on OK. That closed the File Explorer Options window. Then I repeated this entire process, but this time reenabling Always search file names and contents.

But it didn’t work.

So next, I tried the following:

I right-clicked on the Start menu, clicked on Computer Management in the pop-up menu, clicked on Services and Applications in the Computer Management window, and double-clicked on Services. Then, in the list of Services, I went to Windows Search, and its Status was already shown as Running, and its Startup Type was already shown as Automatic (Delayed Start). I double-clicked on Windows Search, and the Windows Search Properties dialog box appeared. Under its Recovery tab, Restart the Service was preselected for all failures of the Service.

I clicked on the General tab, and under Service status, I clicked on the Stop button. Then I clicked on the box’s OK button, which closed the Windows Search Properties dialog box.

Back in Services’ Windows Search list, the Status of Windows Search was blank – it was no longer running – although the Startup Type was still shown as Automatic (Delayed Start). Then, going back into the Windows Search Properties dialog box and clicking on the Recovery tab, I changed Reset fail count from 1 to 0 days, and Restart service from 0 to 1 minute. Then I clicked on the Apply button. Back in Services’ Windows Search list, the Status of Windows Search immediately returned to Running. I clicked on the Windows Search Properties dialog box’s OK button to close the dialog box, then closed the Computer Management window.

But it still didn’t work.

So then I tried resetting Windows Search. Refer to the section Reset Windows Search from the article Fix problems in Windows Search.

At Fix problems in Windows Search #Reset Windows Search:

I have Microsoft Windows 10 Home Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.1110), so following the instructions for Windows 10, version 1903 and later, I downloaded ResetWindowsSearchBox.ps1, ran it from Powershell as Administrator, and clicked on Yes to allow the App to make changes on my computer. But in Powershell, I got this message:

“Cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
+ CategoryInfo : SecurityError: ) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess”

But on that about_Execution_Policies page, the only SecurityError I could find was under “Execution policy on Windows Server Core and Window Nano Server,” and it was PSSecurityException, not ParentContainsErrorRecordException (although FullyQualifiedErrorId WAS UnauthorizedAccess). I didn’t know what to do at that point.

So then I tried running SFC and DISM scan on my PC to see if there are any corrupted system files, referring to the article Using System File Checker in Windows 10.

Following the instructions on that webpage, I got this message:

“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.”

But of course the content of C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log was an interminable morass of technical mumbo jumbo that, needless to say, I didn’t understand. And I have no idea what the /OFFLOGFILE flag is. So, no help there, either.

So, my Windows Search still didn’t work to find text within documents. So I rebooted and tried again, and then, it sometimes worked – but only to find the desired text in the copy of a file on Onedrive, but not the copy resident on my own computer! And now, for whatever unknown reason, it’s stopped working entirely again.

Later, since Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them, I ran Powershell again (as Adminstrator), but I again got the message “Cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.” So again, no help there.

So, taking Powershell's recommendation, I tried the new cross-platform Powershell at https:/aka.ms/pscore6. There, I followed the Installing PowerShell on Windows link so I could download the latest version of Powershell (v7.1.3 - 2021-03-11).

But there were three versions of this for Windows x64 (PowerShell-7.1.3-win-arm64.zip, PowerShell-7.1.3-win-x64.msi, and PowerShell-7.1.3-win-x64.zip), and I don't know which one I need. So I downloaded all three. But which one should I run?

I’m baffled. Any help?