Windows 7 folder search changes my search terms

I type a word into the SEARCH box of a folder. I hit ENTER. Windows runs a search for a different word that I previously used as a search term, usually in an entirely different folder.

Why?

Is there a way to force Windows to search for the terms that I entered before hitting ENTER?

p.s. I suspect it's somehow Google's fault for teaching hundreds of thousands of people to write software this way. "Sorry, we weren't able to accept your keyboard input because our predictive software was using 99% of your CPU to make unrealistic assumptions about what you might have wanted... please begin typing again so we can resume ignoring your input while guessing at what you are trying to type"

 

That doesn't happen in my Win 7 but I don't hit ENTER either. As I type my search word the list of hits just keeps updating automatically. If you can't get it to behave you could try searching with Everything instead.

 

Just out of curiosity, click start then run then type in cmd, press enter.

Type in:

net start | find "Windows Search"

if it comes up saying Windows Search, then there are other steps we can use to rebuild search.

Or powershell:

get-service -name Wsearch

result should be running under status.