[unsolved] Trying to repair Windows Search after updating to Win11

[BWB8771]

Company updated my Dell laptop running Win10Ent to Win11Ent. Windows Search was borked from the moment I first logged-in the new Win11 instance.

I had moved my search db to a second internal SSD; during the Win11 upgrade the drive got marked read-only. Eventually had to restore to a Win10 backup, put Windows Search db back to default (verified it was working), then mark second SSD as 'offline' and then go through the update again.

Windows Search is still broken.

The built-in troubleshooter yields an idiotically hilarious result (see attached).

Have been through many different approaches, including:
dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"
then
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

Getting these errors when running the Troubleshooter:
0x%08x (0x80070003 - The system cannot find the path specified. (HRESULT : 0x80070003))

0x%08x (0x80070660 - The Temp folder is on a drive that is full or is inaccessible. Free up space on the drive or verify that you have write permission on the Temp folder. (HRESULT : 0x80070660))

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search
DataDirectory =%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\
DefaultDataDirectory =%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\

Via ICACLS I've verified permissions look the same as those on a computer whose WSearch service is running.

Really, really, don't want to do a clean Win11 install, and 3rd-party search apps aren't an option in my environment.

Help!

P.S. This is cross-posted from one I created on Reddit - only respondent was one that assumed I wasn't experienced (I am!), and whose only thought was to re-image my machine.

[Boggin]

You could check if the temp folder is full.

Go Start - type %temp% and press enter.

If it's highly populated, press Control and a together to highlight then Control and d together to delete, not forgetting to empty the Recycle Bin.

Then see if you get the same error.

[BWB8771]

Thank you the suggestion.

I use the incredible CATE script (info below) a couple of times a week to keep things tidy on my machine, but I checked my machine's %TEMP% stats: 136 files, 31 folders / 495 MB size on disk.

https://github.com/jebofponderworthy/windows-tools#cate-clean-all-system-and-user-profile-temp-folders-etcetera

[Boggin]

So was there any improvement after cleaning that lot out ?

[BWB8771]

Unfortunately, no.

Thanks for checking back!

[Boggin]

Can you open a Powershell (Admin) and enter sfc /scannow to see what it reports.

[BWB8771]

Thank you for the suggestion.

Not from an elevated PoSh prompt, but from the legacy CMD prompt,
I've run the /checkhealth + /scanhealth, as well as even running the /restorehealth against the Win11 upgrade *.wim
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:%sources%\install.wim

and then running SFC /SCANNOW

all to no avail.

[BWB8771]

Hmm. oddly/interestingly, Windows Search is not visible in the GUI add/remove Windows Features NOR is the Event Viewer category "Microsoft-Windows-Search" present!

I have done this a couple of times
dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package" (with /norestart AND rebooting)
then
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"SearchEngine-Client-Package"

[Julian]

open start menu type in folder options  click search tab make sure it looks like this

if it does here is a link to reset windows search...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=100295

[BWB8771]

Julian,

Thanks for the suggestion - as that applies more to the display aspects of the search service, I'll give it a try when I can get search itself working.