Even though the Start menu search feature was introduced with Windows Vista, Microsoft has enhanced the feature in Windows 7 and is more powerful and accurate in the newest version of Windows.
As you all know, the search box present in Windows 7 Start menu is very useful to find a file or program quickly without having to navigate through the Start screen. Just entering a few letters will display a list of matching files, programs, documents, pictures, music and other files. The Start menu search is probably one of the best features present in recent versions of Windows.
There are quite a few users who’re experiencing Start menu search issues in Windows 7. If the Start menu search is not displaying the results correctly for some reason, you can to fix the problem by installing the hotfix available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
According to Microsoft support, sometimes the Start menu search displays only the category headings of the categorized search results are displayed, such as Programs, Control Panel, and Documents. To fix the problem, you can either opt for manual or automatic fix method.
Fix for Windows 7 search issues
Run the search troubleshooter
There is a built-in troubleshooter present in Windows 7 to fix search issues automatically. Please run the same before trying out other methods or tools.
Fix the search issue via Registry
Step 1: Type regedit in Start menu search box and hit enter to launch Windows Registry Editor. Or, type regedit in Run dialog box (use Windows + R to launch Run) and hit enter to open the same.
Step 2: Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}
Step 3: Right-click on this sub key, and then select Delete.
Step 4: Reboot your machine to fix the problem.
Step 5: Done!
How to fix it automatically:
Step 1: Download the hotfix from Microsoft.
Step 2: Install the hotfix and then reboot your machine.
Tom says
I couldn’t find the key.
Typical Microsoft
dan holt says
All these post replies are very hard for non computer savvy person and are always usually aimed at rocket scientists or computer experts. Why answers are not SIMPLE bugs me. Can’t see a registry file given? OK heres how! SIMPLY!! COPY and paste it ( the LINK given to find in the registry.) into FIND NOW after regedit is put IN THE SEARCH BOX
see words of one syllable ANYONE can follow.
OH, and it DID NOT work even after all that! ho hum..
roberto says
Try Krojam Soft Files Search program to find files and folders.
Julianich Defrancisa says
Maybe you can use KrojamSoft FilesSearch Tool to fix your issue. It usually doesn’t conflict with other software, so you should be fine.
Paulgo says
Absolute BULLSHIT!!! Running Windows 7 pro x64 and NONE of this works. I type in a known search pattern and NOTHING.
The entry does not exist in my registry, same as for others here. Microsoft creates rubbish software,let’s face it but they have the Monopoly on it don’t they?
Kalko says
Thanks mate, worked like a charm… hope it will hold up.
Satish says
It worked for me. This issue was irritating me for many days. Finally got fixed with the main post.
Thanks :D
ra says
This is the most ridiculous problem. How can Microsoft make it so hard to just do a simple search? We have to change registries? Maybe 1% of their users know how to do this. What about everyone else, we just can’t search? How idiotic. I hope Apple takes over the whole market. Microsoft is such an inconsiderate company.
SuperJ says
I’ve given up on index searching … it is just not reliable enough. I’m using FileSearchEX now and like it. Typically I’m looking inside of very important files and can’t afford missing a file.
Cipher says
I applied the hotfix and vwalah. Its fixed. Took weeks to find this post!!! but thanks alot guys!!
Martin says
THIS GUIDE IS VERY WRONG!
WHERE IS THIS F***** KEY, I CAN’T FIND THIS X64 HOME PREMIUM!
ANY WORKING IDEA, HOW FIX THIS FUCKING SEACH ERRORS! :@
Akira says
I can’t find FolderTypes in that directory at all. I’m running a newly installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
The Microsoft Hotfix and System Restore didn’t work either. The indexing took such a long time, that I gave up on that too. I dare not restore the windows further, because I had to install bit by bit the 88+ windows update I had before to prevent them from crashing my OS.
Please can someone help?
Oscar says
I don´t have that key in my reg
the hotfix says that it can’t be installed on my computer, although it is the right version to my win7 64x
Jon says
I don’t think this fix works on x32 versions.
I don’t have “{ef87b4cb-f2ce-4785-8658-4ca6c63e38c6}” in my folder types.
Its there under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE but not HKEY_CURRENT_USERS and deleting it in local machine does nothing after reboot. Anyone else got this or is my system just a freak?
arnie says
Ziga, my Start_Searchfiles value is 2. Should I still change it to 0
bill says
My currentversion\explorer doesn’t have a foldertypes option, what do I do now?
DougF says
This page comes up with sidebar and advertisements which cover up crucial text. Couldn’t find a way to uncover which made it impossible to see the key discription for search fix using regedit.
Manually says
If you are doing it manually and can’t figure out the easiest way to load Regedit without going into the command prompt the press Winkey+R and type Regedit :D
Neural says
Thanks Sir, you made my day :D
Mark says
Used the registry fix and it worked. Thanks for posting this!
Gibson Carter says
Spent many hours trying to get Search Index to work. Tried the registry fixes, running trouble shooter, creating new user, re-indexing, etc.. None of those fixes worked. Un-installed Mcafee security center, installed Microsoft Security Essentials, started re-index, indexed files have increased from 1,400 to 30,000 and the indexer is still running.
Anonymous says
Interesting, this always seems to happen when I defragment my system.
Nick Evans says
Erm, I can’t seem to use this fix, though I’d love to, as I do not have a folder called ‘FolderTypes’ in the Explorer registry. Any ideas?
Ian says
This regedit fix worked for me – thanks! Tried to reload the index before and after waiting hours, I still couldn’t use the search.
James – if you typed ‘regedit’ into the broken search field and then clicked ‘See more results’ it would bring up a separate search screen with mulitple listings, as if you were in My Computer. Then just click on the regedit icon and you are there.
James Murphy says
Worked for me – wonderful.
One minor point regarding the manual fix:
“Type regedit in Start menu search box” – won’t work because the start menu search is broken…
However typing c:\windows\regedit.exe (assuming c:\windows is your root windows directory) should.
ilham ali says
I have been searching for last 2 hours for a solution for search problem, thanks for your solution.
Bob says
My fix was to uninstalled McAfee Security then rebuild the index. Works fine now.
Brian Mckay says
Deleting the registry key fixed it – thanks, this had been bugging me for weeks!
ThanksZiga says
After googling for a few hours, I found your post. And it worked perfectly! Thank you!
Ziga says
For me, the only solution to the search problem (not displaying files in start) was to change
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Start_SearchFiles value from 0 to 1.
Mike says
I would disagree with your lead-in comment about Windows 7 search being so fast and great… it sucks! Displays too much crap, starts churning data before I’ve finished typing, the multiple lines of text for each item cover up what I’m looking for and stretches it out to too many pages, and it finds things that aren’t even remotely like what I’m searching for. And who says I want to execute everything that I search for? If I think I have virus.exe somewhere on my computer, the last thing I want to do is execute it… I just want to find it. Or if I’m looking for a file during a program installation, I don’t want to run it and screw up the installation. Lord knows, it’s hard enough to get stuff to install correctly on Win7…
Microsoft seems to want to make things “easier” by hiding file locations and extensions, and making things “automatic”… fine, until something doesn’t work, or you want to back up your data and can’t find it… then you have no idea where things are and they don’t make it easy to find documentation. And it’s even worse since they started doing the registry, where everything is magic… and you can’t install a new OS over the old one without losing all your programs… It’s fine for Microsoft, who wants to sell you a new version of Word every two years, but what about my schematic entry program, or utilities that I buy, or other third party programs? They seem to forget that people work with computers, not just store pictures and music and get on facebook…
Bring back the old style search engine, where I can limit the locations and put in a partial file name or text in the file. Give me the ability to limit the searches and DO NOT take action on the files, just find them! Separate RUN and SEARCH boxes…
Dougie says
Thank you!
Strange that this problem still occurs in the final release…