For a few days, users have been reporting problems in the operation of Windows internal search. Here's what's happening and how to fix it
The search for files and applications in the Start menu box of Windows 10 has problems again, for the umpteenth time. It's being reported by several users on Reddit, Superuser.com and even on Microsoft's official forum. Luckily, at least this time, the problem seems to affect only very few users.
It's not at all clear what the problem stems from: some speculate that it's related to the installation of the recent update KB4550945, published by Microsoft on April 21, 2020, but others claim to suffer from it even if they didn't download and install that update. As it often happens with search function errors on Windows 10, this one is also quite ballistic: sometimes it appears, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it disappears on its own, and sometimes you have to restart your computer. Microsoft is aware of the problem, since it was also reported on its official forum, but it still hasn't given any official answers about it.
Windows 10: what's happening to search
The error reported by users is always the same: when you search for something from the Start menu, be it a file or an app, no answer appears but a pop-up message pops up saying "This is taking too long to load", it's taking a little too long to load. In the message there's a "Refresh" button: if you press it the problem disappears and the results appear, but on the next search the problem appears again.
How to solve the problem in Windows 10
The fact that you usually only need to press a button to solve the problem would seem to indicate that the problem itself is not that difficult to solve: the search does in fact take place, but only after clicking on "Refresh". So it could be a trivial bug, solvable in a short time by Microsoft, but still annoying for those who often use the search box. That's why many of the users suffering from this bug are trying to fix it with the same old methods valid on Windows 10: uninstall the latest updates one by one in the hope that the error will disappear. However, as already mentioned, the error doesn't seem to be related to a specific update and could result from a conflict between the various updates. And this complicates things, because it multiplies the possible solutions and could push some users to uninstall even updates that have nothing to do with the problem.