I have files and shortcuts on my desktop, when I use the search feature in 8.1 and type in the name of a shortcut on my desktop, it does not find it. This use to work amazingly well in Windows 7.
As you can see from the below image, the Desktop is selected, but I see no results from things on it, such as .lnk files. (Yes, .lnk files are added to be searchable.)