Windows 10 File Explorer Quick Search bar will not allow typing - Usual fixes not working

Question

I have a user account that will not allow any input in the Explorer Quick search bar. Clicking on the bar and typing produces no results. Occasionally pressing Control-F then typing will show only the last character typed. Most of the time there is no way to put any input in the bar.

The search bar at the bottom left of Windows works fine as does search in other locations.

This issue only occurs on one account on the computer. The administrator account does not have the issue.

I have tried the following things with no success:

restart explorer.exe

restart windows search process and change process to autostart

start ctfmon.exe

end task searchui.exe

taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe

del %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState* /q

control panel troubleshooting > search and indexing

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

SFC

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$.InstallLocation -like "SystemApps"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

roll back to older version of Windows before the issue occurred

Rebuilt the index

How can this be resolved?

Thanks

Answer 1

This issue only occurs on one account on the computer. The administrator account does not have the issue.

This is conclusive and why the efforts you listed did not work.

This is a damage to the User's Windows User Profile. You need to save the documents in the profile, make a new Windows Profile and then delete the damaged one.

If you need to use the same User Name, you will need to be certain about the backup of the documents and data, delete the Profile, restart and make the new Profile and restore the documents.