What happened

The Search menu on my Windows 10 suddenly stopped working. When I clicked the Search icon or type something in the Start menu, it just shows a blank search window.

The fix

  1. Right click on the windows key and tap Run

  2. Open the Registery Editor by typing regedit and tapping ok

  3. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
  1. Right-click the Search icon and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value:
BingSearchEnabled

  1. Double-click the new BingSearchEnabled value to open its properties dialog. The number in the “Value data” box should already be 0. Just ensure it’s still 0. Click OK to continue.

  2. Below BingSearchEnabled, you should see CortanaConsent. Double-click this value to open its properties dialog. Change its “Value Data” box to “0” aswell.

Note Well: If you don’t see CortanaConsent, create it by following the same steps you used to create BingSearchEnabled.

  1. Restart Explorer.Exe by opening the TaskManager, right clicking on Windows Explorer, and tapping restart. The Windows Search Bar should now return to a working state