Search Results Empty (No Results) in Windows 10 Settings Page [Fix]

If searching through the Windows 10 Settings page is extremely slow or returns a “No results” message, this article has the solution.

The the Start menu search feature may also be non-functional. Nothing may happen when you click Start and press a letter.

[Fix] Search Results Showing No Results in Windows 10 Settings

Step 1: Check if Windows Search Service is Running

1. Press WinKey + R, type services.msc and press ENTER
2. Double-click Windows Search and set its start type to Automatic
3. Manually start the service by clicking Start in the services window.

Step 2: Reinstall the Search App using PowerShell

Start PowerShell and run this command to reinstall the search app.

get-appxpackage Microsoft.Windows.Search | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

If you receive an error that the package can’t be found, try running the following command from PowerShell Admin.

get-appxpackage Microsoft.Windows.Search -allusers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Log off and log back in. The search function should work correctly in the Start menu as well as Settings.

(Proceed to Step 3 only if required.)

Step 3: Fix the Settings Index folder path in the registry

The search app’s index should be regenerated after running the 2nd command. If that doesn’t help, try fixing the search app’s index path in the registry.

1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Go to the following location:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\SettingsConstraintIndex

3. Inspect the folder paths assigned for the values LatestConstraintIndexFolder & CurrentConstraintIndexCabPath
4. Ensure the folder paths are valid and pointing to the correct folders. For example, here is the LatestConstraintIndexFolder value data on my computer.

   C:\Users\Ramesh\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\ConstraintIndex\Settings_{fefa25a2-43f6-4921-9bbb-56081442649c}

   The above folder has the following files related to the Settings search index:

   0.0.filtertrie.intermediate.txt
   0.1.filtertrie.intermediate.txt
   0.2.filtertrie.intermediate.txt
   Settings.ft
   Settings.index

   On some systems, the profile path or the Settings_ folder name may be incorrect. For instance, it may be incorrectly pointed to another user profile folder that does not exist on the system. Or, you may have renamed the user profile home folder and didn’t update the registry paths.

5. Fixing the value data for LatestConstraintIndexFolder & CurrentConstraintIndexCabPath fixes the search issues in the Settings app.
   
6. Similarly, fix the CurrentConstraintIndexCabPath & LatestConstraintIndexFolder paths in the following registry key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppsConstraintIndex

7. Exit the Registry Editor.

The above paths are valid for Windows 10 v21H2.

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Enable Content Indexing for “Immersivecontrolpanel” Folder

Note: This step is not required if you’re running Windows 10 v1903 or higher. The latest versions of Windows 10 don’t use this folder.

1. Open the following folder in File Explorer:

   C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy

   
   The above folder contains the XML files used by the modern Settings page. If these XML files are missing or their contents are not indexed, searching through the Settings page (WinKey + i) would return no results. So, let’s index this folder and its sub-folders and files.

2. Right-click LocalState and click Properties. Click Advanced.
3. In the Advanced Attributes dialog, enable the option Allow files in this folder to have contents indexed in addition to file properties
   
4. Click OK, and apply changes to all sub-directories by selecting the option Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files when prompted. If the checkbox is already enabled, uncheck the option and click OK. Then enable it back and click OK.
5. Wait for some time for the search index to crawl files in the sub-folders. If it still doesn’t help, open Indexing Options in Control Panel, click the Advanced tab, and rebuild the search index.
   
   As a side note, to access “Accounts,” you’d simply click Accounts on the main Settings page. The screenshots are for illustration.

That’s it! I hope this fixes the search option on the Windows 10 Settings page.

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