Win 10 / 11 · Windows

Make Windows Search actually useful again

When the Start menu search is slow or returns garbage, it's usually just the index and a few settings to fix.

DifficultyEasy
Time5 min
RiskLow
ReversibleYes
PlatformWin 10 / 11
UpdatedSep 22, 2026

Written and tested by emdottech

What that means

Low risk. This fix only checks things, or changes settings you can switch back in the same place. This change is reversible — you can return to the previous state without professional help or data loss.

Steps

01
- Settings → Search → 'Search Windows' → turn off 'Search online and include web results' if you only want results from this PC, not Bing
02
- SettingsSearch'Searching Windows'Advanced indexing optionsRebuild— takes 5–20 minutes depending on how many files you have, and results are incomplete while it runs
03
- On the same Advanced page, click Modify and exclude folders that are large but rarely worth searching — game install directories, node_modules, virtual machine disk files — each exclusion speeds up every future search
04
- Still feels wrong afterwards? Check Indexing Options and confirm your actual working folders (Documents, Desktop, Downloads) are ticked — some clean installs index only a narrow default set
05
- Still slow after a rebuild? Run a disk health check — search performance degrades noticeably on a drive that's starting to fail

How to verify the fix

Start menu search returns fast, relevant results for files you know exist on this PC.

If this didn't fix it

Search is still slow or empty after the index rebuild — check your exclusions and run a disk health check.

Next stop: the related fixes below, or start a guided diagnosis.

Still stuck? Diagnose my problem Browse all Windows fixes

Make Windows Search actually useful again

Steps

✓How to verify the fix

!If this didn't fix it

Related fixes

How to verify the fix

If this didn't fix it