Windows 7 search does not work for documents, broken, no results

Anonymous

My search function does not pull up files, specifically Microsoft Works word documents, that contain words i entered into the search bar.

I've tried searching through the document libraries and through the start menu, but it says "no items match your search." I've tested this by writing the words "smart world" in a document and the search function still can't find this document.

NOTE: search is not completely broken. it will return results for programs and items in the control panel. Results also return ONE document, and always the same one, which is the first word document i created on this computer.

i've spent an hour finding my way to this forum. along the way, i've seen some complicated fixes on other forums that have not worked for all. i am not a programmer and do not want to try some complicated fix that could damage my already frail and prone to stupid errors hard drive.

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 15 with win 7 32bit that was a free upgrade with the computer.

make it work for me MS!

SO MY QUESTION IS: how can i fix my windows 7 search feature so that it will pull up ms works word document files containing the words that i typed into the search bar?

I am completely enervated by all of this.

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

rob

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Anonymous

Hi rob,

If you are experiencing problems with searching, such as unusually slow searches or incomplete search results, run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter to see if it can diagnose the problem.

Open the Search and Indexing troubleshooter by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Click View all, and then click Search and Indexing.

Depending on the severity of the problem, the Search and Indexing troubleshooter might need to restart the Windows Search service.

For further information, visit the below mentioned link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Improve-Windows-searches-using-the-index-frequently-asked-questions

You may also refer the below mentioned link.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Searching-in-Windows-frequently-asked-questions

If this not help, you may create a new user account and check if the issue persist.

For further information, visit the below mentioned link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/Create-a-user-account

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile

Hope this information helped!

Thanks and regards

Fouzan – Microsoft support

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62 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-02-08T03:30:35+00:00

Som, dude you are completely high if you think anyone human is going to follow those steps. Windows 7 search is the biggest pile of goat vomit Microsoft has spewed out. XP had this awesome search command that would let you hone searches to precision. I heard Windows 8 has the same lame search. There is a sort of solution. Download Search Everything. It's slow, but it works and it does search everything.
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Anonymous

2013-04-08T21:01:15+00:00

You lost me here:

Also check the following key values:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

In this key there are two values (both hex dword)

Start_SearchFiles

Start_SearchPrograms

Don't search --------------------> 0

Search with public folders -----> 2

Search without public folders --> 1

Start_SearchFiles is the only key of the above that appears in my Registry. It's value is set, "2". What is your recommendation?
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Anonymous

2013-05-22T18:02:06+00:00

It turns out search is NOT broken when I create a test user account. Does that mean I have to abandon my current user account and rebuild it if I want to use Windows Search??
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Anonymous

2013-07-07T19:30:00+00:00

Your suggestion to use the Troubleshooter was as unsuccessful as the search feature is.

It pops up a window that claims it can't find anything wrong.

Now something MUST be wrong, because Windows 7 Search simply DOES NOT work.

I have 36 Win 7 machines in this office, and NONE of them have a

functioning Search Feature.

NONE of them.

We had over 120 XP machines before, and ALL of them had an easy to use, and functioning, Search Feature.

M$ really needs to bring back the Search program from XP.

XP was, and still is, the superior OS. Way better than Vista, 7.1, 8.1, and in all likelihood, better than 10.

Why do they change things, just to say it's been changed, when every time they "FIX" it, "IT" gets worse.
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