Windows 8.1 Search/Indexing Will not Start - Error 2: The system could not find the file specified.

Anonymous

Original title: Windows 8.1 Search/Indexing Will not Start

Running Windows 8.1 and the indexing has stopped. When I go to services and try and restart the windows search service i get the message....

Windows could not start Windows Search service on the local computer.

Error 2: The system could not find the file specified

I've tried disabeling, rebooting and renabling but this did not work.

I've also did a completly fresh install, which fixed the problem, for about 2 days and back to the exact same error now.

Searched on the internet but cannot find any refrence to Error 2 and windows 8 search. Tried some of the simular fixes reported to different error codes in windows 7 but none matched exactly and none worked.

Any help appreciated, only thing I can think of is that it may be windows 8.1 related? As never had problems with windows 8

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Anonymous

I experienced the same problema and i FIXED it!! after chatting with Microsoft technical service many times, the solution give was: format your PC and reinstall Windows..

However, thanks to Gary and his clue... i fixed and this is my solution (it Works for me now)

I renamed (you can try to delete, but i always like to rename to have an easy way to restore) the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigs{A010C594-BAB6-4690-952C-28A0C0365307} value=ScopeToMonitor

renamed to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigBAK{A010C594-BAB6-4690-952C-28A0C0365307} value=ScopeToMonitor

and then started the Windows search sercvice (services.msc).. and right now its working. Its already indexing my files!!

The Windows search service automatically created a new entre in the registry named:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigs

I rebooted my laptop and the service started automatically and its working and indexing!!

Hope this patch helps!

Sergio

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Anonymous

Hi everyone, after 4 months of trying to solve this issue without reinstalling the OS, here is my solution!

(all other remedies failed)

Suggest you start with USB memory stick and format (I used NTFS)

This is a little laborious but works...

Open [Services] application, scroll down to [Windows Search] double click and set to Automatic on Startup type:

Open [This PC] to show available drives and ensure you can see your new USB drive, then click on [Manage]. Under [Storage] menu click on [Disk Management].

Click on the new USB drive box (bottom of window), it should show Drive 1 Removable

Right button click and select [Change Drive Letter and Paths...], then select the aspirate USB drive and literally work through the alphabet (avoiding drive letters that are already in use). Each time you change the drive letter, reboot your PC and check to see if [Services] has started 'ruining' [Windows Search]

Once you have figured out which is the correct drive to enable [Windows Search] service to run, then I suggest you partition some space on your hard drive and rename it to the appropriate drive letter that you know works! (Don't forget to format)

Hope that works for you as it fixed my issue

Thanks to everyone for making the world a better place

Think responsibly

Dom

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140 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-11-18T05:07:03+00:00

No success trying these.

I have Norton 360 and Advanced System Care 6.
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Anonymous

2013-11-15T08:08:02+00:00

I have the same problem and could not get the Search Service to start using the above processes. I am using Norton Utilities 16. I tried to back out the changes the registry fixer made, and it did not make a difference. I have disabled that feature now, but still cant get the search service to start. Another issue I have that I believe is related is my Windows 8.1 Photo App will crash after it runs for a few seconds. I read somewhere that this is related to the indexing not working.

Assuming the problem was caused by something done to the registry, there must be something that can be done to undo it, or some way Microsoft can reinstall whatever is needed to get the indexing to start again.

Symantec is getting out of the registry cleaner business in Dec 2013. Talked with them yesterday about this problem and they say Registry Mechanic is NOT tested with Windows 8.1. I used the back out technique discussed in this forum and my search function now works. I have removed RM from my machine.

I tried all the steps too. I uninstalled Iolo SM, on two machines and on one of them uninstalled Norton. (The other had Webroot) Nothing worked. I gave up trying to fix and reinstalled win 7 then win 8 then 8.1 it worked and then turned on win Defender. (Microsoft please make it easier to do a direct clean install of 8.1, it's a big waste of time) I'm not happy doing this or dropping registry and security but I seem to have way more problems with my computer than other people and I suspect registry and security may be the reason. Index and search now work fine. For me that is critical.
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Anonymous

2013-11-15T03:47:19+00:00

Hi Ganesh - Same problem on my end. I tried the above solutions (also posted on other threads related to the same problem). No luck. Is there a registry setting we could be looking at here?
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