Windows Search Service not working after Windows 8.1 Upgrade

Anonymous
2013-11-03T16:40:29+00:00

After upgrading to Windows 8.1, the Windows Search Service is not working. I ran the troubleshooting tool which identified the problem, but was unable to fix it.  Any insights would be much appreciated.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Search, touch, and mouse

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Anonymous
2014-04-30T23:39:47+00:00

Finally found a solution to this after about 2 weeks of on and off troubleshooting. This was in Windows 8.1. Indexing was not running, all options were grayed out, and no solutions I tried (registry changes, etc) worked.

A few posters suggested going to 2 directories and deleting all the files in those folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Temp\

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\

However, this solution was initially impossible for me, because the first directory (Temp) and all the files in the 2nd directory (Windows) would DISAPPEAR upon trying to view them. They would be there for a second when I first entered the directory, and then vanish. Since I couldn't get to them, I couldn't delete them. I've never seen files and folders do that before.

I fixed this by renaming the "Windows" folder to "Windows.old," and immediately the system generated a replacement where the files didn't disappear!  I then did the same thing with the "Temp" folder, but this time it didn't auto-generate a new folder, so I just made one myself.

I didn't even have to delete the files in the newly generated folders. Indexing started working immediately after the new folders were created.

Hope this helps someone!

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Anonymous
2013-11-14T21:50:45+00:00

If you are using either Norton Utilities 16 or System Mechanic 12 or maybe some other registry checking/repair program, my experience (on two separate 8.1 systems) is that both NU or SM will stop Windows Search service during their automated registry check/repair routines and will produce an Error 2 missing file message if you try and restart Windows Search service.   You can recover/restart Windows Search service by rolling back/undoing the registry changes made by these utilities using their built-in registry change undo tools.  Once Windows Search starts back up Indexing for Outlook deleted e-mails or other programs/folders will also restart but may take a while to rebuild depending on how much is indexed.  To avoid having this issue in the future, you should disable the automatic registry check routines on all registry check programs you may have running, at least until all this gets resolved.

Microsoft has apparently made some changes to Windows 8.1 that aren't compatible with how Norton and Iolo do their registry check routines, and so far the latter's engineers have not released updates to either program which prevents this issue from happening.  None of these issues existed for me with Windows 8.0, 7 or prior Windows versions.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-02-10T23:13:08+00:00

    Rajesh, thank you. You got my game back installed (I assume the store indexing is working). Now, my biggest problem is actually making purchases in side the app or game! I have to use my Microsoft password every time, so I'm assuming Mcrsft is part of the problem and maybe a hacker or two. This problem has cost me a lot of money and wasted time trying to fix a seemingly easy problem. No game on FB has a problem taking your money, why Microsoft and (Royal Revolt)???? Especially at tourney time, when most are spending money to compete! Since last year, 5 different accounts for this game and still I cannot make a purchase in the game,,, I hate the extortion, but Ill pay for the damn Assure, if it will fix the damn problem!!!!!! When I get the money, of course..... You should see all the damn microsoft receipts in my inbox! Hell yeah Im pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-04T22:40:31+00:00

    I was experiencing a similar problem, where Windows Search failed to start.

    Windows 8.1

    Error 6801 "Transaction support within the specified resource manager is not started or was shut down due to an error."

    I followed the steps here

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2484025

    Specifically, deleting the .BLF and .REGTRANS-MS files in C:\windows\system32\config\TxR

    After a restart, search started normally.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-26T12:10:10+00:00

    This worked for me too! Thank you ever so much! I was close to a heart attack with my brand new system not working. Without the users helping one another Microsoft products would not be usable as serious pieces of software. I am so extremely dissapointed with this company. Too bad I can not reverse charge them for the time I spend troubleshooting on their software.

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