How do you disable SearchApp.exe from running so that you can enable SLI in the Nvidia Control Panel?

Anonymous
2020-08-21T21:11:28+00:00

I'm unable to shut down SearchApp.exe in task manager so that I can enable SLI in the Nvidia control panel.  I've performed a clean boot and stopped the Windows Search service. 

However as soon as I end task on  SearchApp.exe, it automatically restarts.  Because of this I'm unable to enable SLI in the Nvidia control panel.

SearchApp.exe is located in C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy

I'm unable to enable SLI if I boot into safe mode.  I already tried that.

When I had a version of Windows 10 pre version 2004, I had no problems ending task on everything running that prevented SLI from begin enabled.  I did a clean install of Windows 10 last night to fix a problem and now that the problem is fixed, I have a new one.  I really hope I don't have to install an older version of Windows 10 and upgrade to get around this problem.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Cortana and search

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Anonymous
2020-09-06T13:11:25+00:00

The previous answer is unlikely to work because Cortana keeps searchapp.exe running all the time (causing cpus to get hot).

The following commands worked for me. You have to paste them into in Administrator-level Command Prompt again and again until the timing is right and the "move" works.

cd %windir%\SystemApps

taskkill /f /im SearchApp.exe

move Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy.old

Optional: to remove Cortana completely (in addition to stopping searchapp.exe), run the following command in Administrator-level Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

David Spector

Springtime Software

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-08T04:46:28+00:00

    I have yet to find a third party app for searching that performs worse than I've found windows search to be. No matter the storage device. I would rather just get rid of the problematic app and just rely on other programs.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-06T15:38:41+00:00

    Life on the Internet has risk. It has worked for me for months on two computers. Make your own decision.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-06T15:03:31+00:00

    The question of restoring searching has been answered above. However, I strongly recommend Search Everything, a freeware tool, as it will not cause your CPU to overheat and have a shorter lifespan.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-04-08T21:58:13+00:00

    David

    thank you, I am 73 years old so not considered deft at fixing computer issues so please bear with me.

    How do I find the "Everything" file to fix the issue with searchapp.exe.

    Thanks in advance

    Jack Houston

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