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
    2022-07-14T09:14:01+00:00

    I was able to restore the search option on the taskbar by uninstalling all Microsoft updates and let them re-install and now my search option is back.

    Hope this helps, Bobby

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-14T08:13:15+00:00

    Thank you, David, I know this is an old thread, but this helped me to fix this same dam issue in July 2022! I looked and looked on how to stop the SearchApp.exe file so I could enable the SLI function in a laptop I had to replace a hard drive in, and I had no luck, not even with Microsoft tech support, if you can call them TECH support anymore, until I came across this thread finally! Thanks for the help, from all the way back in 2020.

    After going to my CMD prompt as admin, I was able to past the code several times and it finally stopped that dam SearchApp file! Now I was able to enable my SLI in Nvidia Control Panel.

    Thanks again, Bobby

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-06T06:13:37+00:00

    Is there a way to re-enable it if you ever decide to?

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-06-27T01:46:21+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

    How do you undo the initial command listed?

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    1 person found this answer helpful.
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