Windows 10 search is now fixed, after being completely broken for many

(Image credit: Future)

Windows 10’s search function has been causing a good deal of issues in recent times, and has triggered more grief this week, going down completely for some users – although a fix has now been rolled out.

According to a report by Windows Latest, a lot of folks running Windows 10 November 2019 Update and May 2019 Update found that queries typed into the search box would return absolutely nothing – just a blank, black box.

This happened yesterday, on February 5, and has since been fixed, with Microsoft admitting there was a problem, and that it was a gremlin crawling about in the company’s network infrastructure (specifically a ‘third-party networking fiber provider’ ran into trouble).

This meant that not only were online results not returned with a search query, but also local results – files on the PC itself – and this points to a wider problem of relying on the cloud having additional unwanted ramifications.

The issue hit not just consumer PCs, but businesses too.

As mentioned, Microsoft has deployed a fix, and most users should find the problem has been cured – although you may need to reboot your PC to get search working properly again (Windows Latest observes that you might potentially need to restart your machine several times, in fact).

Previously, there was a workaround (involving tweaking the Registry) which disabled Bing integration with the search functionality – so evidently the problem was Bing-related in some manner.

Network redundancy

Microsoft is reportedly reviewing its ‘network redundancy options’, or in other words, mulling over how it might prevent such an outage from happening again.

As you might recall, there have been various long-standing flaws with the search functionality in Windows 10, which Microsoft recently released a patch for – except in a now familiar story, that fix had the side-effect of causing a number of other rather nasty problems.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Microsoft can ill afford this kind of reputational damage, but apparently the company has a plan – and is betting on the man behind Surface to help fix Windows 10.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

Latest in Windows
Person printing
Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 update exorcises possessed printers that spewed out pages of random characters
A PC gamer celebrating, sat in a gaming chair in front of a monitor
Windows 11’s Game Bar gets a fresh coat of paint, plus a tweak to work better on handhelds – and I like the direction Microsoft’s heading in here
Microsoft Copilot combines the Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Graph and Artificial Intelligence. Isolated 3D logo on a surface
Microsoft adds Copilot AI features to Windows 11's Photos app - and I actually don't hate them
A young woman is working on a laptop in a relaxed office space.
I’ll admit, Microsoft’s new Windows 11 update surprised me with its usefulness, providing accessibility fixes, a gamepad keyboard layout, and PC spec cards
Microsoft Surface Laptop and Surface Pro devices on a table.
Hate Windows 11’s search? Microsoft is fixing it with AI, and that almost makes me want to buy a Copilot+ PC
girl using laptop hoping for good luck with her fingers crossed
Windows 11 24H2 seems to be a massive fail – so Microsoft apparently working on 25H2 fills me with hope... and fear
Latest in News
Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con up-close from app store
Nintendo's new app gave us another look at the Switch 2, and there's something different with the Joy-Con
cheap Nintendo Switch game deals sales
Nintendo didn't anticipate that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was 'going to be the juggernaut' for the Nintendo Switch when it was ported to the console, according to former employees
Toni Collette in Hereditary
Everything leaving Netflix in April 2025 – from the scariest movie ever made to a beloved DreamWorks animation with 99% on Rotten Tomatoes
Three angles of the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 laptop above a desk
Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) review roundup – should you buy Apple's new lightweight laptop?
Witchbrook
Witchbrook, the life-sim I've been waiting years for, finally has a release window and it's sooner than you think
Close up of Leica M11-P viewfinder
I wince at the prospect of the rumored Leica M11-V – here's why