If you would not like to perform the previous suggestions I provided, you may also perform the following steps to rebuild the index and check the issue.
1. Click on the Start Button, type "cmd" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box. Right-click CMD listed above and click "Run as administrator".
2. At the command prompt, copy the following command to stop the Search Service:
net stop wsearch
3. Click on the Start Button, type "regedit" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box and press Enter.
(Click "Continue" if User Account Control prompts for permission)
4. Navigate to the following registry key by expanding the "+" beside the registry tree in the left pane:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search]
5. Right click on "Windows Search", click "Export"; please name the file as "RegBackup" (without quotation marks) and then save it to the C:\ drive as a backup.
Note: In case we need to undo the modification, we can double click this RegBackup.reg file to restore the registry key.
7. Right-click on “Windows Search” and choose Permissions. On the Security tab, verify that Administrator is the owner and has full control of the key.
8. Within the "Windows Search" registry key, find the SetupCompletedSuccessfully value on the right pane. Double-click SetupCompletedSuccessfully and change its value to 0.
9. Delete the following registry keys:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Applications\windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\CatalogNames\windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Databases\windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gather\windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\Applications\windows
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\UsnNotifier\windows
If the key cannot be deleted, please perform the following steps to take ownership first
a. Right-click the key and click "Permission"
b. Click the "Advanced" button.
c. On the "Owner" tab, verify your account is the current owner. If not, click "Other users or groups" to add your account. Then select your account, check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" and click OK on the windows.
10. Click on the Start Button, type "cmd" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box. Right-click CMD listed above and click "Run as administrator".
11. At the command prompt, copy the following command to delete the default index location folder:
rd %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows /S /Q
12. Start the Search Service again by typing the following:
net start wsearch
After approximately one minute, check the SetupCompletedSuccessfully registry value and it should now be set to 1 and the Search service should rebuild the index database.
What’s the result?
Windows 7 search always returns no results
