Windows 10 Start Menu Search not finding shortcuts

Hi,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I understand your inconvenience. We will assist you with it.

Before we proceed, we would like to know if you are facing this issue only in finding the shortcuts or even in finding other applications from start menu as well. 

I suggest you to follow the steps provided below and check if it helps.

1. Open the Task manager.  Here’s a tip:  Press      CTRL+Shift+ESC.
2. Click File > Run New Task
3. Make sure you have a check mark beside “Create this      task with administrative privileges”
4. Type Powershell
5. Type the following 2 commands in the Powershell prompt:
        $manifest = (Get-AppxPackage      Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ;      Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"}

1. Close the Powershell window.
2. Reboot,

Hope it helps. Do let us know if your issue is resolved. For any further information, feel free to contact us.

Thank you.

Hi Syed,

The issue is only in finding the shortcuts that I directly placed under the Application folder that I created, C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Application.

The start menu brings up other shortcuts like Windows PowerShell when I click start and type in "power".  This particular shortcut resides on C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell\Windows PowerShell.  Similarly the start menu brings up Movie Maker from the Movie Maker shortcut, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Movie Maker.

The start menu also works correctly in bringing up settings that I search for and it works in Web and MyStuff searches.

I ran the Powershell commands that you listed above and rebooted.  They appreared to run correctly but it made no difference to the Start menu search issue.

Thanks.

Hello,

in my experience so far Windows 10 displays this behavior mostly for .exe files. I got a lot of small tools and utilities in a separate folder. The start menu search would find the folder and everything in it except for the .exe file. 

Pinning the .exe to the start menu (creating a shortcut) doesn't help. Even though the shortcut shows up in the start menu, it can't be found by search.

Is there any sort of new security rule to block .exe files of unregistered apps from being found and/or executed within the start menu?

Thanks for your efforts in advance!

Same problem as OP. You aren't the only one, there are a ton of threads about this.

For instance I have World of Warcraft installed. When I do a search I only get web links. I have Word and Excel installed, neither are found but excel and word mobile in the store are found. If I search paint I see some store items and web links. It can't even find Control Panel. None of my self installed apps can be found.

I did a test and installed classicshell, I also have an SSD so indexing is disabled. That gave me back a Win 7 start menu with search at the bottom and it works, it finds everything even with indexing disabled, but I would rather use the Win 10 start menu.

The main problem seams that Cortana doesn't search for local apps and local search has been removed from the Win 10 start menu. At this point in time Cortana is just a fancy web search tool. This isn't a system corruption or indexing issue it is a programming issue.

Hello Syed,

are there any updates on this matter? 

Thanks,

Chris

Powershell script did not work. But caused a new problem. The Notification Icon shows notifications, but does nothing when clicked.

I did some testing and found out I was wrong about indexing. Cortana defiantly needs indexing working properly to find local apps. Make sure indexing is turned on and the folders you want Cortana to search are being indexed. My default index has Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, IE History, Offline Files, Pictures, Start Menu, Users, Windows Sticky Notes.

Now that I have indexing working I can find all my local files, control panel items, documents & music etc..

Now that I have indexing working I can find all my local files, control panel items, documents & music etc..

Does that include .exe files? For example a tool like putty.exe on the desktop?

Did you change anything else besides the folders to be indexed?

The only solution I found was to rollback to windows 8.1.

I need to get work done.