I recently upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 10.
The biggest issue I have now is that the Windows Search service no longer works, making the Start menu mostly unusable.
If I go to Indexing Options in the control panel I see that Indexing is not running and the list of paths to index is empty.
Going to advanced options, the current index path is empty, and the new path is empty too. This is true even if I try to use the "New Index" button.
Using the troubleshooter won't help since the service doesn't start.
If I try to manually start the "Windows Search" service, I get the error
"Error 3: Unable to find specified path" (this is the rough translation, the original message is in my language).
What can I do to find out which path/file is missing ?
I tried to check with Process Monitor, but the only file (beside system libraries) the SearchIndexer.exe try to access seem to be c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Application (everytime the service is started the whole folder c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search is deleted and recreated) and C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile (which exists).
Edit: all available updates are installed, and issuing
SFC /scannow
Doesn't reveal any issue
Best Answer
The problem is due to the fact that before the upgrade the search index was on a different drive. One that was no longer available after the upgrade.
As soon that I changed the value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\DefaultApplicationsPath to a path on the drive C: the Indexer started working perfectly. (There were other paths to fix, but the above is the one that would cause the service to fail).
Strangely enough, the path involved and the missing drive were not among the path returned by Process Monitor.