Since upgrading to Windows 8.1 this weekend, the Search feature became pretty useless. When I start typing, it sends my CPU usage to 100% (Task Manager shows Windows Explorer as the main offender), and results are pretty slow. The funny thing is, I have a i7 with 8 logical cores, and this is one of the rare times a single program actually manages to utilize all of them at once. 🙂
Some searches which worked earlier (e.g. typing "devices" would bring out a "Devices and printers" link for the Control Panel) also aren't shown anymore if "Everything" is selected for searching. If I select "Settings" in the drop-down, then the "Devices and settings" link is shown, but it takes around 3s for the results to show up making the whole thing useless.
I tried disabling the Windows Search service completely (although it's not the one peaking the CPU), but it didn't help. Also disabled Bing web search integration in PC settings, but it didn't change anything (apart from the web results now being omitted from the slow search).
I have found a couple of similar threads online, but they don't offer any solutions:
- Windows 8.1 explorer.exe sends CPU to 100% when searching in Metro interface
- Windows 8.1 preview search charm loads 100% CPU
- Windows 8.1 search causes explorer.exe to spike to 100%
Does anyone have a similar problem, and possibly a solution to this problem?
Since I've accustomed to hitting the Windows button and typing immediately to start my apps, I am considering two obvious solutions:
- Reinstall plain old Windows 8 again
- Install a third-pary Start menu app with a working search functionality
Best Answer
I've analyzed a xperf trace that an user gave me on technet, and the fix is to add the AppData folder, which is part of your Userprofile, back to the Search-Index.