Win11 Search Function breaks after installing Windhawk and remains broken after uninstalling Windhawk

[DevCon99]

I'm experiencing the same symptoms as described in issue #224, i.e., the Win11 search box is not responsive anymore. When opening the start menu, pressing keys just selects respective pinned apps. When adding the search box to the task bar, it is not possible to enter anything into it. Even Win+S does not work.

I've tried a lot of remedies, those usually recommended if the search box isn't working, and the "Repair" of the Win11 settings app.

All users on this PC are affected, i.e., I cannot avoid the issue by logging in with a different account.

The only mod I installed was the "Vertical Taskbar for Windows 11" mod.
My Windows version is 24H2 (26100.2314).

I'd be very grateful for any hint how I could restore the search box functionality, as I would like to be able to open an app by pressing the Win key and then typing the start of its name.

[DevCon99]

I'm happy to report that after a Windows update (now 24H2 26100.2894), the issue resolved itself. While I'm super glad that the search functionality is working again, I still consider it a bug that it became unavailable after installing Windhawk. I guess this issue could be joined with #226, however the solution presented in #226 did not work for me.

[admiralspeedy]

#226 has nothing to do with your issue and also installing Windhawk alone does not break search.

I suspect something completely unrelated to Windhawk caused your issue.

[m417z]

@DevCon99 why do you think that the issue is related to Windhawk? If you can find a way to reproduce it, please let me know and I'll take a look.

[PeaceDevWasTaken]

I'm experiencing the same symptoms as described in issue #224, i.e., the Win11 search box is not responsive anymore. When opening the start menu, pressing keys just selects respective pinned apps. When adding the search box to the task bar, it is not possible to enter anything into it. Even Win+S does not work.

I've tried a lot of remedies, those usually recommended if the search box isn't working, and the "Repair" of the Win11 settings app.

All users on this PC are affected, i.e., I cannot avoid the issue by logging in with a different account.

The only mod I installed was the "Vertical Taskbar for Windows 11" mod. My Windows version is 24H2 (26100.2314).

I'd be very grateful for any hint how I could restore the search box functionality, as I would like to be able to open an app by pressing the Win key and then typing the start of its name.

same issue here

[m417z]

@DevCon99 did you see the same, i.e. a white window?

@PeaceDevWasTaken why do you think it's related to Windhawk? Does it only happen when Windhawk is running?

[DevCon99]

@m417z

why do you think that the issue is related to Windhawk?

I'm fairly certain Windhawk caused the issue because the search box stopped working after I had installed Windhawk and experimented with the vertical bar mod.

If you can find a way to reproduce it, please let me know and I'll take a look.

I'm not planning to use Windhawk again in the immediate future -- I don't like that it relies on a background process, I prefer modifications to change registry entries, etc., i.e., not use any system resources at runtime (no matter how small the impact is) -- but should I come back to it for another mod, I'll let you know whether the search box issue reappears.

did you see the same, i.e. a white window?

No, I don't remember such a white window. Most definitely, I wouldn't have been able to type in "search broke" into the bar as @PeaceDevWasTaken apparently did, because the text field was unresponsive to input. Key press events were automatically interpreted as search/select events for items in the start menu. Pressing "p", for instance, selected the "PowerPoint" icon in the "Pinned" section of the start menu.

I hope that helps.

[PeaceDevWasTaken]

@DevCon99 did you see the same, i.e. a white window?

@PeaceDevWasTaken why do you think it's related to Windhawk? Does it only happen when Windhawk is running?

Yup

This is with the vertical Taskbar disabled btw, killing windhawk and restarting my pc without letting it open fixes this issue so it is 100% windhawk, idk if it has something to do with my 1440p monitor or something but it's a massive issue for me

[PeaceDevWasTaken]

@DevCon99 did you see the same, i.e. a white window?

@PeaceDevWasTaken why do you think it's related to Windhawk? Does it only happen when Windhawk is running?

Yup

This is with the vertical Taskbar disabled btw, killing windhawk and restarting my pc without letting it open fixes this issue so it is 100% windhawk, idk if it has something to do with my 1440p monitor or something but it's a massive issue for me

Also sitting on this screen for a bit causes the build number of my windows install to appear in the corner, restarting the search host and explorer process via task manager used to work for a moment before it stopped working entirely

[m417z]

@PeaceDevWasTaken it doesn't happen in my tests, so I'm not sure what's the issue is. For some unexplained issues like this one, sometimes an antivirus that interferes with Windhawk's code injection is related. Are you using an antivirus?

Do I understand correctly that the issue happens only when the Vertical Taskbar mod is enabled?

Another idea for a workaround is to exclude SearchHost.exe, either in Vertical Taskbar's advanced options tab, or globally in Windhawk in its advanced options.