Reminder of end of Windows 7 support

This is not hard.

Search for "File Explorer" (without the quotes).

When the file folder icon appears in the panel, Right Click it and drag it to the desktop.

At the prompt select "Copy".

Double click on the new icon.

When File Explorer opens, click on the "C:" drive in the left panel.

Enter your text string into the "Search Quick access" input box in the upper right.

You can search a specific directory or the whole computer and you can also search "Shared" drives on other PCs you are linked to.

The path to the found file(s) can be displayed in the "Quick Access" input box by clicking on the "found" file or directory.

The icon can also be "Pinned" to the SysTray. (Legacy mode)

Hope this helps

So then use Win-E do your search from File Explorer

 
Or, if you'd like a one-click solution, create these shortcuts on your desktop:

1. Navigate to YourUsername/Searches in File Explorer(where YourUsername is you Windows account)
2. Select Everywhere or Indexed Locations
3. Right-click and drag the item to the desktop
4. Select Create shortcuts here"

To search, select one of the desktop shotcuts, then fill in the search field box

Thanks Guys!

That works great. Now that you have solved the problem, here is one more thing to do: Eliminate the Search Bar on the Task Bar. It is now useless.

Right-click on the Task Bar.
Choose Search.
Click Hidden.
The Search Bar disappears.

dobs108

As of today, Microsoft has made some changes to the way Search operates in version 1909 of Win 10 which some users say has fixed the problem after a reboot of their PC. Others say it persists.
https://www.askwoody.com/2020/win10-search-is-working-again/
Microsoft will likely continue to tinker with it until it's really fixed for everyone.

Of course if you have found a good workaround by nuking the Search Bar, you probably no longer care!

Microsoft released a fix for the black screen that may occur after it supposedly last update. See http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4539... for the downlods.

The latest update to Win 10 set the default 1st choice for a search as MS “Bing”. That requires that you have an internet connection and that the Bing server is “up”. You can again make your hard drive the preferred 1st choice by changing a few things in th registry. See https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-taskbar-search-not-wo.... If you aren’t confortable hacking the registry, back it up first.

I finally have both Win 10 machines running. Considering the search problem MS had this past week, there are some "features" of Win 10 I don't like. I'm trying to adapt.