Can't type appname after winkey or search window.

Winver: Windows 11 Pro 21H2 - 22000.832

Specs:

Desktop PC - Self built
OS: Windows 11 Pro
CPU: Intel i7-6700k
MB: Asus z-270
Mem: 2x8gb Vengeance DDR4 2400mhz
GPU: ATI Radeon R9 Fury X
Monitor: Asus vg248qe
OS drive: Samsung 980 PRO PCle 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD 1TB
AV: Window Defender at the moment


Hi, I have noticed lately, that after pressing the Win key and when starting to type, like normally when opening some app, the start menu closes. All the “buttons” work in the menu, and I can browse the “all applications” menu, etc., but I can't click on the search bar. Also, the looking glass icon on the toolbar opens, but instantly closes after pressing a key, or clicking the search bar. I tried to troubleshoot Windows search and indexing. I also get this error constantly on the event log:

Error: (08/06/2022 06:33:39 PM) (Source: Application Error) (EventID: 1000) (User: )

Description: Name of the faulty application: SearchHost.exe, versio: 421.22500.4025.0, timestamp: 0x62a3861b

Name of the faulty module: ucrtbase.dll, versio: 10.0.22000.1, aikaleima: 0x00e78ce9

Exception code: 0xc0000409

Anomaly: 0x000000000007c648

Faulty process identifier: 0x193c

Startup time of the faulty application: 0x01d8a9a9e6cad441

The path of a faulty application: C:\Windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchHost.exe

The path of a faulty module: C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll

Identifier of the report: 41275026-5fbb-4731-a6ef-835635bedb19

Full name of the faulty package: MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_1000.22000.832.0_x64__cw5n1h2txyewy

Relative application identifier of the faulty package: CortanaUI



(I translated some parts from Finnish, hopefully right.)

How can I fix this? I am tired of clean installations.

I tried to fix and reset Cortana from the settings > applications > additional settings etc. No change. Please help, it's very annoying to find every application by hand, which you are about to launch. :/

Now I have tried to reinstall search and Cortana from PowerShell too.

Get-AppXPackage *Microsoft.Windows.Search* -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

And also the same command with -forceapplicationshutdown attribute, with the CBS (which was other ways in use)

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I have tried the “sfc /scannow” and after it found nothing, I ran “dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth”, and after that “sfc /scannow” again. No integrity violations. :/

And I had Windows 11 running fine for a long time, with the start menu working normally, etc., this has been an issue for like a month now.

I just installed one pending cumulative update, which I hadn't noticed, but the ucrtbase.dll seems to be the same version still. And the problem persist. Apparently, it should not be .1 but something higher than .700 by now.

I checked for other ucrtbase.dll's on my pc, and system32 and syswow64 have this .1 version. But in folders like “C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\22.141.0703.0002\ucrtbase.dll”, the version is .194. Also, on some folders like windowsapps/myphone~~etc there is a .194 version. But it gets it from the “C:\Windows\WinSxS\wow64_microsoft-windows-ucrt_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.22000.1_none_0c597d3f52a9bef3\ucrtbase.dll” probably, because that is the .1 version. And there is no other version in Winsxs.

Thank you for your response, spunk. But as I told in my message: "I have tried the “sfc /scannow” and after it found nothing, I ran “dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth”, and after that “sfc /scannow” again. No integrity violations. :/"

I have tried that again after that update too, nothing “seems” to be wrong, still can't write after pressing winkey or write on search bar. The popup windows instantly closes. If it was so simple solution, I wouldn't be asking help. :) Thank you anyway for your effort.

I tested with a new user account, that the problem does NOT persist when logged in to that. I am probably just going to do a new admin account, copying content over etc. I have posted this on 3 help forums and nobody seems to have any idea, which I have not tried.

ps. And ofcourse I have ran those as admin.

That app seems to do, what is supposed to do manually, when changing account to new account. I still tried it. I choose not to save those things with checkboxes, can't remember the text, but anyway... The app then created "admin" account which I had already activated and tested, that winkey search works there. But yeah, it created an admin account, then started processing, and "creating new account: failed" and after that, boot. My normal user account which had the problem is no more, and I only have empty and failed account that program made. It was only destruction, that app.

But after the destruction, I then tried to copy my old account contents from backup on new empty "myname" admin account I created. It was successful ... but the winkey and search broke after copying appdata etc. Weird..(?)

I had it with this issue and failing programs, I refreshed the installation and begin to install everything again and to look like it was. Frustrating, but that app made it impossible to ever even try to fix it, because my old account could not be chosen in the login anymore. It just created 2 pointless admin accounts, which I then removed afterwards. I think this is solved, because I started from scratch... Thank you anyway for trying, Windows can sometimes be very annoying with those little errors etc.

Dalchina, sorry for posting here, I tried to go to elevenforums, but I got some warning, I must have mistyped it or something. It said that page is not secure, but now it works fine.I think this is a user account “weird” problem that could occur on both, 10 and 11, so I hope it's ok to be here. Sorry.

Well, that APF did not work on any settings, and I had deactivated the “normal” admin account before using that app. It clearly states what it does on its website. Anyway, it does what it says, then it just boots, logs in with some apf**admin** or something like that, normal app's admin account, I don't remember it now, but it is not important. Anyway, it tries to do new account when logged in with its new apf** account, the list goes on, and on “creating new account” part it says “failed” and 15 seconds to boot. After boot, there was no longer my normal account available to choose from the lockscreen. Just the account that app created. My main account folder remained in the users folder, but it became unavailable. So, I activated again the normal admin account, logged in to that, created a new local account and tried to copy the contents of my unavailable profile to that. And then, log in to that new account. It was like my old account in the beginning, and the same problem began as I copied the files, worked fine before. I tried that app again, with different settings, and the result was the same, the account became unavailable. So, that was enough for me, and I made “factory reset” with keep my files etc.

The issue now is, that after I have finally rebuilt everything like it was, almost. In the boot, when lockscreen appears it still tries to log in with that apf***** account, says “wrong password” and I have to choose my main account. And after that, that apf*** account is not visible anywhere. Not in users folder, not in control panel's users panel.. Not in command prompt “net user” list. Still, it is always there on boot, and stays in down left corner, like it was an account. But it can't be found to remove, otherwise this works now fine. Could it be found with sysinternals autoruns? Or where does it come from? Almost done, just have to get this ghost account from being "primary", which tries to log in first, without existence.