[Windows 10 Fix] Newly Installed Programs won’t Show in Start Menu Search
This tutorial will help you in fixing a bug in Windows 10 which was recently discovered by our reader “Armond“. This bug or issue occurs when you try to search for a newly installed 3rd party software program or Store app using Start Menu search (or Cortana search box in Taskbar). You can’t find the new program or app in search result although the program exists in your Windows and appears in All apps list.
This problem only occurs for newly installed programs and apps. Old programs or built-in apps properly display in search results.
Actually this issue is a result of a bug which starts occurring if you turn off an option “Let apps run in the background” in Privacy page of Settings app. Disabling this option prevents newly installed programs from appearing in search results.
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If you are also facing this issue and newly installed programs and apps are not showing in Start Menu search result, following steps will help you in fixing the issue:
1. Open Start Menu and click on Settings option. It’ll open Settings app. Alternatively, you can direct open Settings app using WIN+I hotkey.
Now click on “Privacy” icon and in left-side pane, scroll down to bottom and click on “Background apps” tab.
PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch the “Background apps” tab in Settings -> Privacy page using “ms-settings:privacy-backgroundapps” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.
2. In right-side pane, check the option “Let apps run in the background“. It would be set to OFF.
3. Click on the option toggle and set it to ON.
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That’s it. Now try to search for the program or app in Start Menu search and it’ll start showing in search results.
Also Check:
[Fix] Start Menu and Taskbar Icons Not Working in Windows 10
Thanks!! This is so helpful. I have been frustrated with this problem literally for years and it’s on every computer that I have. After the recent Windows Update, the programs started popping up in start menu search, but new programs that installed afterwards had the same problem again. This finally fixed it. I have never thought of it can be the background apps setting.
If you realized “Let apps run in the background” is already on and you still get the issue, restarting your computer sometimes fix it.
this is ridiculous… I do not want to expose my computer by allowing background apps. It is terrible by design to have the OS indexing service in the same category as e.g. a media player downloaded from the internet.
Nonetheless, I found it is enough to enable background apps for a few minutes so it indexes any newly installed software (probably also mine some user data) and then disable again. However, I need to check if it is persistent.
SliceMaster1. Don’t panic. since turning off background apps doesn’t do a whole lot anyway. At least not as far as microsoft getting you info. Don’t believe me? Go ahead open task manager and look for apps such as ‘movies& tv, groove music, calculator, etc. running happily in the background even if you have this turned off.
For me, the solution was to turn on “Allow apps to access your file system” (under the File System tab). There aren’t actually any apps listed in that section, but enabling the global setting still fixed the issue for me. I left Background Apps disabled.
hey there, thank you for your attention.
I have the same problem described above except that my Background Apps was already set to on … !
the problem still exists. what should I do?
I have the same problem described above except that my Background Apps was already set to on … !
the problem still exists. what should I do
I have the same problem described above except that my Background Apps was already set to on … !
the problem still exists. what should I do
I have the same problem described above except that my Background Apps was already set to on … !
the problem still exists. what should I do