After I updated my system from Win 10 to Win 11. I am on 24H2, and installed all updates. I have found that the Windows Search service is failing to start with Access Denied error.
I have tried the following:
run SFC and DISM to check for system errors. None found.
Disabled all startup programs that I can find.
Performed a Repair Install.
I have tried every solution I could find on the web but I am unable to solve this such as rebuild and reinstall Search. I have contacted Window Support and it's at the point where they recommend a 'Custom Install' which means I must reinstall all my apps and recover my user data and settings. Not a welcome idea.
I have two VMs. On one, Windows Search fails and on the other it doesn't. On the one that doesn't fail I performed a 'Clean install' I have used ProcMon to analyze the failure by running a trace with Boot Logging enabled. Comparing the traces, I can see the exact event where the failure begins. I have checked the permissions on the files and registry entries that are appearing in the trace. I've found some discrepancies, and corrected them by using the working system as a guide. On the good VM Windows Search attempt to open a registry key which it doesn't find: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security\94d45e2e-4777-467e-91f4-1c67a6b167d5 On the failing one, that event doesn't occur and the process immediately begins the Process Exit. The Stack of the processes in the prior event are identical, even the address offsets are the same. Of course, there could be something that happened before that caused this event. But I don't know how I could determine that.
So, where can I go from here? I know this is way down in the weeds. At this moment, I have gone as far as I can (although I'll keep researching).
