Upgraded one of my PCs from Windows 10 to 11 (23H2 22631.2861).
After the migration, I noticed that the search feature did not work anymore :
- Nothing happens when I click on the search icon on the task bar
- Weird start menu UI freeze when I click on the search bar in the start menu panel
I tried many candidate solutions ("sfc /scannow", "dism ...", restarts, Windows updates, many PowerShell scripts, rebuilt the search index, etc). Nothing worked.
I finally found out the cause. It simply comes from an age-old and quite known custom regedit file that we can use to replace the "system Windows font" (the one used in explorer windows), for example described in https://www.lifewire.com/change-font-windows-11-6827640. I used Tahoma font, but it should not be relevant.
I've been using this for years, over several Windows versions. But both my Windows 11 PC do not like it. I found some references to this issue:
- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/type-here-to-search-crashes-if-you-change-windows/2421db4a-b9de-43cf-93e5-f27bea288c26
- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-11-search-bar-broken-after-using-new-font/f7127fb9-11bb-4e20-b4c2-9a94f88ea27d
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/tw0a6q/cant_open_windows_search_in_the_taskbar_after/
So, how can I change my Windows font without breaking the Windows search?