Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed

[void]

I am receiving an error message pretty regularly that says:

"Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed. A problem caused the application to stop working correctly. Windows will notify you if a solution is available"

Can anyone help me out?

[mv]

This could be the problem of setting changes, might be due to drivers or updates. Rebuilding the index will solve this problem.

Rebuild Windows Vista’s Search Index

This method is quick and easy, but may not work if you are having serious issues.

First, type Indexing Options in the Start Menu’s search box in Vista. Click on the Advanced tab and then click Rebuild.

You can also rebuild the search index manually by editing the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows Search/SetupCompletedSuccessfully

to zero and then restarting the machine. Also, make sure to create a restore point before making any registry edits just to be on safe side.

[Steve123]

One alternate way of rebuilding (more difficult but takes less time than the automated method) the index:

Open regedit and look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search

Right-click on "Windows Search" & choose permissions. Click your log-in name in the box & check "Full Control"
Apply -> OK.
Open the Windows search key to the right & change the value of "SetupCompletedSuccessfully" from 1 to 0.

Now delete the following entries (folder to the left pane):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Applications\windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\CatalogNames\windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Databases\windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gather\windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\Applications\windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Search\UsnNotifier\windows

Note that you must first "OWN" the keys by checking "Full control" like mentioned above, click apply.

Now, open CMD as an administrator & type "rd %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows /S /Q". Then type 'net start wsearch'. This would take a few moments to complete as Registry Editor will re-create all the keys & sub-keys you deleted and set them to defaults.

Recheck Registry Editor to see if the SetupCompletedSuccessfully value was reset to 1.