u/Fit-Firefighter-8148

My Start Menu search is completely empty (just a blank white/grey box), and my physical Windows key on my keyboard has stopped responding entirely.

System Specs:

• Model: Alienware Aurora
• OS: Windows 11 Home 25H2 26200.8457

What I’ve tried so far:

1. Restarting explorer.exe via Task Manager.
2. Ending SearchHost.exe and StartMenuExperienceHost.exe.
3. Restarting the WSearch (Windows Search) service.
4. Running the following PowerShell command as Admin: Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Search | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
5. Attempting to clear the DeviceSearchCache folder (received errors).
6. Checked for "Win Lock" on my keyboard.

Context: I am a developer and have several IDEs (IntelliJ, VS Code) and 3D tools (Blender, Blockbench) installed. This issue persisted even after restarting these processes.

Is there a specific registry key or a deeper AppX package repair I should try?