How do you disable SearchApp.exe from running so that you can enable SLI in the Nvidia Control Panel?

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

Searchpp.exe is an extension of the UWP app-desktop (or the overall desktop shell). Normally, you can kill it but it will probably startup once you navigate to the Nvidia Control Panel. In order to keep it from restarting, you will need to end the other desktop shell processes as well. To do this:

Open the Nvidia Control Panel > create a text file and rename to KillDesktopShells.cmd > paste the following commands into it and save:

@ECHO OFF
TASKKILL /F /IM Explorer.exe
TASKKILL /F /IM Searchapp.exe
TASKKILL /F /IM ShellExperienceHost.exe
TASKKILL /F /IM StartMenuExperienceHost.exe
START taskMgr.exe

Run the file. This will end all of the shell desktop and UWP processes and then start the Task Manager. After you enable SLI, then use the Task Manager to restart the desktop shell by going to File > Run new task > type explorer.exe

The previous answer is unlikely to work because Cortana keeps searchapp.exe running all the time (causing cpus to get hot).

The following commands worked for me. You have to paste them into in Administrator-level Command Prompt again and again until the timing is right and the "move" works.

cd %windir%\SystemApps
taskkill /f /im SearchApp.exe
move Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy.old

Optional: to remove Cortana completely (in addition to stopping searchapp.exe), run the following command in Administrator-level Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

David Spector

Springtime Software

Since the 2004 update, I've noticed that large file copies to our NAS are much slower, even though the reported speed is apparently the same. One even just ground to a halt (no error, just "speed: 0 bytes/s"). I had to pause and then run the copy to get it to carry on.
The green Search progress bar now activates on EVERY folder I go to on our NAS, which never used to happen before. I don't want Windows searching or indexing every folder on the NAS. It means a wait of a few seconds to a few minutes every time I move to a different folder. This makes it very difficult to do my work - I'm always waiting for Windows to do something!
So I'd really like to get rid of Search running in the background.

One other possibility is that it's Windows Defender, as I have just uninstalled Avast and let Defender take over (on the grounds that Avast was messing up the updates). At least with Avast I could pause the AV for a while. This doesn't seem to be an option with Defender.

@Bassthang  Please don't confuse Cortana's internal searching (the topic of this thread) with Windows Indexed Search, which is a default automatic Windows procedure to look through all files on your computer and build a master index that supports quick searches for files or content.

I used KillDesktopShells.cmd successfully to configure Nvidia Surround. Cortana was disabled in Group Policy Editor prior to running the cmds.

Still have to terminate Edge on it’s App page, etc, etc, yada, yada, yada.

If none of the replies below works, go to the Searchapp.exe and simply kill the process then quickly rename it in the folder it is in to something random before it restarts, and it will not restart.
That's how I did it. 

If UAC tells you that you don't have permission, here is how to fix that:

"Winston M

The previous answer is unlikely to work because Cortana keeps searchapp.exe running all the time (causing cpus to get hot).

The following commands worked for me. You have to paste them into in Administrator-level Command Prompt again and again until the timing is right and the "move" works.

cd %windir%\SystemApps
taskkill /f /im SearchApp.exe
move Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy.old

Optional: to remove Cortana completely (in addition to stopping searchapp.exe), run the following command in Administrator-level Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

David Spector

Springtime Software

This.

This helped me a lot. Thanks!!
The irritating Cortana thing is always running which is total nonsense because here it's not even supported (Dutch language).
I did not remove it though: I learned that while it seems that removing an Windows 10 app looks and works fine .... but with certain updates it can created (big) problems.

Edit: I reversed it again (just remove .old from the Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy.oldin the SystemApps directory.)
It caused Search to work no more in Windows Explorer. Search in Outlook, Start and so on does work but no more in Windows Explorer (which I use a lot). So here yet another MS thing that's forced down throats (like OneDrive in the Office package). 

I closed all processes listed in the NVIDIA dialogue box and left SearchApp.exe to stop last. Then I clicked "end task" in the task manager with the "Search" process highlighted and then quickly clicked "Continue" in the NVIDIA dialogue before the pesky "Search" process was able to restart. Cha-ching.

You have to rename it. You can easily find it if you go to "Information" under activity manger. Then right click and "Find path". Then rename it. If you have trouble follow my guide above. 

Be careful though. I had to restore it because when you rename it in 2004 version of W10 I could no longer search for files. 

The previous answer is unlikely to work because Cortana keeps searchapp.exe running all the time (causing cpus to get hot).

The following commands worked for me. You have to paste them into in Administrator-level Command Prompt again and again until the timing is right and the "move" works.

cd %windir%\SystemApps
taskkill /f /im SearchApp.exe
move Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy.old

Optional: to remove Cortana completely (in addition to stopping searchapp.exe), run the following command in Administrator-level Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

David Spector

Springtime Software

Thanks David for taking the time to post this solution. Having tried other solutions I must admit I was skeptical but after about the tenth time of pasting into the Command Prompt it worked! Getting rid of searchapp.exe was all that was standing between me and trying out my triple screen setup and I was getting very frustrated so thanks again mate!