topic Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client in Endpoint Security

Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

robespierre — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 06:02:37 GMT

We are experiencing unusual issues with computers running Windows 11 that have Cisco Secure Client 5.1.6.1307 and Secure Endpoint 8.4.5.30483 installed. The problem is that Windows Search suddenly stops working and just keeps spinning without returning any results. Any help or advice on how to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated. See video (attach)

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

robespierre — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 06:16:53 GMT

When we uninstall the Cisco Secure Client from the computer, Windows Search starts working again. The issue is definitely caused by the Cisco Secure Client.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

Roman Valenta — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:51:47 GMT

Please open TAC case if you experiencing this unusual behavior to investigate this more.

Just for you information I run 8.4.5 on both my personal and work laptop both Windows 11 where my work laptop is on Cisco Secure Client 5.1.7.1336 and Secure Endpoint 8.4.5.30483 and my personal laptop is on Cisco Secure Client 5.1.6.1307 and Secure Endpoint 8.4.5.30483 and I don't experience this issue so there is possibility that something else besides SE play a role in this behavior.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

robespierre — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 11:10:15 GMT

We have now determined that the issue lies with the Windows 11 Enterprise version. If Windows 11 Pro is installed on the computer, everything works fine and there are no problems. We will equip all computers with Windows 11 Pro instead of Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

UWIITSupport — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:49:40 GMT

Having the same problem. We image our system out of the box to Windows 11 Education build 26100.4652, Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.128.0. From a clean image, I have been able to replicate the issue 3 times, each immediately after installing AMP. I have also tried older version up to the latest.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

keitha — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 20:54:22 GMT

We set an exception for searchhost.exe in exploit prevention that seems to help.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

UWIITSupport — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 21:42:53 GMT

We did some similar testing. Our standard image is based on Windows 11 Education 24H2, under this build, the search service continued to fail, we then test under re-image using Windows 11 Professional 24H2 as provided from the OEM (Dell) and windows search continued to fail.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

sw-deploy — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 05:10:13 GMT

We are also facing the same issue and all mentioned workarounds didn't help yet. The only thing which solves the problem is uninstalling CSE - which of course is not an option. What helps in most cases is to restart Explorer.exe and/or searchhost.exe and sometimes also a simple restart of the computer helps. But problem always comes back after several restarts of the computer and also after installation of the next Windows CU.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

UWIITSupport — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:20:09 GMT

We have contacted Cisco TAC, and have not got an answer. I tried creating an exclusion group for searchhost.exe and msedgewebview2.exe, as these two services started to trigger over several processes (Crashpad, GPU Process, Search, Utility) etc. Initially it worked, but after leaving the system in production for a few days, windows search failed and as you described, was fixed with a reboot. I am running out of ideas, but will continue to test.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

marciojadias — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:55:17 GMT

One of my clients reported exactly the same symptom on recently installed machines.
After installing Secure Client, explorer.exe started crashing sporadically.

Has anyone been able to identify the root cause?
Or determine a workaround to solve the problem?

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

UWIITSupport — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:50:48 GMT

Did see some improvement using the latest version of the client. We have demonstrated and documented this on multiple occasions and no real fix, just keep having the user reboot when it happens.

Re: Windows Search Problem on computers Win11 and Cisco Secure Client

marciojadias — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:26:55 GMT

Thanks for your reply, but unfortunately, that's not a workaround, because many end users don't know how to reboot without Explorer working properly.

What I found out in the meantime is that if we disable Exploit Prevention in the policy, Explorer start works correctly.