Microsoft Issues Windows 10 KB4535996 With Fixes For Search, Printing, And More
Microsoft has been trying for months to root out and eliminate various bugs related to the Search box in Windows 10, and the company thinks it finally has things figured out. By way of a new optional Windows 10 update (KB4535996) for builds 1903 and 1909, Microsoft says a stubborn search issue is no more, along with a few other other fixes.
The trouble with Search first began with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) delivered last year. After the issue arose, Microsoft pushed out an initial fix, stating in the patch notes that it "addresses an issue that causes high CPU usage from SearchUI.exe for a small number of users. This issue only occurs on devices that have disabled searching the web using Windows Desktop Search."
Then more recently, the November 2019 Update caused some further issues with Search, both within the Start Menu Search box and File Explorer Search box. There have been some fixes along the way, but problems have persisted.
This new update is supposed to fix Search, hopefully for good this time. It also addresses a couple of printer bugs and a few other issues. Here's a list of the highlights...
- Updates an issue that prevents the speech platform application from opening for several minutes in a high noise environment.
- Updates an issue that reduces the image quality in the Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) home environment.
- Updates an issue that might prevent ActiveX content from loading.
- Improves the battery performance during Modern Standby mode.
- Updates an issue that causes Microsoft Narrator to stop working when a user session is longer than 30 minutes.
- Addresses an issue that adds an unwanted keyboard layout as the default after an upgrade even if you have already removed it.
- Updates an issue that prevents the Windows Search box from rendering properly.
- Updates an issue that prevents the printer settings user interface from displaying properly.
- Updates an issue that prevents some applications from printing to network printers.
The full list of fixes for 1903 is much longer and can be viewed on the KB4535996 support page. It's not clear how many of them will be immediately available, though.
In any event, hopefully the Search function will just work normally going forward. As far as Microsoft is aware, there are no issues linked to this latest update (fingers crossed).
