I hit the Windows 11 emoji picker bug that hides search and found a quick fix

A computer interface shows an open emoji and GIF selection sidebar, overlaying a dark-themed app. Colorful emojis are featured on a sleek digital screen. — (Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

Windows 11’s emoji picker has a new habit of breaking at the worst possible moment, and nothing is more annoying than watching the search box vanish for no reason. The good news is that the fix is fast, hidden, and works even when the UI looks completely broken.

If you’re like me, you admittedly abuse using emojis for various reasons, so when I’ve brought up the emoji picker in Windows 11 in the last few days, only to see the search box gone, well, it made my life a bit more difficult.

I figured maybe this is just a quirk with my PC until a colleague of mine, Nick Sutrich of Android Central, brought it up in Slack, wondering if anyone else had seen this, and that’s when I would have dropped in some 👀 if only I could search for it.

Turns out, rebooting your PC often fixes it, but who has time for that during a weekday?

Luckily, there’s an easy way to fix this until Microsoft figures out what is causing it in the first place (note: I’m on Beta for Insiders, which is hilarious, as I was 99.99% sure I signed up for Preview Release months ago, so that’s another thing for me to figure out as I just learned that writing this article).

Anyway, enough banter.

How to get back ‘search’ for Windows 11’s emoji picker

Windows Task Manager open with 'Processes' tab selected. Context menu on 'Windows Explorer' shows 'Restart' option highlighted by red arrows. — Restarting Windows Explorer in Task Manager fixes no search for emojis. (Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

This will take you all of 30 seconds, and a brief moment of your taskbar dissapearing. Don't worry, it'll be OK.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Find Windows Explorer in the list.
Right-click it and select Restart.

Doing this forces the UI elements to reload properly.

This worked for Nick and me, so it should work for you, so good luck!

Until Microsoft ships a proper fix, this quick workaround is the easiest way to get emoji search working again. It’s not elegant, but it gets the job done and saves you from wrestling with a feature that should never disappear in the first place.

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Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and lead analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and wearable tech. He has reviewed laptops for over 10 years and is particularly fond of Qualcomm processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics studying brain and syntax, performed polysomnographs in NYC, and was a motion-picture operator for 17 years.