Visual-studio – Search stops working for “Entire Solution”

visual studio

Somehow Visual Studio search has stopped working for me. Anytime I search "Entire Solution" for some text I get this result:

Find all "[Whatever I was searching for]", Subfolders, Find Results
1, "Entire Solution" No matching text found to look in. Find was
stopped in progress.

Why does it suddenly say "No files were found to look in"?

I've found a number of links on Google that say to press Ctrl + Break or Ctrl + Scroll Lock, but none of them seem to work for me.

Best Answer

I get that problem once in a while. One seemingly nonsensical solution I've found is to click inside the Find Results window (not the Output window). Once the blinking text cursor is visible, hit Ctrl+Break four or five times. This seems to "unblock" whatever causes the problem.

There are reports Ctrl + ScrLk may need to be used instead of Ctrl+Break . If these doesn't work then try Break alone.

Note from Codeguard: I have found an explanation and deterministic solution to this problem