If you find that the Search box is missing from your Windows 7 Start menu, it means that the search component is disabled by an administrator in your system or maybe disabled by default in your Windows 7 installation. Here is how to enable the Start menu Search feature in Windows 7.
Press Win + R to bring up the Run dialog, type OptionalFeatures.exe, and press Enter.
Enable Windows Search checkbox, click OK, and restart Windows.
Additional Information
(From What happens if I turn off Windows Search?)
- All the search boxes in Windows will disappear, including the search boxes in Windows Explorer, the Start menu, Control Panel, the Documents library, and other libraries.
- Programs that rely on Windows Search might not function properly.
- Internet Explorer won’t have enhanced search capabilities.
- Tablet PC handwriting recognition won’t work.
- Windows Media Center won’t have enhanced search capability.
- You’ll no longer be able to arrange your library views by metadata, and your column headers will only sort items, not stack or group them.
- Options that affect Windows Search functionality will be removed, including indexing in Control Panel and the Search tab in Folder Options.
- Windows will no longer recognize these search-based file types: search-ms, searchconnector-ms, and osdx.