Sometimes, if we have a mangled file system...or a stale registry...Windows cannot find itself in the dark! Near daily maintenance may help with many "searching' issues, including a freeze up. Something as simple as a defrag and scandisk, cures lots of issues...then a good defrag of the registry...etc.!
If Windows cannot search, it may be the result of it not knowing where to look, because the old links are corrupt, or the data is so flung around on the drive, that it just gives up on exasperation.
Always tell yourself, that computers are not smart, they are just FAST, so if you want it to be smart, you have to do its thinking for it...like leading a blind dog to its food dish
...make sure there is a logical and clean path to the goodies