Fixing Windows 7 Start Menu Search Freezing explorer.exe by Deleting and Rebuilding the Search Index

I usually hit the  (Windows Key) and start typing the name of the program that I want to launch but it was starting to crash the explorer.exe process for some reason one day. I looked all over for solutions and the one thing that finally worked was deleting and rebuilding the search index

Here is how you can do this:

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Select Indexing Options
3. Click on Advanced (this will open the Advanced Options dialog)
4. Select the Rebuild button.

If that doesn't work try choosing a new location for the index, just below the Rebuild button.

Credit to: https://superuser.com/questions/98958/clear-search-cache-on-windows-7