Windows 10 not finding exe files in search

The answer by user Zac Pullar-Strecker is correct : EXEs are filtered out if they reside in a location that is not known to Windows 10. After all, Windows 10 is the "safest Windows ever".

One solution to this problem is to add your folders to the PATH environment variable. A useful and free utility for editing the PATH is System Path Commander.

Another solution is to create shortcuts to your EXEs in some sub-folder of the Start menu. The LnkAllToStart script can be used to automate adding all EXEs from the current folder to "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\<your sub-folder>.

From what I can tell, you can't. Exe files that are not included in registry entries (Installed applications.) Can't be found through start search. While they are indexed, they are filtered out of the search. Some people found you could disable this on earlier win 10 builds with the powershell command:

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -     DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

But this throws an error on my machine, and I suspect it no longer works.