I do not recall doing a windows update. However, noticed in past month the dropdown navigation bar is missing and the search box next to it along with it.
Ctr-f gives nothing.Although this is from Windows Server 2016 it is a good representation of what it is on Windows 11
I have tried the use sfc /scannow and all the other variations to fix windows. No issues found. I have seen a ton of posts about this issue but no solutions. Microsoft also seems clueless on their forums and offers generic unhelpful runarounds. Most talk about just reinstall solving this. It is allegedly due to a windows update but I am not sure about this as I am set to manual and I did not do an update.
EDIT:It seems this was indeed due to a windows 11 update. I removed 3 of the available updates for removal and voila ...search and navigation boxes are back. (likely culprit is an update issued in early late 2023 or early 2024) Hope this helps somebody as I lost a whole day in fruitless troubleshooting.