Well, this won't fix your problem, but you can avoid using the search bar.
Just after you hit Ctrl+W, without using the mouse for anything, try to type the action (or the first few letters of it) as fast as you can. If you've got an alright typing speed (i.e. dont use only one finger) it should immediately bring you to the first action that starts with what you typed (if you typed only "u", it would be the first action that starts with U, if you typed "unit", it would be the first action that starts with unit)
It's not as good as the search bar in some cases, but it's better than nothing and I use it all the time.
EDIT: Grenegg made a post as I was writing. I hope that fixes it for you :)
Well, this won't fix your problem, but you can avoid using the search bar.
Just after you hit Ctrl+W, without using the mouse for anything, try to type the action (or the first few letters of it) as fast as you can. If you've got an alright typing speed (i.e. dont use only one finger) it should immediately bring you to the first action that starts with what you typed (if you typed only "u", it would be the first action that starts with U, if you typed "unit", it would be the first action that starts with unit)
It's not as good as the search bar in some cases, but it's better than nothing and I use it all the time.
EDIT: Grenegg made a post as I was writing. I hope that fixes it for you :)