Cortana Taskbar Search Not Working

BarryAllen · 20 Apr 2017

Cortana taskbar search shows up but when you click on it, you cannot enter text. Also even though you can see the Cortana control panel listing when searching in Settings when you click on it it does not open. I checked and the Cortana files are in the System Apps folder. The Cortana process does not show up in Task Manager processes. It looks like some built in Win 10 Microsoft apps are disabledoing in Apps and Settings. See attached pics. Any tips would help fix this Cortana taskbar search issue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

BarryAllen · 20 Apr 2017

Pics

Cortana Taskbar Search Not Working-capture.png

Cortana Taskbar Search Not Working-capture1.png

Cortana Taskbar Search Not Working-capture2.png

mrgeek · 20 Apr 2017

You have fallen behind on updates. Your Firefox version is 4 or 5 versions behind and Teamviewer is on Version 12 now. Also, you can just refresh the entire OS by upgrading 10 Anniv to 10 Creator with an In-place upgrade/repair install. Follow below tutorial and you'll end up with a new copy of all files incl Cortana which has feature changes, rather than try to troubleshoot a system that will be updated eventually.

I prefer Step 4 which you can use, since obviously, you can log in to your system. Mount the ISO created by Media Creation Tool and run setup.exe as if you had a clean installation dvd from Windows. No need to make a dvd or usb, just run from desktop - Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

BarryAllen · 20 Apr 2017

This machine is it use for a project and cannot be updated at the moment.

I have Windows 10 personally and no Windows 10 apps stop working when an update is waiting to be installed.

It has to be a permission or disabled Windows 10 App issue.

The Cortana files are still located in C:// Windows/SystemApps.

bro67 · 21 Apr 2017

mrgeek said:

You have fallen behind on updates. Your Firefox version is 4 or 5 versions behind and Teamviewer is on Version 12 now. Also, you can just refresh the entire OS by upgrading 10 Anniv to 10 Creator with an In-place upgrade/repair install. Follow below tutorial and you'll end up with a new copy of all files incl Cortana which has feature changes, rather than try to troubleshoot a system that will be updated eventually.
I prefer Step 4 which you can use, since obviously, you can log in to your system. Mount the ISO created by Media Creation Tool and run setup.exe as if you had a clean installation dvd from Windows. No need to make a dvd or usb, just run from desktop - Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Fire Fox and Teamviewer are irrelevant to the OP question. Also not everyone wants to upgrade to the garbage Creator downgrade on their system.

bro67 · 21 Apr 2017

BarryAllen said:

This machine is it use for a project and cannot be updated at the moment.
I have Windows 10 personally and no Windows 10 apps stop working when an update is waiting to be installed.
It has to be a permission or disabled Windows 10 App issue.
The Cortana files are still located in C:// Windows/SystemApps.

Everyone knows where Cortona is located. If the service is off or your have your VM set to not allow the requests from Cortona to get to Microsoft's servers, it will not work, especially in a VM. No permission issue, but you could have disabled services and registry items to Cortona. It is your setup, you are going to have to check to make sure you allow the VM to not restrict requests to Microsoft's servers, same as that all appropriate services are running.

indianacarnie · 21 Apr 2017

Welcome to the Forums BarryAllen!

You could try running a system file check. here's how : Run SFC Command in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

It will look find and possibly repair any corrupt system files.

dalchina · 21 Apr 2017

Taking a different approach- if you don't want to take risks with or spend time on your current system whilst engaged in a project- Cortana isn't essential. It's an add-on.

So download & try Classic Shell start menu for now as a workaround. Free, it offers a search bar far more effective than Cortana's (although you can't speak to it). Highly recommended by most here.

Otherwise, we have no idea what the history of your system is.
For example, do you have any idea what happened before Cortana stopped working? Have you changed any settings? Did this just recently happen?

What is your Windows build?
(Win key + R, winver).

Do you have any relevant system restore points? Or disk images? (We strongly recommend disk imaging).

Whilst you could try repairing Cortana:
Reinstall and Re-register Apps in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials
(Search that for Cortana, and follow the instructions at the top of the relevant section)

- you suggest there are problems with other apps as well.

BarryAllen · 21 Apr 2017

Thanks for the help. This is a computer that is using a copy of an image used on a computer for a project used in another country.

It's a long story, but it was set up by another team on the location of the actual live computer by an outside company. We are tasked with supporting it though.

We are trying to work backwards and figure out how to fix the issue.

We will try the suggestions here and I will update this thread if anything works.

dalchina · 21 Apr 2017

Hi, in that case you may also have language pack related issues if you changed the language.

I'd be tempted to suggest if your focus is the project, and what you need for that is working but some Windows features aren't, then simply work round that and don't bother with the ones that don't.