Cannot get Cortana to work at all. Please help.

SamuelRowbotham · 24 Oct 2016

Cortana is disabled by company policy. I am signed in with my Microsoft account, and I tried to check all settings that may pertain to Cortana not working. I followed all steps in this post by Howto Geek How to Fix the Message in Windows 10
Can anyone please help? If you need more info, just ask.
The PC Windows 10 is on is a Chuwi Hi10 model 10 inch tablet with 4 gigabytes of ram. Windows 10 came pre-installed is legal and is activated.

dalchina · 24 Oct 2016

Hi,
1. Have you done anything with language settings?

An inconsistent set of language settings may cause this.

2. Group policy
Set this key under HKLM/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/Windows Search
AllowCortana = 1

or (same thing)

Assuming you have Win 10 Pro (your specs don't say) you can try:

Launch the group policy editor: Press Windows key + R, type gpedit.msc
Locate Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search
Scroll down to Search and find "Allow Cortana". Right-click to "Edit"
Enable
Open an elevated (admin) Command Prompt (Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (admin)
Execute gpupdate /force in the Command Prompt.

3.
Fix â€˜Cortana Disabled By Company Policyâ€™ Error In Windows 10 - Windows Clan

Watch out for these problems with solution 2:
The Basic button is greyed out so that I cannot change to Full or Enhanced.
The Location in the Action Aentre is also greyed out.

SamuelRowbotham · 25 Oct 2016

Thank you for the reply. I tried your suggestions and again nothing worked. You suggestions are the same as the suggestions I already came across. It appears most sites with advice to fix this problem all have the same solutions that do not work. Before getting back to you last night, I did some more digging and did find a solution.

This Windows came pre-installed on the tablet. There is no recovery partition, there is no Windows 10 media from which I could re-install from as I do not know how the company set up Windows, they may have configured the settings badly. I suspect that is why Cortana would not work. As you see, trying to manually fix the problem via the normal suggestions did not work either.

I came across a tool called "Cortana Helper Tool 1.0" found at MajorGeeks Download Cortana Helper Tool - MajorGeeks

This tool did what manually trying to fix Cortana could not. The tool resets all Cortana settings to default. It worked for me, and now Cortana works perfectly. I hope this helps others. Here is what MajorGeeks says about the tool,

" It can fix Cortana restrictions and errors including "Cortana is disabled by company policy" and "Online Search is disabled by company policy".

The usage is simple, open the program, click "Reset Cortana", and restart your PC, that's all.

Also included are some special options to customize Cortana functionality so more experienced users can enjoy this application as well.

Cortana Helper Tool Features:

Easily ResetRestore Cortana Settings

Fix "Cortana is disabled by company policy"

Fix "Online Search is disabled by company policy"

Customize Cortana and Windows Search Functionalities

Easy to Use, Even for Beginner Users

Tested on Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise

Limitations:
There is a 'Hide IP Address' button included on the tools action window that leads to an unrelated program offer. "

dalchina · 25 Oct 2016

Very useful, thanks. It's sad that so many find Win 10 features break so easily, and then either have to rely on 'the community' to try to fix them. If you compare MS tech responses to queries on technet, they are very often limited to a very narrow range.

With the anniversary edition we now face PC's rendered unbootable after subsequent updates and a range of other symptoms. With the best will in the world, keen amateur forums can't offer solutions to all the many problems.