Windows 10: Cortana and Search buttons not working

Recently I noticed Cortana had failed to operate when I hit the button. Then I noticed that when I hit search, again nothing happened. I think these problems may be related.

:)

 

Start and search buttons are not working

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Sorry for the inconvenience you are facing. I would suggest you to restart your system couple of times and check if it helps. Most of the issues are fixed by installing Windows Updates so, make sure that your system is up-to-date. Type Windows Updates
in search bar and select Check for updates from the results. If updates are available, try installing them and check.

You may also follow the steps from this article and check if it helps.

Troubleshoot problems opening the Start menu or Cortana

Also run SFC to see if there are any corrupted files and it helps to recover it automatically.

To run the SFC/SCANNOW command in Windows 10:

• 
  Right click on Start button.
  
• 
  Click on Command Prompt (Admin) option which will let you run
  'Run as administrator’.
  
• 
  Command Prompt Window pops up.
  
• 
  Type: SFC /SCANNOW and hit
  Enter.
  

You can also follow the link below for reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

Hope this information helps. Let us know how it goes, we’ll be glad to assist you further.

 

Start and search buttons are not working

In the picture there are highlighted buttons, which are not working. If I click on them, there happens nothing. Sorry for my english, i think I´ve got some mistakes, but I am not native English speaker.





Thank you for any help.

 

Hi, the search bar (on your taskbar if you have it displayed there) is part of Cortana.
File explorer search is traditional Windows search.

Both make use of search indexing: Cortana file search only finds indexed files (and not exe files e.g.).

Possible solutions:
1. Do you have a system restore point you can use?
2. Have you already discovered the value of routinely using disk imaging, which we strongly and repeatedly recommend e.g. Macrium reflect (free) which allows you to restore an image of your previously working PC even if your disk fails.. without technical help? If so, you could restore an image.
3. Otherwise try re-registering Cortana:
Apps - Reinstall and Re-register in Windows 8 and 10
- search for Cortana, and follow the instructions at the top of that section.

Good luck..

 

Sign out and sign in or restart your PC and see if the problem goes away.

 

I have restarted the computer many times since the problem arose. I also refreshed Cortana through the power shell. Still no joy.

 

You can do an in-place upgrade repair install if you have no usable system restore points or disk or system images.

Precede it with this in case sthg has happened to your file system:

From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!

An In-place upgrade repair install will fix many things, but not those where the settings are not changed by the procedure.

For this you need an installation medium with the same base build as you have installed, and x64 if you have a 64 bits OS, else x86 (32 bits).

Recommendation:
Before you perform the following major repair procedure, do create a disk image (see below).

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Tutorials
- this includes a link from which you can obtain a Windows 10 iso file (" download a Windows 10 ISO"), or create a Win 10 bootable medium.

I would recommend creating the bootable medium, as this can be used
- for any future in-place upgrade repair install
- to boot from and use its recovery options should Windows become unbootable.
- to clean install Windows

This will refresh Windows, after the manner of a Windows installation.
- all/most associations will be unchanged
- all your programs will be left installed
- However: if you have installed some on a 2nd drive, these must be uninstalled or reinstalled on C: - else you will get an error message that you can not keep my apps because they arein an unsupported directory.
- no personal data should be affected
- you will lose any custom fonts
- you will lose any customised system icons
- you may need to re-establish your Wi-Fi connection
- you will need to redo Windows updates subsequent to the build you have used for the repair install
- Windows.old will be created
- system restore will be turned off- you should turn it on again and I recommend you manually schedule a daily restore point.
- you will need to redo any language downloads including the display language if you changed that)
- inactive title bar colouring (if used) will be reset to default
- if Qttabbar is installed, you need to re-enable it in explorer (Options, check Qttabbar)
This is one of the better features of Win10: as each major build comes out, that's your updated reference build, and as updates are mostly cumulative, there will be few to do.


Please consider using disk imaging regularly. It's a brilliant way to
- preserve your system (and your sanity)
- back up your data
- restore your system to a previously working state in a relatively short time

Recommended: Macrium Reflect (free/commercial) + boot disk/device + large enough external storage medium.