Windows 10: So many things don't work

He's using an OEM install and for some odd reason likes Internet Explorer. My advice to the original poster is don't use IE. Hell try edge before IE, Firefox (my choice) or even Chrome. That will solve some of your search provider problems, the developers over at the Mozilla foundation even added support in the options to redirect Cortana search query's to Firefox with Google as the default search engine. Provided you have changed you default browser in Windows settings as David has been trying to tell you to do.

As for your PDF viewer I can't recommend Adobe anymore, it is overwhelmingly bloated and slow on any PC. Try Foxit Reader, its free and faster. and integrates with the browser of your choice so you can read PDF's directly in the browser tabs. You can still launch saved PDF files using the local Foxit program, you have options when installing, something Adobe doesn't let you do. With Adobe its all or nothing.

As for removing the login password, that's pretty easy. Just use a local account and leave the password field blank when setting the user name. You can access that area by going to the start menu and clicking your account picture at the top left corner of the start menu, then choosing "Change account settings". From there you'll be placed on the "Your email and accounts" click the "Use Local Account" then follow the on screen instructions.

As for the control panel icon I can't help you, I have it pinned to the task bar for easy access so it stay the same size all the time.

As for the Nvidia control panel, I would suggest downloading the latest driver, uninstalling the current driver and reinstalling with the "perform a clean install" option ticked on when your moving through the setup programs information dialogs. Reboot and see if the control panel will launch, or just right click an empty spot on the desktop and verify that the Nvidia CP option shows up in the shell menu and try to go into it..

Good Luck!

 

Just to ad Bing is owned by Microsoft.

 

OK. Finally got the problem resolved. Dell's install of Windows 10 was somehow corrupted. We restated Windows 10 and now everything is working like it should. Thanks for all your attempts to help me resolve the issue!

 

Hi glad you got it working ok
We do our best to try and help

 

It's never a bad idea to do a clean install of the OS on an OEM system.

 

You are probably right. BUT, the darn program I was using while on the phone with Dell Support not only wiped out my C: drive for the new install but also wiped out my 2nd internal hard drive I've been using for backups. Wiped out all my backup files. I had a flash drive I used occasionally but I stopped using it back in Nov, 2015. Soooooo, all my files saved since Nov are gone and must be rebuilt. Sucks!