Windows 10: [SOLVED] Uninstalled Cortana, Anyway to just get the search bar back?

Hello tenforums, my name is Gunner. I need some help.

I uninstalled cortana because I'm cleaning up my computer and Cortana uses alot of ram. I uninstalled it with software on Winaero. It worked, it's not running in the task manager anymore. However, I didn't know cortana was the search bar too. I thought it was similar to the xbox version with voice commands, which I never use.

I need to:

A: (Preferably) Install just the search bar without fully reinstalling cortana.
B: Reinstall cortana.

:)

 

Windows 10 and TV tuner

If you had just WRITEN "MEDIA PLAYER" in the new search bar ("Cortana") it would have shown you that you DO HAVE Media Player (unless you uninstalled it on purpose)!

Anyway, its off topic here.

 

Windows 10 "Search Bar" is not working!!

From time to time I experience a similar problem where no search bar in Windows (whether start menu or control manager) seems to be receiving any keystroke at all but typing text in other programs like Word does work normally. The cursor in the search bar
just stays at the beginning, just blinking. In my case terminating the "Cortana" process via Task Manager does the trick. The process gets automatically restarted. I disabled Cortana in the "Cortana and Search Settings" but the processes keep running in the
background anyway.

 

Hello gunnerrrr, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You could do a system restore using a restore point dated before you uninstalled Cortana to undo it.

System Restore Windows 10 - Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

If you don't have an available restore point, then you could do a repair install of Windows to fix this.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Once you have everything fixed, you could use the method in the tutorial below to only disable Cortana without breaking Search.

Enable or Disable Cortana in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Apps Features Tutorials

 

Heres how to disable Cortana with the ability to re-activate it:

Rename the "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy" folder with Unlocker.

Unlocker will prompt you to REBOOT. Do so.

Indeed! It completely deactivates Cortana... BUT, you lose your search function. You'll have to download and use IObit Start menu 8, or Classic Shell, to get the basic, Win7 search function back.

If you disabled Cortana Via a third party software option, just go to the folder mentioned above, and see if it has been changed. Look in the folder first to make sure the files weren't removed/renamed.

To re-enable it, just use unlocker to rename it back to what it's supposed to be.

Hope this was helpful!



Here's the link for those:

Classic Shell

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

IOBit Start Menu 8

IObit Start Menu 8 for Windows 8 Free download, Bring Windows 8 Start Menu back - IObit

Here is the link to get "Unlocker":

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/unlocker.html

 

What he said! *Ditto*Ditto*Ditto

With the added bonus of not breaking your system!

 

Thanks for the advice. I "refreshed" my pc, not erasing the files, just downloaded apps and reinstalling the OS, but cortana is still not here. It's not running in the task manager or anything.

 

Test using the tutorial below to see if you may be able to turn on showing the Cortana icon on the taskbar.

Hide or Show Search Box or Cortana Icon on Taskbar in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

 

Winaero gave a big warning in the article used to uninstall Cortana:

Caution: Uninstalling Cortana breaks the Windows 10 Start Menu and probably Search so don't use this if you use the native menu. You will not be able to get it working back easily. You will not be able to-reinstall it quickly without using the genuine install.wim file. For most users, this means that Cortana will be removed from Windows 10 permanently. Think twice before you will continue.

If you're concerned about the 3-70Mb or so Cortana may use, leave it uninstalled and instead use Classic Shell - better search bar, and a tiny amount of RAM, and a fully functional start menu.Interestingly I noted before I hit Win key + S to launch Cortana (no search bar in the taskbar, Cortana's RAM use was under 5Mb. I'm used to seeing it around 40Mb.

 

Running "sfc /scannow" restores Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy's folder.

But if you have un-installed it using wim tweaks, you need to use powershell to restore it.

 

If you uninstalled Cortana the 'WinaeroWay', you're looking at re-installing Windows

 

Good old days, when I used nlite to optimize, I used to reinstall Windows like 2-3 times a week.
I have learnt, that disabling is the way to go, removing anything permanently is a way to reinstall.
I love to cripple Windows, but only the way, it is restorable without too much effort, like sfc scanning.
Like removing Cortana cripples Start, but sfc scan restores Cortana, so upon restart, it is all like new.

 

The Winaero uninstaller is brutal! The Packages/Dependencies list it dumps is endless!





My machine, however, remains functional. If you use 'search-ms:' with proper indexing, it works great!

 

Furthermore:
SFC, for me, always returns: "found corruption but unable to repair..."
and PowerShell always fails.

 

First off, thank you to everyone helping me out, il be sticking around this forum to give back, very good community. *chuckle

No luck with that, the batch files killed my windows explorer and I had ctrl+alt+delete to restart. Also, I should mention the cortana bar is there, and I am able to change the display on it, but clicking on it simply does nothing. I can press the windows key to open up the menu, but cant type. (which is all I want)

Yea, should have read a little more. Learn from your mistakes huh? Now what exactly do you mean by the "Classic Shell?" I know what it is, but it is already installed or Windows 10 or is it 3rd party software? I found this. The only other way I know of searching (not counting 3rd party software) is with win key + r or searching in file explorer, which don't work to well at all compared to the regular search.

Ran the script.
Code: Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not supported in offline servicing scenarios.[/quote] I searched the log for "cortana" and copied everything into another file, here it is:
Code: 2017-04-01 01:58:08, Info CSI 000013c5@2017/4/1:06:58:08.455 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 01:58:08, Info CSI 000013c6 [DIRSD OWNER WARNING] Directory [l:57 ml:58]'\??\C:\WINDOWS\SystemResources\Windows.UI.Cortana.Persona' is not owned but specifies SDDL in component Microsoft-Windows-Cortana-Persona-Resources, arch amd64, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35} 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b0@2017/4/1:07:44:10.722 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b1@2017/4/1:07:44:10.734 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b2@2017/4/1:07:44:10.751 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b3@2017/4/1:07:44:10.762 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b4@2017/4/1:07:44:10.773 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b5@2017/4/1:07:44:10.793 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b6@2017/4/1:07:44:10.804 Primitive installers committed for repair 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b7 [DIRSD OWNER WARNING] Directory [l:57 ml:58]'\??\C:\WINDOWS\SystemResources\Windows.UI.Cortana.Persona' is not owned but specifies SDDL in component Microsoft-Windows-Cortana-Persona-Resources, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35} 2017-04-01 02:44:10, Info CSI 000043b8 Error - Overlap: Duplicate ownership for directory \??\C:\WINDOWS\SystemResources\Windows.UI.Cortana.Persona in component Microsoft-Windows-Cortana-Persona-Resources, version 10.0.14393.0, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}[/quote]

I have hope! *chuckle