Windows 10: Taskbar, startmenu, search and other things broken

I booted up my pc today and first thing I notice was nothing was showing up on my task bar except for the touch keyboard icon and show hidden icons icon. I can't open the start menu or search bar. I also noticed my mic was not being picked up anymore, and if I right click the desktop the little menu takes forever to open. I've tried restarting, updating, restarting explorer, troubleshooting and more and nothing has worked. Apps are able to be opened just fine. I am running windows 11.

:)

 

Startmenu not "updating"

Hey,

I got the following problem:

• Newly installed Programs/Apps will not show up in the startmenu
• Programs/Shortcuts I add to the Startmenu folders want show in my startmenu
• Startmenu search won't find the new items either, even not if they are pinned to the startmenu

What I have tried to fix my problem:

• Rebuilding my search index
• Reinstalling all windows apps, including cortana
• Try to locate the issue with the System File Checker (sfc /scannow) ⇒ nothing found
• Running the troubleshooter ⇒ returns "incorrect permissions on Windows Search directoriers"
  • changed the default Search folder where the index is saved
  • checked permissions for the Search folder (seems ok)

What I think initially caused the error:

• I switched from German to English on my Win10 PC
  • I then realised that a lot of my searchable windows settings still showed inGerman and not in English and were in addition not clickable anymore (nothing happended)
  • I could not fix the issue so I switched back to German
  • This made the Win10 settings searchable and clickable again, but since then my Startmenu seems to be stuck on its old index

I am running Windows 10 Education with the Anniversary Update - which for me removed Cortana (maybe this issue is connected?)

Any help or advise?

 

Taskbar search

Hi,

To assist you better, kindly send us a screenshot and provide more details by answering the following questions:

• When you say "taskbar search function", do you mean the Start menu search field?
  
• Are you getting any error messages upon accessing the taskbar search?

Meanwhile, to help resolve your concern, we suggest that you run the System file checker and DISM tool to fix issues with corrupted system files that may be causing the issue. To do this, follow these steps:

• Press Windows Key + X on your keyboard.
  
• Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
  
• Type or copy these commands followed by hitting Enter:
  
  sfc /scannow
  
  dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Do let us know how it goes.

 

Windows 10: how to restore search bar in the taskbar?

When I right click on Taskbar, there is no "Search" in the list.