Windows 10: Turning Cortana off while being able to search for My apps/files?

Hi I would like to add some things about my pc I am also running a Samsung 960 EVO m.2 500gb as my OS drive. I am basically having the problem stated in my title. This is a recently built pc and pretty much everything is working the way I want it to save for this search function. I want to be able to turn on Cortana and still be able to search for my apps pics files and all my drives.

Normally you would just type in steam discord or whatever name of the app your looking for would show up in windows search and there it is nothing shows up besides just windows basic options. I am using Windows 10 PRO OEM and used GPEDIT to turn off Cortana. I have restarted tried messing with the indexing but I remember all the changes I made so I can revert it if nec. Any help would be appreciated and if any more information is needed pls let me know.

Also this happens whether or not they are installed on my EVO OS drive or not.

:)

 

How to completely remove Cortana from the entire system?

I am able to move or rename the Cortana folder so it doesn't automatically open, but then I can't type into my search box at all. Weird thing...it also prevents me from being able to type a comment into someone's post on facebook. I know it's from disabling
cortana because when I set it back to the way it was, all of this starts working again. I have a new Dell laptop (windows 10) if that makes a difference. How can I turn off Cortana, or remove, or whatever, without it disabling my ability to use my search
box, etc?

 

Windows search keeps popping up whilst two finger scrolling on HP laptop.

Even when two & three finger gestures have been turned off, I still have the Search/Cortana box pop-up far to frequently. I can recreate the unwanted Search/Cortana pop-up at anytime on my Lenovo Yoga laptop with its Synaptics touchpad. I place two
fingers anywhere on the touchpad and then left click. Bam! The pop-up instantly appears, every time, and for no valid reason. The pop-up occurs in spite of all touchpad gestures being unchecked (turned off) and Cortana turned off.

My assessment is either...

1. Win10 has a built-in response to the gesture of two fingers and a left click and lacks a control for this.

or

2. Win10 is responding to this as a three finger gesture in spite of the three finger gesture being off.

 

Here's my limited understanding of how Cortana search works and its limitations, which I have posted before.

1. Cortana search only finds things which have been indexed.
2. It will not find any form of executable file by design
3. You cannot turn web search off completely
4. When you type sthg in the search bar (e.g. Windows key + S) look at the top and mouse over the top row of icons and then click Filters to see how to focus your search.

Is teamspeak visible in the Start Menu? I've seen that sort of problem reported before.

Are you saying it won't find any universal apps such as Photos, Groove, Store etc?

You say you have changed some locations in Indexing Options. Take care, as whilst adding things is perfectly valid, you can stop search working in Settings (worth checking that works - i.e. quickly (= indexed).

If you want a start menu search that works properly and is much more configurable, use Classic Shell start menu (free). Also handles more deeply nested Start Menus correctly (Win 10's doesn't).

 

No it finds the microsoft installed programs such as paint and notepad but if i try to search for my own video files or desktop programs yes it wont find those. Also Teamspeak is in my start menu. Alot of microsoft installed programs i do not have set as default anymore like windows likes to do.

If I must I will just try classic shell as you suggested

btw thank you for the help .

 

Finding results in own docs:
1. they must be indexed
2. Example: I have a test document on H: containing text aardvark. To have that displayed as a search result in Cortana (Windows key + S) I type aardvark in the search box, then click the icon 'Find results in documents' at the top of Cortana's window.

Does that work for you for one of yours?

Secondly, if Cortana can't find your document, what happens if you launch file explorer and use its search box?
If search doesn't work then either, it's nothing to do with Cortana, but is to dowith whether search is working for you and whether your document is indexed.

An easy way to check if Windows search is working is to open Indexing Options (Control Panel), note the number of indexed items, then create a new file in an indexed location and check the number indexed increments.

Does that work for you?


I don't know why Teamspeak isn't found if search is working, but as i said there have been other reports of people struggling with failure to find items in the start menu. Try the above first.

- sorry, don't really understand this.

1. You can't set a program as default from within a program.
2. There is a tutorial in the Tutorial section detailing the different ways to set defaults.
3. Some have found their chosen defaults being overridden on restart, and there are threads on that if that is your problem.

Just compared searching using Cortana and Classic Shell start menu for a program I've installed called
Fileminimizer

Searching for minimiz with Cortana didn't find it even when I clicked 'Find results in apps'
- whereas with Classic Shell start menu, mini or minim offered it as top result.

Cortana requires you to start with the first character. Using *minim doesn't help.