Windows 10: Unable to type in Windows 10 search box

Hi,


I am unable to type into the search box in the task bar of my Windows 10 laptop.


Not sure if it's related but there did appear to be some updates applied when I logged off last night.


Googling I have found a number of suggestions.


So far I have tried the following


Attempted to restart Cortana from Task manager and services however Cortana is not visible in either.


Run powershell as administrator and executed the following

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}


Run C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe


Restart Windows Explorer as follows

- Press Windows key + X

- Click Task Manager

- Select the Processes tab

- Scroll down to Windows Explorer then select it

- Click Restart


run system file checker "sfc /scannow" in command prompt run as administrator.


run the following lines in the command line

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe
timeout /t 3 /NOBREAK > nul
del %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState\* /q
timeout /t 2 /NOBREAK > nul
start explorer

note: when running "taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe" I got the message "ERROR: The process "shellexperiencehost.exe" not found".


The problem is still not fixed.


Further research has suggested

I go to "settings > troubleshoot > Search and Indexing > run the troubleshooter" but this gives me the message that windows cannot access the specified device or I don't have permissions.

The file specified is C:\Windows\System32\msdt.exe.

In widows eplorere I can see the file msdt.exe in C:\Windows\System32. I can't run it even though I have run windows explorer as administrator. A message pops up saying I need to enter a pass key.

If I open the command line and change the current dir to C:\Windows\System32 and attempt to run msdt.exe I get the same.


Can you advise as to anything I might have missed?


Thanks


Kevin

:)

 

search box

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I appreciate your interest in Windows 10.We sincerely regret for the inconvenience caused.

I suggest you to follow the below steps and check if are able to find search box.

• 
  Right click on the task bar.
  
• 
  Go to Cortana.
  
• 
  Click on show search box.
  

Now check if you are able to find search box.

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you.

 

Cortana search box - type request

Since I got a Win 10 update a few days ago, Cortana has been hard to deal with :>). She will take requests verbally but if it try to type something into her search box, as soon as I enter a letter, a white box appears as though some suggestions will be
listed (as it did before the update) and then all of a sudden it disappears and I am back to the original Cortana window. Any ideas? I did set up other admin user and Cortana will allow that user to type into the box and she will immediately start a list
of suggestions. Also I tried "method 1 and 2 that required changes to the registry.

 

Unable to type in to box on 'Control Panel'.

In this case, we suggest that you follow these steps and check if the issue persists:

• Press Windows key + R, type control.exe srchadmin.dll, and click on
  OK.
• Click on the Advanced button.
• From the Advanced dialogue box, select Rebuild. Selecting
  Rebuild will begin the process of deleting, and then rebuilding your PC’s search index.

Note: While the steps to initiate the rebuilding process are simple, the actual process can take quite some time depending on how much data Windows has to index.

Keep us updated on the results.