Windows 10: Windows 10: Cortana setup will not allow me to select Location

Loaded a free copy of Windows 10 a few days ago onto my old Dell insprion 1720 running Win7. All ok apart from setting up Cortana. Will not allow her to select my location. I am UK running English(UK) and UK Keyboard. When clicking on Cortana button only shows Search, Home, Settings and Feedback on Start side bar...

No Notebook icon...

:)

 

Cortana and mail app

Have you ever had Cortana working?

Any clues in these?

Cortana says need to access location

Cortana says need to access location

Windows 10: Cortana setup will not allow me to select Location

Windows 10: Cortana setup will not allow me to select Location - Windows 10 Forums

Cortana doesn't work. Says I need to give permission of my location - Recherche Google

Run the troubleshooter for Windows apps (and Store)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/run-the-troubleshooter-for-windows-apps

How to Uninstall Windows 10’s Built-in Apps (and How to Reinstall Them)

http://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how...-10s-built-in-apps-and-how-to-reinstall-them/

What happens if you create and test with another Windows user rather than your current user?

Set up accounts

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/getstarted-set-up-accounts

 

Microsoft Scan and Fax will not allow me to select modem name

Hello,

We apologize for the delay in response.

To assist you better, I would like to ask some questions:

• Do you get any error message?
• Which Windows 10 build is installed in your computer?

I suggest you to create another account and check if the issue persists in the new user account.

Create a local user account in Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...18c/create-a-local-user-account-in-windows-10

Keep us posted on the status for further assistance.

Thank you.

 

Hi, is the Location tile on the Action Centre (Windows key + A) flyout active- sort of 'lit up'- if not, what happens if you click it?

Is the geolocation service running?
(Windows key + R, type services.msc in the box)

If you still have problems with Location, please see Fix 3 here:
Fix: Cortana Is Not Working In Windows 10

Did you do an upgrade, or a clean install?

Try this:
Cortana - notebook icon missing - Microsoft Community

Note that in changing the language from US to UK English, several things need to line up for Cortana to be happy. See Fix 4:
Fix: Cortana Is Not Working In Windows 10

 

Thanks for your reply. In the end I loaded Windows 10 in again, this time without any of my data and every thing is now fine and I have a fast clean system. My internal camera and recording mic are missing drivers but I loaded an old USB mic which works ok with Cortana. Thanks for your help

 

I am having the same problem. I tried everything you said and went to both links. My geolocation service is disabled and when I go to enable it I get "The system cannot find the file specified", and it doesn't switch. Occasionally it works, but usually it doesn't. A clean boot doesn't work either. What else could be causing my problem?

 

Great- sometimes it's easier to do a clean install than diagnose problems you've inherited from your previous Windows (although reinstalling everything else and configuring it can cost a huge amount of time). You should have a more robust system. Just be careful not to fiddle too much with Privacy settings...

 

Hi, try this (kudos member Teflon who researched it)
The issue was linked to location services, which need to be set to "on" in the Action Centre. When I attempted to do this, I found the option was greyed out, which lead to looking at which services were currently running (via "Services.msc"). It transpired that "Geolocation service" was disabled, and I was unable to restart it. A bit of Googling took me to an MS support site, which said this was a known issue with Win 10:


"Geolocation

After disabling the Geolocation Service by changing startup type to Disabled, attempts to re-enable it will fail with an error message. As the Geolocation Service can no longer be started, Geolocation will remain disabled on the device and prevent location based functionality from working. To work around this issue, manually delete the following regkey using regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lfsvc\TriggerInfo\3."

I edited the registry as described, and sure enough, after a re-boot, the Geolocation service could then be started. I opened MS Config, and made sure it was set to run at startup, re-booted again, and once Win 10 had started up, my "Location" button was live, along with an all singing and dancing Cortana.

 

I went to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services but could not find folder "Ifsvc". I will do a search and see if I have any luck.

 

What puzzles me is this: "The system cannot find the file specified".
Exactly how are you trying to start the geolocation service?
However, see
Windows 10 Startup - Microsoft Community

where the solution I suggested matches what you are reporting.
Do check that as you said, and post a screenshot of the relevant part of your registry if not fixed.

Otherwise:

Can you post a screenshot of Settings, Privacy, Location please?
Also one similar to this..



Is the RPC service running?

 

OK, thank you for your replies and time.

A search for "Ifsvc" returned nothing, but "TriggerInfo" produced a mass of results.

Cortana is temperamentally working at the moment, so I can't give you any screenshots.But a restart will probably brake it again.

 

Yep, restart broke it. Here are your screenshots:

Location settings page:







RPC service:




Geolocation service:




Error that comes up when changing startup type to "manual" instead of "Disabled" and clicking "Apply":




Interesting thing though, is that, when I logged in, it started to work, then the notebook icon disappeared and it asked for location access. I think the problem must be an application starting on startup, but after a few days it must disappear because I don't have to restart my computer for Cortana to work randomly again. Hope that's useful information.

 

Thanks. Suggest running
SFC /Scannow
from an elevated command prompt
(Windows key + X, Command prompt (admin) )
This will take some time, but is worth doing as a check.

(You won't be able to turn Location on in Settings with geolocation not running, so we'll use the above to try to fix that- maybe - it also affects Cortana as you've seen.

"Interesting thing though, is that, when I logged in, it started to work, then the notebook icon disappeared and it asked for location access. I think the problem must be an application starting on startup,"
Now try a clean boot, and see if things improve.
How to perform a Clean boot in Windows 10 - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

===============================================

Note the following:
Geolocation

After disabling the Geolocation Service by changing startup type to Disabled, attempts to re-enable it will fail with an error message. As the Geolocation Service can no longer be started, Geolocation will remain disabled on the device and prevent location based functionality from working. To work around this issue, manually delete the following regkey using regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lfsvc\TriggerInfo\3.
)

 

Cortana's back up and working for me randomly again, so the problem stopped earlier than usual. I'll have a deeper look into services. Again, the the geolocation service is running, but DISABLED. So I can't enable it, but it still decides to work.


sfc /scannow produces no violations. A clean boot also doesn't work. Mind you, it was a lot quicker. I actually enjoy the speed of the clean boot and may use it more often. regscanner still shows nothing about that registry key. Note: I have Windows 10 Home.

 

Hi, please post as asked previously, what you have here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lfsvc\
- or as near as you can.

"A clean boot also doesn't work."
- I read that as meaning you booted successfully, but no change in symptoms.

As SFC /Scannow is ok (which is good, of course), and there's no obvious 3rd party conflict, and if you can't resolve this in the usual way (registry key) I suggest your final option is to do an in place repair install.

I have found a number of times people spend a long time seeking a specific solution to a specific problem, and this approach offers a solution to a lot of issues related to new Win 10 features (but not all, inevitably).

Here's how:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums
This keeps all your programs and settings except
- you may lose the odd file type association - but will keep almost all.
- system restore will be turned off- so enable it afterwards
- you will lose customised system icons (if any)
- you may need to reconnect your WiFi
- you will need to redo all subsequent Windows updates

This will take a couple of hours being a Windows install procedure, excluding time to download the relevant iso file.

It's a repair technique I regard as a strength of win 10 as each time a new upgrade is released, that's the point used for any subsequent in-place repair, so it's really generally worth downloading the iso each time.

You can explore what takes boot time and decide if you really need anything that adds significant time, but a clean boot also potentially loses a lot of functionality you've chose to have running. A compromise is to use hibernation (which must be enabled in order to be able to use Fast Startup, which uses the same storage area on disk).

One option is to use a SSD in place of a HDD for your OS and programs. (Hardware change), noting that some SSDs are much faster than others.