Windows 10: Windows 10 - Start bar and task bar and search function affected

Problem:

The taskbar including the Windows symbol and the start menu as well as the search function via the explorer are no longer accessible - the load symbol is always displayed about 2.3 seconds and nothing happens.


Previous actions:

Before the problem occurred, I wanted to delete a Windows.old folder, so I changed the owner from System to Everyone. The problem it was not the C:/Windows.old but the C: drive with the operating system on it.


Purchase a new Windows 10 license and upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10


The following did not help yet:

Restart

Search for Updates

Restart the Explorer

Powershell sfc /scannow

try to overwrite everything on C: the system as owner via Settings->Security->Advanced etc...

:)

 

Windows 10 Defender - How to make it default to task bar?

Using Windows 10 and currently I am using Defender for anti virus. For whatever reason Windows Defender does not show up in the task bar unless I search for the program or right click and scan a file/folder. Is there a way to force Defender to show up in the task bar at start up?

 

Windows 10 Home - Search Function in the task bar


I just did the upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 - overall pretty seamless given what could have gone wrong- I was lucky this time. Some minor annoyances , but overall pretty good.

On the task bar search, about an hour ago, I know it was searching the web as I typed in a web address and it took me there....but now, suddenly, its only searching my local machine. I must have inadvertently changed something. that affected this. Where is the setting to get it back to the way it was so I can search the web?.

I know did change my default Edge search engine from Bing to Google...would that have affected the task bar search function?

I also turned Cortana off - did that affect it??

Many thanks.

 

Search Bar/Cortana

Hello,

Thank you for posting your concern here in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 family.

From the description, I understand that you are still receiving the pop up notifications, despite having disabled the search functionality in windows 10.

Steps to disable the Search Bar

• Right click on the task bar.
• Select the "Search" option.
• Select "Disable."

However, if the above steps don't work out, perform the below suggested steps and check if it helps to resolve the issue.

Open a CMD window started as Administrator.

Repair corruption: Dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.

Run this command next: Sfc /scannow

Now run these two commands:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Hope the above information was helpful.

Thank You.