Cortana not working

Cydone

Reputable
Oct 11, 2014
98
0
4,640
When I upgraded to Win 10, I had no issues whatsoever. Cortana worked as it was supposed to. Now, it doesn't work at all. I have changed nothing on my end. No updates, last update was yesterday and even after that update it still worked. Right clicking on the task bar to show the search bar does nothing, can't even type in the search bar. Searching for Cortana in the settings menu does nothing as when I click on "Cortana and Search Settings" it just goes directly back to the main settings screen without bringing anything up. Some help would be great. Window 10 pro 64bit.
 
Solution
Try changing the following registry key to the values shown to adjust whether Cortana is shown on the taskbar:

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\SearchboxTaskbarMode

Value: 0
Button and Search box are hidden

Value: 1
Cortana button visible

Value: 2
Cortana full search box is shown on the taskbar.

Do not adjust the Base option when editing this value. It should already be set to Hexadecimal, and should be left that way.

Modify this key and see if you can get Cortana to at least show up. Then we can see about modifying options from PC Settings. Note that when you change this value, the Windows Explorer process will need to be restarted. You can do this from the Processes tab in Task Manager. Windows Explorer...
Try changing the following registry key to the values shown to adjust whether Cortana is shown on the taskbar:

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\SearchboxTaskbarMode

Value: 0
Button and Search box are hidden

Value: 1
Cortana button visible

Value: 2
Cortana full search box is shown on the taskbar.

Do not adjust the Base option when editing this value. It should already be set to Hexadecimal, and should be left that way.

Modify this key and see if you can get Cortana to at least show up. Then we can see about modifying options from PC Settings. Note that when you change this value, the Windows Explorer process will need to be restarted. You can do this from the Processes tab in Task Manager. Windows Explorer will be near the bottom of the list. Highlight it and click Restart.
 
Solution

Cydone

Reputable
Oct 11, 2014
98
0
4,640


As I said in my original post, the button is there. I can expand the view to include the search bar. But, I can't type in the search bar at all and when I click the button to bring up the cortana menu, nothing happens.
 
Ahh sorry... I re-read your first post and that makes sense now.

I assume restarting the Explorer process doesn't help as well?

If not, you might be stuck using the Reset option under Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. Just make sure you choose the Keep My Files option so that your data is preserved and only your installed applications and Settings are wiped out, and not your data as well. I unfortunately don't know of any way to remove and reinstall Cortana specifically.
 

j1000

Distinguished
Sep 27, 2010
1
0
18,510


I just wanted to say that I'm having the exact same issue. Did you ever find a solution?