If you have just installed the latest Cumulative Update on your Windows 10 computer and you find that since then, the Windows 10 Start Search is not displaying any results when you try to use it to search for something in your computer, then this post might help as it will give you some suggestions to fix the problem.
This problem might be caused by some bugs brought in by the new cumulative update you’ve installed. It is also possible that Cortana is having some issues or that the Windows Search service hasn’t been initialized. Whatever the cause is, here are some suggestions you need to follow to fix this issue. You can try running the Search and Indexing troubleshooter or configure the
- Run Search and Indexing Troubleshooter
- Configure the Windows Firewall
- Reinstall Cortana.
Option 1 – Try to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter
The first thing you can do is to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter in Windows 10 as it checks whether the settings for Cortana are in place and automatically corrects any issues if the update or software installation has changed the settings. To run it just click on the Start button and select Settings > Updates and Security > Troubleshoot. From there, select the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter.
Option 2 – Restart Cortana’s process in the Task Manager
Restarting Cortana’s process in the Task Manager could also help you resolve the problem. Refer to the steps given below to do so.
- Tap the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open the Security options window.
- From there, look for the Task Manager in the given list and open it.
- Next, look for the process of Cortana and right-click on it, and then select the End Task option to end its process.
- After that, the Cortana process will restart by itself and re-initialize.
Option 3 – Try resetting Cortana
- Open Cortana and go to the Settings section where you’ll see the “Turning off Cortana clears what Cortana knows on this device, but won’t delete anything from the Notebook. After Cortana is off, you can decide what you’d like to do with anything still stored in the cloud” option. Turn this option off.
- Restart your PC.
- After your computer boots, launch Cortana again and check.
Option 4 – Try to configure the Windows Firewall
- Tap the Win + Fn + Shift (Pause) keys to open Control Panel.
- From there, open the Windows Defender Firewall applet and click on the Advanced Settings to open the Windows Firewall with the Advanced Security panel.
- Next, click on the Outbound Rules section and look for Cortana and then double click on it to open its Properties.
- After that, make sure that the “Allow the connection” is selected although this is the default working setting.
Option 5 – Try to reinstall Cortana
If none of the options given above works, you must consider reinstalling Cortana.
- First, right-click on the Taskbar and select the Task Manager.
- Next, select File menu > Run new task and type “Powershell” in the field and then select the “Create this task with administrative privileges” option.
- Click on OK to open the PowerShell console.
- After that, type the following command and hit Enter to execute it:
Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}
- Restart your computer and check if the Windows Start Search is now working.