Windows 10 Start Menu and Search not working

This is a problem I've ran into on multiple machines now. The Windows 10 Start Menu and/or Search (Cortana) stops working even after restarting the computer.

I've found that a good old system reboot will do the trick, however if that doesn't work, this fix has worked quite often.

If you can’t open or type anything in the Windows 10 search menu, please try one or both of these methods:

Method 1: Right click on the start menu or press Windows + X keys on the keyboard, select and open Command prompt (admin). Then enter the below commands and hit Enter key:

Command 1: PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Now enter the below command and hit Enter key: 

Command 2: 

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

If the issue still persist, follow the second method:

Method 2: Open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL+Shift+ESC keys. Or you can open it by right clicking on the taskbar if it works. Then click File an then Run New Task. Make sure you have a check mark beside “Create this task with administrative privileges”. Now type Powershell. Type the following in the Powershell prompt:

Command:

$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest 

Wait till the process completed and then close the Powershell window. Now, reboot the computer and check if that fixed the issue.

I had the same issue. After looking at many different solutions, what worked for me was as follows:

Click on the start menu and locate the Cortana app in the apps lookup. Right-click -> more -> app settings. Scroll down to Reset and hit the reset button. Worked instantly for me and could start searching through the Cortana search.