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Cortana/Start Bar Fixes

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Windows 10 has had many bugs with Cortana and the start menu since its release. Many of these have been since resolved, but there can still be issues due to other software, account bugs, or internal errors. If Cortana and/or the start button aren’t working properly, aside from waiting for an eventual update, there are a few things that may fix it:


Option 1: Sign out and in again. Sometimes the process of re-logging in can fix some issues. This is the easiest fix for common problems.


Option 2: Restart Cortana. Open the task manager (ctrl+alt+delete) and find Cortana, and force close it. Then start it again.


Option 3: Disable antivirus. If Cortana starts working again after the antivirus is disabled, make sure your antivirus is fully updated to the newest version.


Option 4: Re-register Cortana. To do this, open PowerShell as an administrator, then type in...  Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

and press enter.


Option 5: Some software such as Dropbox may interfere with Cortana’s functionality. Try uninstalling Dropbox if it is installed.



In any case, make sure Windows is fully updated with Windows Update. Even with automatic updates, there may be an optional update that needs to be manually selected.