A few parts of your taskbar aren't functioning properly.
A few parts of your taskbar aren't functioning properly.
The W10 start menu doesn't allow searching, it behaves similarly to the Start menu in Windows XP.
Ensure the Windows Search service is active, then refresh your index by going to Control Panel, Indexing options, Advanced settings, and selecting rebuild... using memory. Verify folders are included in the indexing locations such as the start menu and personal folders. When prompted to rebuild, the interface may pause briefly (as it does in Vista), but it will return to normal shortly. Allow some time for the process to complete. If no changes appear, restart your system and test functionality again.
The start menu, action center, and taskbar features are managed by the Windows Shell experience Host, while Cortana handles searches in the start menu. If they aren't active, it usually means they were uninstalled. You can only restore them by creating a new user account. If an app uninstaller was used, those files might have been deleted permanently, requiring a full Windows reinstall. I discovered this the hard way when trying to uninstall apps and realized the start menu and shell experience Host aren't necessary for Cortana or the shell experience.