Windows 10 - Search bar not allowing me to type

Hi Sam

Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Give these options a try:

Press Windows key + X

Click Task Manager

Select the Processes tab

Scroll down to Windows Explorer then select it

Click Restart

If that does not work:

uninstall your display driver:

Press Windows key + X

Click Device Manager

Expand Display adapters

Right click the current display adapter

Click Uninstall

Exit Device Manager

Restart

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy the following text into Notepad:

@echo off

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe

timeout /t 3 /NOBREAK > nul

del %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState\* /q

timeout /t 2 /NOBREAK > nul

start explorer

@echo on

3. Click File and Save.
4. Choose a location to save the file. Enter a File name of ClearTileCache.bat and select Save as type of All files (*.*). Click Save.
5. Open File Explorer and navigate to the location that you chose to save the file to. Double-click ClearTileCache.bat to run the file.

Option 2:

Method 1: Run the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter.

Follow the below steps:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Select Troubleshooting.
3. Click on Search and Indexing Troubleshooter.
4. Run the Troubleshooter.

Method 2: Run the DISM Tool. If the issue persists, I would have run the DISM tool to check the system health and will try to restore the files.

Press Windows key + X

Click Task Manager

Click File > Run new task

Type: CMD

Hold down the shift key then click OK

4. In the Administrator: Command Prompt Window, type the following commands. Press the Enter key after each command:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

To close the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type Exit,

and then press Enter.

Note: The tool might take 15-20 minutes to finish running, so please do not cancel it.

Click Start

Scroll down to Cortana

Right click Cortana

Click More > App Settings

Click Terminate

Click Reset

See if Cortana starts working....

Method 3: Restart the Cortana Process in Task Manager

Press Windows key + X

Click Task Manager

Select the Processes tab

Scroll through the list of processes, select Cortana then click End Task.

Restart Windows 10 then see if it starts working.

Method 4: Reinstall Cortana

Press Windows key + X

Click PowerShell (Admin)

At the command Prompt, type then following the hit Enter.

Exit Powershell the restart

Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Hi Andre,

Thanks for your reply.

The settings are already as you suggested.

Weirdly when I checked the second set, clicking on Start > Settings > Cortana and 'Talk to Cortana', I noticed that the highlighted option skips off the search box. It's as if the search bar is somehow disabled, and clicking on it just causes Windows to automatically tab to the next option. This is the exact behavior that the Taskbar search box displays when I click on it (it tabs onto the microphone option).

There's nothing wrong with my tab key (it functions normally in every other usage outside of these Windows 10-specific search boxes) but I just tried another keyboard and the issue persists.

TL;DR - the issue is, when clicking on a Windows 10 search box, Windows immediately tabs on to the next option. I've never seen this before, and have worked in IT for quite a few years now!

Hi Sam

Click Start > Settings > Privacy > Microphone

Scroll down and toggle off 'Cortana'

Also

Click Start > Settings > Cortana

Click on 'Talk to Cortana'

Toggle off 'Hey Cortana'

Hi,

I too had this problem earlier today.  I was on the telephone to my bank and was unable to enter my search details, I restarted my laptop and this solved my issue however I can't continue to restart every time this happens.  Any help gratefully received x

Hi Andre,

Thank you for your response.

The first suggestion you made, restarting Windows Explorer, did not work.

The second suggestion, with the batch file, seemed to kill off explorer.exe altogether - I had to open task manager to start it again.

Search and Indexing Troubleshooter couldn't identify the problem.

I got this far through, then noticed more detail about the issue - when I click on the search box, the blue microphone icon at the right of the box is highlighted (blue with a thick border surrounding it). It looks like the search box is stuck with defaulting to voice input rather than typing - is there a way to turn the voice input off altogether?

EDIT: Yes, I can confirm now that as soon as I click onto the search bar, for some reason it tabs onto the microphone icon before letting me type (I have no issues tabbing or shift-tabbing around other applications). I will work through the rest of your suggested methods in the meantime (apart from restarting my computer, because as I stated in my original post, I know this resolves the issue temporarily).