Microsoft Store Apps / Cortana are breaking my user's profiles.

Question

Hi,

For the past two weeks random Users have experienced their taskbar freezing and breaking.

I've noticed Resetting / Termination / Repairing Microsoft Corporation Apps, usually resolves the issue but it is only temporary.

In Apps & Features if I sort by install date, usually there's a couple that say it installed they day the taskbar broke, which those were already on the PC so they shouldn't have reinstalled.

Cortana also seems to be a big part of this breaking, is there a way to completely remove her from Windows, its a useless feature.

Answer 1

HI DillonBurke-4338,

1."In Apps & Features if I sort by install date, usually there's a couple that say it installed they day the taskbar broke, which those were already on the PC so they shouldn't have reinstalled."
Could you please share a picture to indicate this issue?

2.When the issue computer recover normal state, please right click taskbar and unselect "show cortana button" like the picture.

3.Please find a test computer and create restore point for this computer.
Create a system restore point
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-a-system-restore-point-77e02e2a-3298-c869-9974-ef5658ea3be9

4.We can run powershell as admin and try to remove this cortana UWP app then check if the same issue still happen on current issue computer.
get cortana installation information and get the "packagefullname " of cortana

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 -allusers

Remove cortana for allusers
Get-AppxPackage -allusers PackageFullName | Remove-AppxPackage (replace PackageFullName with the copied information).

It will look as follows:
Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10_3.2106.14307.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe | Remove-AppxPackage.

How To Remove Windows 10 Cortana Search Bar From Taskbar [Tutorial]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXad9pIYPpk

How to uninstall Cortana
https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/how-to-uninstall-cortana/

Please Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice.