Fix: Start Menu Cortana Search Not Finding Apps – Search Results Blank

apps missing start search results -- background apps

When you use Cortana search to find an installed program, the program may not appear in Start menu search results although the shortcut exists in the Start menu folder. For example, with Word 2016 installed and its shortcut present in the Start menu folder, when you type in “word”, the search results will display WordPad … Read more

Fix: Cortana Search Box White Background in Windows 10

cortana search box white color

For some strange reason, the Cortana “Ask me anything” search box in the Taskbar may turn white suddenly without even the user clicking on it. This may have to do with Microsoft’s server settings and not a problem with your Windows 10 settings. Also, the search box registry tweak (WhiteSearchBox registry key) may prove ineffective as it works only for the current login session.Read more

Open Cortana Web Search Results in Google and Default Browser

Clicking on a web search result in Cortana would always launch Microsoft Edge regardless of your default browser. However, you can configure Cortana web search links to open with your default web browser. Additionally, you can automatically redirect the search query to Google search instead of Bing.

In April 2018, Microsoft announced that Edge would be the browser that would launch when searching from Cortana, no matter what your default web browser or https protocol association setting is.

While the user interface doesn’t have an option to change the search engine or browser, there is still a way to make Cortana search using Google instead of Bing, using the new microsoft-edge: URL protocol.Read more