Hi David,
In Win 10 v.1709 (the Fall Creators Update) this setting has been tied to the Default App Color setting found at Settings >Personalization >Colors >(scroll down to) Choose your default app mode (Light or Dark). Changing the setting to dark then turns the Cortana Search Box in the Taskbar back to dark again. I do not know if this was intentional (it would appear to be) or if it will be addressed in a future update.
Do Note That: Kotor 2 black screen glitch.
I have been following the thread that is referenced in the reply above by Dennis Mop for several days now. The registry 'hack' outlined in that thread has been reported back to last only temporarily. Apparently Windows 10's self maintenance features have become advanced enough that it is now able to restore the registry to it's (just the OS's, not 3rd party apps) default values?
If you would like to comment on this or make suggestions toward further development of Windows 10 to the MS development team (and have them see it) you can use the Feedback Hub to do so. (More info and instructions on how to do this can be found at the link below):
Let us know how it goes and Good Luck going forward,
-Richard
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.Change Cortana Search Box color from White to Normal
Here is a trick to revert Cortana search box background to the default gray color.
- Click Start, Settings. Click Time & Language, and select Region & Language.
- Change to a country where Cortana is unavailable. For example, select “Yemen” or “Isle of Man”
- Logoff and login back. Cortana search box background would have turned back to the default color.
- Open Region & Language settings again, and revert to the original setting (e.g. to United states)
- Sign out, sign back in. Cortana “Ask me anything” should be back to normal.
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About the author
Ramesh Srinivasan founded Winhelponline.com back in 2005. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies and has a vast experience in Windows — delivering support for Microsoft's consumer products. He has been a Microsoft MVP (2003-2012) who contributes to various Windows support forums.
Quite a few Windows 10 users are facing problems, and some of the inbuilt functions are also not functioning as expected, for many. The Start Menu, Cortana and the Taskbar Search functions in Windows 10 operating system have been one of the most useful features that let us search any file without leaving the desktop. However, there are chances that your Cortana might get broken or might not function as intended in Windows 10 – and you may or may not receive such an error message:
Critical Error Start Menu and Cortana aren’t working, We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in
Or
Critical Error Your Start menu isn’t working, We’ll try to fix it the next time you sign in.
UPDATE: Microsoft has released Windows 10 Start Menu Troubleshooter which promises to fix the issue. Please try it first.
We will walk you through some of the ways by which you can fix the Start Menu, Cortana & Search problem.
NOTE: If Cortana is not working after you upgraded your PC to Windows 10 Anniversary Update, open your Registry Editor and ensure that the value of BingSearchEnabled, as well as CortanaEnabled is set to 1:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSearch
If this works for all great, else read on!
First of all, make sure that you have set up Cortana in Windows 10 correctly. If after upgrading to Windows 10, you find that Cortana is not available in your region, then this post titled Cortana not available on Windows 10 can help you get Cortana on your Windows 10 PC.
Go through this entire post first and then see which one or more of these suggestions may apply in your case.
Sign out and Sign in
Sign out and Sign in or restart your PC and see if the problem goes away.
Automatic Repairs
If your PC prompts for Automatic Repair, continue with it and let Windows carry it out.
Kill and restart the Cortana process
If you find that Cortana is not working properly, the best thing to do would be to kill Cortana process and restart the process via Task Manager. If it were a minor runtime error, Cortana would just take a restart to fix it.
Disable Antivirus software
Some security software are known to create this issue – Avast for instance. Disable it and see if it makes the problem go away. If your security software is the culprit, make sure you are using its latest version – else you may want to change it.
Change Cortana Search Box Color
Windows Search Troubleshooter
Open Control Panel > All Control Panel Items and click on Find and fix problems with Windows Search to open the Windows Search Troubleshooter. Run it and follow the wizard.
Create a new User Account
The problem might be associated with your Microsoft credentials. Try creating a new username and password and see if you can fix the Cortana. We need to remember that Cortana will not be switched on automatically and needs to be enabled on by selecting Cortana button on the taskbar.
Re-register the Cortana app
After the November Update, if you use this method to fix this problem using the Appx PowerShell cmdlet, it caused problems with your Windows Store apps. But if you have installed Windows 10 Anniversary Update, it is working now – I have personally tried this – Admin. 1 July 2016.
Open an elevated Powershell prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
You can also open Task Manager > File menu > Run new task. Type powershell and select the Create this task with administrative privileges check box and click OK to open a PowerShell prompt
If you feel, you may also try the other 2 of the 3 Windows 10 Support, Solutions & Universal fixes.
Rebuild the Windows Search Indexer in Windows 10
Rebuilding the Search Indexer may help in repairing the built-in search tool in Windows 10. To rebuild the Windows search index head to Control Panel > Indexing options. Click on Advanced and ensure that you are on the Index Settings tab in the Advanced Options window.
The rebuilding will take some time, and once it is done, you can start searching for the files you need, and the Search should work properly. If you need more details, you will get them at this post titled Windows Search Indexer tips. See this post if you need to troubleshoot and fix Windows Search or if Search Indexer is not working.
Uninstall programs which may affect with the taskbar
If you are using Dropbox, uninstall it and see if it makes the problem go away.
Tip: See this post if Cortana Ask Me Anything is not working.
PS: Please read the comments below. PeacefulArgument says, the problem went away after he re-enabled the Windows Firewall Service.
If you have followed the above suggestions, your Cortana and the Windows Taskbar Search should hopefully have been fixed.
Posts that offer additional suggestions:
Windows Search Box White
TIP: This post will help you if your WinX Menu is not working in Windows 10.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
Cortana Bar Is White
Related Posts:
A new feature in Windows 10 is Cortana, Microsoft’s personal assistant tool that can do everything from searching your files, to checking the weather, to reminding you about an upcoming meeting. Most users will probably find value in Cortana’s capabilities, but one thing that many users won’t like is just how much space the Cortana search bar takes up in the Windows 10 taskbar. Thankfully, you can enjoy all of the features of Cortana in a much smaller package. Here’s how to shrink or hide the Cortana search bar in Windows 10.
Shrink the Cortana Search Box
To shrink the Cortana search bar, right-click on the search bar itself (or on any blank space in the taskbar) and select Cortana > Show Cortana Icon.
You’ll immediately see the Cortana search box disappear, replaced by a much smaller taskbar icon with the familiar Cortana circle logo. Doing this has no effect on the capabilities of Cortana; you can still access the full Cortana experience by clicking the Cortana search icon, or by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard.
You’ll immediately see the Cortana search box disappear, replaced by a much smaller taskbar icon with the familiar Cortana circle logo. Doing this has no effect on the capabilities of Cortana; you can still access the full Cortana experience by clicking the Cortana search icon, or by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard.
Hide Cortana from the Taskbar
If you’d prefer to hide Cortana entirely, you can do so by right-clicking on an empty space in the desktop taskbar and selecting Cortana > Hidden.
This removes Cortana’s presence from the Windows 10 taskbar entirely, but Cortana will still run in the background for things like reminders and notifications.
This removes Cortana’s presence from the Windows 10 taskbar entirely, but Cortana will still run in the background for things like reminders and notifications.
Disable Cortana
Taking this one step further, you can disable Cortana completely if you don’t want to use the feature. Just click on the Cortana icon in your taskbar, select the “Notebook” icon from the search box sidebar, and click Settings. Alternatively, you can access this menu by searching for “Cortana & Search Settings” and clicking on the corresponding System Settings result.
The first toggle, labeled “Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts, and more” controls Cortana in Windows 10. Set it to Off to disable Cortana completely on your PC. When you do so, you’ll see that the Cortana icon in your taskbar changes to a magnifying glass. This indicates that Cortana has been disabled and that you now have access only to the basic Windows 10 search feature. For some users, this may be all they need.
To revert any of these change and re-enable Cortana, or restore the taskbar search box, just repeat the steps above and choose the desired option for how you’d like search or Cortana to appear in your Windows 10 taskbar.
The first toggle, labeled “Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts, and more” controls Cortana in Windows 10. Set it to Off to disable Cortana completely on your PC. When you do so, you’ll see that the Cortana icon in your taskbar changes to a magnifying glass. This indicates that Cortana has been disabled and that you now have access only to the basic Windows 10 search feature. For some users, this may be all they need.
To revert any of these change and re-enable Cortana, or restore the taskbar search box, just repeat the steps above and choose the desired option for how you’d like search or Cortana to appear in your Windows 10 taskbar.